Sunday, September 28, 2014

A More Diverse Universe: The Wrap-Up


Ohmigoodness, ohmiGOODness!  Guys, A More Diverse Universe was amaze-balls.  I haven't even visited HALF of the posts yet because you all wrote SO MANY and I have been adding SO MANY  books to my wish list and so many authors to my watch list.  And that's just so far!  I bet some people scoot in after the fact as they finish up their reading and reviewing this weekend.

So, why was I so anal about the way I had you post your reviews?  So that I could quickly dump them in Excel and analyze, of course!

130 Reviews

by

73 Bloggers

for

(about) 120 different books

All in two weeks!  I can't even count all of the tweets and Tumblrs and Instagrams that everyone has been using, but the numbers are overwhelming.  It's incredible.  If I were in PR, I would also count "impressions" in the list above and that amount would be ginormous  because it would include ALL of your followers who saw your posts or your tweets or your Instagram feed and were influenced by them.  All of whom can go out and read more diversely now, too.  Because of you!

I wish I had the time to organize all the #Diversiverse reviews into a tab so that people looking for diverse reading selections in, say, non-fiction or fantasy could easily hop over to that tab and see a full list of reviews for themselves.  Sadly, I cannot accomplish this task now, but perhaps over the long, dreary months of winter, I shall do so!  And then we can just keep adding to that list EVERY YEAR so that people can have their minds blown by how many options there are out there for them to read and enjoy and expand their minds.

Thank you so much to everyone who participated in the event!  And to everyone who didn't participate but talked up the challenge and pushed other people to participate.  I truly believe that if you want change, you need to push for it, and I think this year, book blogosphere has told publishers, loud and clear, that #wewantdiversebooks!  Good for us.  The world will be a better place for us having made our desires clear.

Most of all, I hope that, for those of you who participated, this was not a one-off thing.  Yes to participate in the challenge, you only had to read one book by a person of color, but I hope that only inspires you to do even more going forward.


18 comments:

  1. I'm so excited to go through all these reviews and add more to my list! I wish I had gotten my act together to get more than one book review done, but since you announced the expanded #diversiverse I read 5 books by authors of color and I hope to keep up the trend. Thank you for putting together this amazing event as a reminder to everyone!!!

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  2. Anonymous9/28/2014

    I didn't get my second book finished until yesterday, unfortunately, but it was still a great two weeks :) Loads more blog visiting to be made still though :)

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  3. I liked this year :) Next year I am so gonna try lit fic

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  4. Thank you again for hosting this & challenging us. I only posted one book for the challenge but I have more to read, and I will be adding to the list as I make my way through the rest of the posts.

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  5. Anonymous9/28/2014

    Thank you for hosting this important event! I had a great time reading and posting, and especially visiting other blogs (have only managed a few so far but will keep on going!) and adding to my TBR list!

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  6. Yay! I'm definitely going to read more Tananarive Due.

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  7. I came back to blogging just a bit too late, but you're awesome for hosting this. And I can't wait to get some new ideas from the review list. I did post about a Martha Southgate novel last week at least!

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  8. Thanks Aarti for hosting this event. I just posted the link for my second book, so you are now up to 132 books reviewed. I'm glad you sent an invitation via Goodreads. Otherwise I might have missed this challenge. Count me in next year.

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  9. Hooray, hooray, hooray! I'm so pleased it went well -- I've been loving reading all the reviews. You are amazing for hosting this, Aarti.

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  10. Thanks for hosting Aarti! Diversiverse gave me the push to read Edward P. Jones for the first time and I know I'll read his other books now.

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  11. I still have the second two books in the Lilith's Brood trilogy by Octavia Butler to read. Thanks for moving her to the top of the TBR list for #diversiverse!

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  12. Thanks for hosting the challenge! It was a lot of fun and some great incentive to stay diverse in my reading.

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  13. That's awesome, yay!! I'm certainly going to try and be mindful of reading more diversely, it's a great challenge :-)

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  14. Thank you for hosting! It certainly made me look at my reading a bit more closely and I hope it encourages other readers to do the same.

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  15. Aarti, thanks for hosting! I'm pleased to hear this will be an annual challenge. You might want to check the date of banned books week so that you don't overlap as I know of several bloggers who were tied up with that. I enjoyed connecting with new bloggers and hearing about new authors. I have read and enjoyed Brown Girl Dreaming since the challenge.

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  16. Maybe you could solicit help to create the database? I know I would be willing to help! Thanks for hosting this event Aarti--I would even love to see it happen more than once a year (although I know it is a ton of work for you).

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  17. I love Diversiverse so hard! I am so glad I came back to blogging so I could join in. I'm still not all the way through all the posts - almost 3/4 of the way I think - and I am loving them. I created a TBR-Diversiverse tab for my Goodreads list, and I have added 33 books - 33! So I will be reading diversely for a good while to come. Thanks so much for your passion for this project - it does make a difference!

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  18. Anonymous10/19/2014

    I don`t have an official blog, but I joined in anyway.

    My choice was "Waiting for Snow in Havana " - written by a Cuban exile now living in the US.the US.

    Very much enjoyed it.

    Jody

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