Starting to Read Women Again

So having finished the moderately traumatic Here are the Young Men by Rob Doyle I have decided it’s time to step away from manly man fiction and start reading some women for once. I’ve regarded myself as a ‘bad feminist’ before but after attending the SYP (Society for Young Publishers) conference in London last weekend I came to realise how far from the light I have strayed. I have read a dozen novels in the past twelve months (easily) and two of them have been by female authors. I’m pledging to make a change. For the next wee while, at least six months, I am going to read only women and I am going to strive to read contemporary female authors where possible. I will eventually get around to writing in more depth about the SYP Conference ‘Rewriting the (Rule)Book’ but one of the main takeaways was this: that the industry and society more widely can only change in a meaningful way when individuals (such as myself, the bad feminist) deliberately overcome their unconscious biases and demand change. This is the first step I am taking to affect the change I want to see, and who knows, I might even enjoy myself. First on the list: PP Wong’s The Life of a Banana.