Welcome to 2025. Welcome to a new (old?) presidential administration in the United States. To say that I’m disappointed by the state of things would be a huge understatement. While playing around with the niche of Bookish Bitch was something I was thinking about before the election, the election results solidified for me that this was the right decision.
In the beginning
I planned on reading pretty much whatever and having Bookish Bitch being a catch all for everything book related.
It’s also true that I’m a slow reader and I want to make an effort to read more.
I guess you can say that my original niche idea for Bookish Bitch was “a book blog for really slow readers.” But that doesn’t really feel like a niche.
A niche shift
The Bitch influence
The name Bookish Bitch was influenced in part by my love of (the now defunct) Bitch Magazine. If I remember correctly, the books they usually reviewed tended to be by authors weren’t cis dudes. I may be misremembering. I couldn’t find any information, probably in light of the fact that the magazine is sadly not defunct.
Assuming my memory is correct, I think it makes sense to take some content inspiration from the magazine that inspired the blog name.
But also
I tend to read a lot of books by authors who fit this demographic, so it’s not really a huge departure from what I was reading anyway.
It’s important
I think that it’s always important to read as diversely as possible. This is especially true right now in light of what’s going on in the world. I think it’s especially important to amplify the voices of the LGBTQIA+ community (of which I am a part of) as well as BIPOC, disabled, and other marginalized communities. This also had an impact on my choice of niche.
Going forward
I hope to read as diversely as I possibly can. Figuring out the best way to do that is going to be a process. I recognize that I am privileged in many ways. I’m White, I come from a middle class background, and I have quite a bit of formal education (my “highest” degree is an MA). I share this in order to be clear about where I am coming from.
I’m still learning. Learning is a lifelong process. While I’m never going to know everything, my goal is to learn as much as I possibly can before I die.
I see reading diversely as one way for me to learn, because it shows me perspectives I wouldn’t have considered otherwise. I would like to use my platform – no matter how small – to amplify marginalized voices.
Over the next few months / year, I plan on experimenting with ways of sharing different types of voices here on Bookish Bitch. That means sharing books by BIPOC authors, authors with disabilities, works in translation, and more. What all the books I share will have in common is that they were written by authors who identify as women, trans, nonbinary, intersex, or hold some other gender-expansive identity.
I appreciate you sticking with me as my niche shifts and I experiment.
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