On Reading Diversely

How can you ever understand a 

viewpoint outside of your own

 if you only ever read those 

who are similar to you?

 How can you expand your mind 

without expanding what you know? 

This is why I think reading diversely is important. 

I've seen a lot of BookTubers do the 'Reading Diversely' tag, and I think it's great. I love discovering new authors, and of course new books I'd like to read. By the end of these videos, my reading list has extended by the length of arm. I think it's important what we read is not restricted to the literary canon, in that I love to read texts that don't quite fit in and are often sidelined in terms of literary history. 

However how is true diversity achieved? 

I read quite a balance of male and female; however I do read a lot of American and British authors. Often these are authors of multicultural heritage, but still, my reading is dominated by the English speaking world. This is something I don't necessarily want to change: there are still so many books and authors I want to read which fit into this category. However I also want to read Australian authors, Canadian authors, Indian authors, Japanese authors, Nigerian authors (etc etc etc). I'd love to read a book from every country in the world, to read an assortment of genders and sexualities and identities. 

What can be done? Do I expand my TBR so drastically that I'm reading in every spare moment, foregoing sleep? Do I systematically plan my reading to, say, read one book from every continent as a month? Or do I carry on as I am, reading what I like when I like? 

I want my reading to be fun. I want to plan, but not a little bit too much. I want to read the world as I see it. I want to read diversely. I want to read as much as I can in my life. So all I can do is try.