Hello fellow bibliophiles,
The time has come to pick myself up by the bootstraps and start reading harder!!
While I might slack off a bit here and there when it comes to posting to my social accounts, slacking off when it comes to my reading has never been an option. These past few weeks however … I have not been able to escape into futuristic or magical worlds, cause the call to remain grounded and pay attention was a lot stronger.
Triggered or not, I was not able to look away from the stories of my black brothers and sisters posted from twitter to facebook. I was moved and repeatedly recognized parts of my own story in their excruciating experiences of dreams deferred and crushed hope. It was simultaneously heart wrenching and cathartic to find that you were not crazy but also that you were not alone.
Most importantly was the power that emanated from these tales. The resilience, the fight, the strength and the inevitable growth. All these stories reminded me of the beautiful books from black writers, that I own but I am to afraid to pick up. Simply because I know these books are well crafted and that most of these stories will be hard to digest. These often painful fictional experiences will cut me right open, but also leave me in a better place than where I started off.
So I do not only intend to break my 2020 book buying ban and purchase two books by black authors in order to #blackoutbestsellerlist … it’s also time to intentionally make space to read, digest and savor these stories, our stories. The painful and powerful ones as well as the magical and hopeful ones …
IkBenNorine 