When my husband and I moved in together, we were two former English majors merging our books (and our music collections, but that’s another story). I wanted some organization system, so I made a hodge podge of subject and genre categories: poetry, novels, philosophy, pop culture, spirituality, etc. We had twelve bookcases, but only one and a half shelves of books written by women. I was appalled.

Since the collection didn’t include much of my childhood reading–Louisa May Alcott, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Madeleine L’Engle or the myriad romance novels of my preteen years–many of the women authors I had read weren’t represented. Still, the ratios were disheartening. Assigned college reading and the canon I had felt a compulsion to conquer clearly favored men (surprise, surprise).

So, I assigned myself some reading. I started reading only women, unless someone highly recommended a book by a man. Once I was in graduate school, I had to read more men again, but I took women’s studies classes, literature surveys of women, autobiography of women. With all of that directed effort, I now have one full bookcase plus two shelves of titles by women–not even one fifth of the books we own.

So, last month when a note went around Facebook that included Feminista’s list of Top 100 Books by Women Authors, I expected to have read many of them. If I only count authors and not the actual titles from the list, I am up to 43. But of the titles themselves, I have read only 18. So I’ve given myself a new assignment: to read the list from top to bottom. I will not martyr myself. If I’m reading a book and hating it, I’ll put it down, but I’m reading the list. I’ve already put books on hold at the library. I’ll post my progress and maybe even some book reviews on the site from time to time.

How does your reading score on the list? Will you take my book challenge and start reading too?