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The blog post by Tayari Jones that was linked to in the article is pretty interesting. Her point, as I understand it, is not that white readers aren't willing to READ books by black authors; it's that in many areas those books just aren't as available on the shelves. Interesting viewpoint, and I believe it. I live just south of Atlanta and my library is a treasure chest of authors and genres. We have a very diverse population here, though. I'll bet that in areas not quite so diverse as mine the bookstores and libraries, maybe driven by limited budgets, don't tend to carry stock that doesn't appear to be representative of the target group. Outdated notion, but I expect it happens. On the other hand, a lot of people have turned to the internet for their book-buying needs, electronic or otherwise, and those sources SHOULD be pretty free of any slant one way or the other.
I was here during the Atlanta child murders and it was a scary and heartrending time. I'm not sure I want to read Leaving Atlanta but if I choose not to it will be because lately I read to escape sad things, not to revisit them. Yep, that's me, I only want to read things with puppies and ice cream and happy endings. :-)
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