Reading, how I love thee.
God. I LOVE to read, just as much as writing, honestly. It's funny how that often gets lost in the shuffle of pursuing a writing career, especially when doing the book reviewing gig. That's sad, in some ways, because isn't this how the whole thing started? I read a book in 8th grade that was just awesome, and relevant - in an 8th grade sort of way - but it felt unfinished, like it needed a sequel. I wanted to know how the story ended, so I thought I should write the ending in my own sequel. That was the start of my writing career, but it was born directly from my love of reading.
How much I forget that; how I wish I could go back to those days.
I think it's important for writers not to lose that magic feeling they get when engrossed by a great book, and - even as we all try to carve out time to write in our busy lives - not to let our writing time overshadow our reading time. I don't know how many new/struggling writers say they "don't have time to read", and to me, that's sad. That's how we recharge our writing batteries, right? By soaking up and internalizing good writing.
However, I think it's just as important for writers to read "guilt free" as well, and read what THEY find appealing. During a lunch conversation at this past year's Borderlands Press Writers Bootcamp, I lingered on the edge of a conversation, (which I do often, because I suffer from acute foot-in-mouth disease), about contemporary writers and authors and books: and I was a little dismayed that at a conference about writing fiction, full of attendees who should adore fiction, the conversation centered mainly on critical analysis of craft...and not the love of a good story or book (which, of course, is all relative).
Any second year Creative Writing student will repeat the mantra of their instructors that "to write well, we must also read well". That's a slippery slope that writers should tred carefully, I think. When do we cross the line from writer-hopefuls who've fallen in love with storytelling, to hungry "up-and-comers" who dissect every piece of literature for faults we want to avoid? Granted, you can never account for taste, but still...
For example. I've read Twilight. Was it the best thing I've ever read? Hardly. Sterling craft? Not so much. Let me tell you a secret, though...
I liked it. Really, I did. Apparently, thousands of pre-teen and teenage girls feel the same (A former student described it as "literary crack for teenage girls", and she wasn't far off).
So Meyer's not Hemmingway, Carver, or Bradbury. So Stephen King thinks she can't write at all?
So what?
I was amazed - and silent - at a conversation that picked apart everyone from Brian Keene to Neil Gaiman, simply because Neil uses "too many adverbs". Okay, word economy is really important, and adverbs aren't always your friend...but when did the usage of an adverb ascend to the same level as an illicit drug?
Anyway, I wave my hand at all that and say: whatever. Read what you want, what you love. Issac Asimov was the first writer I remember falling in love with. Discovered him in high school, devoured his Robot, Empire, and Foundation novels, marveled at how he connected them all. I've come to love Bradbury in these later years, and most recently re-discovered Fahrenhet 451, which I kid you not, is the most important book EVAH. I'd go on, but there are too many to list.
Read. For fun. Pleasure. Entertainment, education, and yes, writers - read to help grow your craft. But, like anything else, if you don't read simply for the pure joy of reading...what's the point?