Reading & Writing

I love to read. When I was younger I was perfectly content to stay in my room and read all night. In fact I used to read one Fear Street novel every night. This of course drove my parents crazy because instead of going to bed at a descent hour, I was up until midnight.

But now that I am writing my own novels I have a fear that I will some how inadvertently plagiarize another author's work.  The subconscious mind is a powerful weapon and my apprehension is that with out intending to, I will manage to put in a prop or storyline that I have already read.

So from that fear I have not read anything pertaining to my genre, but quitting cold turkey hasn't been easy. I miss getting lost in a book. That sense of anticipation as you turn the next page. The world that you escape to in your mind drowning out all that surrounds you.

I guess my question is. How do you read without accidentally spilling some of that world you imagined into your own stories?