What We Read and What We Write

There are no set rules about what you have to read in order to become a good writer. None, anyway, except those established by a liberal arts college for an English or Literature degree. Nonetheless, I heartily recommend reading more than writing. Unfortunately, that's hard to do when you're staring down the abyss of a self-imposed deadline, or worse, when you're just too absorbed in what you're writing for anyone else's work to be interesting.

By posting what I'm reading on Goodreads, I'm afraid that some of you will get the wrong idea. So please let me explain: At any one time, I am involved in reading at least one and sometimes three current magazines, one fiction and one non-fiction book. These numbers can vary, depending on how many things I start to read and then decide to go back to writing something. And I've put off reading months and months of periodicals at one time or another just to get through a good but difficult novel.

On the other hand, I don't consider myself a literature snob. My "read and enjoyed" lists are honest. I won't put in a novel by Hemingway just because that kind of a resume sounds good. If I haven't read it, it's not there. Go ahead, ask me for a review, if you want, just to make me prove it.

I have more thoughts on what to read rather than on how much that I'll share soon.