I have not read 50 Shades of Grey

I write creative nonfiction. It’s my love. I also have dabbled in poetry and short stories and had some published in the Toulouse Literary Journal a few years back when I lived in France. The only novel I have written was a chick lit book that I wrote as a ghostwriter for someone else. (That’s a tale for another day.) I write nonfiction, be it a book, a blog post, an email, a letter, a Facebook update, an essay, a newspaper column, a thank you card, or a grocery list.

That’s also what I read. If you peruse the tables in my sunroom overflowing with books and magazines, and my bookcase, and my shelves, you will see mainly nonfiction. I love real life told  in a variety of shapes and forms. The writing is great and the content helps me expand in so many ways.

When I was a kid, my favorite books were the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Real life. Story. Creative nonfiction. Laura got her start as a writer by being a columnist for her small town newspaper. I delight in sharing that same start with her.

I delight in books. I’m not a member of any book club and I don’t read the latest hot fad trendy books and I have not read 50 Shades of Grey.

So it appears that my stance would be that fiction writers read fiction and nonfiction writers read nonfiction. Nah. We both need both.

When I do dally back into a novel, I LOVE IT. Oh my goodness, I get swept away. I devour books in one or two sittings. I still am a backseat editor and critique a bit as I read, but if the story sucks me in, I’m gone.

Perhaps that’s why I keep the fiction at bay. I would tell myself  “just one more chapter” and I would not sleep, eat, or work.

My point is that a good book is a good book. We need good books to feed our soul. If you are like me and rarely cross sides, my assignment for you is to do just that.

If you read/write nonfiction, go grab a juicy novel. Embrace it. Lose yourself in story. If you are a fiction junkie, check out some creative nonfiction. Discover the joy of what you’ve been missing. The topics are endless, the writing stellar, and the insights invaluable.

Now when I look back to my early loves, I read it all. I loved Nancy Drew mysteries and Sue Barton books and anything by Judy Blume. I l also loved true stories and was fascinated with everything from Anne Frank to Jill Kinmont to Janet Lynn to Charles Manson.

Books are defined as “a written or printed work consisting of pages glued or sewn together along one side and bound in covers.” Books are so much more than that.

What is bound between those covers is inspiration, information, and imagination. Books open our world. Books shape us. Books change our lives.

It is my honor, privilege, and thrill to live among books and the ideas within them. Helping folks birth their books is “the coolest job ever,” to quote a gal I spoke to recently.

So if you are wanting to write a book, fiction or nonfiction, what are you waiting for? Somebody out there needs you to enlighten or encourage or entertain them.

To get your creativity flowing, pick up a book that is not what you usually read. Let it stimulate your brain and your heart. Some of the best self-help books I have ever read are fiction and some of the most cleverly written prose I have ever enjoyed is nonfiction.

Partake of the feast.

Read. Read. Read. And then write. Get going. Somebody needs what you have to say.

As for me, excuse me, please. I have just one more chapter to read…..