How much do you read?!

Once again, I’ve sadly neglected this poor blog! If you’re still with me, thanks for hanging in there. I’m much more active over on my Facebook page, so if you’re on Facebook be sure to come on over and say Hi!

Anyway a week ago I went to Brisbane for the second ever Genre Con in Australia. Last year’s sounded so fabulous that I signed up pretty much as soon as they opened registrations this year and I was NOT disappointed! I caught up with my good friend Cathryn Hein, lunched with a bunch of amazing women and writers, met new friends and heard fabulous local and international writers talk about their processes, etc, which is always inspiring! I also met the fabulous Dianne Blacklock and Anita Heiss who I’ve been tweeting with for a couple of years. They are just as magic in person as they are online and I can’t wait to read their books. I’m currently reading Dianne’s latest THE BEST MAN and enjoying it immensely.

Speaking of reading, one of the common threads many of the guest speakers said was that to be a writer you also have to be a reader. I have always believed this to be the case – I can’t understand how you can be a writer and NOT a reader – but at Genre Con, I realised something terrible. My reading life has been suffering this past year as I have more and more writing commitments and deadlines. I’m lucky now if I read one book in two weeks whereas I used to read two to five in ONE week!

Nowadays I mostly read at night in that tiny window between falling into the bed and falling asleep. I’m usually knackered from the requirements of the day and sometimes only read for ten or fifteen minutes. This could be why I haven’t been able to get into many books of late and I’ve decided it has to change.

As a writer, reading is WORK! Yes, terrible chore I know but it is a FACT. I NEED to read to keep up with what is out there, to refill the well and to learn from other fantastic writers.

So, that’s the biggest thing I brought away from Genre Con. I’m going to read more and I’m going to read widely. I bought a book by the enigmatic Chuck Wendig when I was in Brisbane and one by the divine Kathryn Fox. These are books I would likely not pick up normally but hearing these amazing writers talk I just could not miss out on their work.

Anyway… sorry for all this waffling, but I’m basically curious. How much do YOU read!? How many books a week? Do you read mostly in one genre or widely?