A Goodreads user asked Bruce Beckham:

As a writer, how do you choose reading materials? Do you select with any specific purpose or do you just read for pleasure?

Bruce Beckham Ideally both combined!

I love detective fiction and related mysteries (eg. currently the Eric Ambler series of espionage stories set in the run up to WW2) and I began working my way through Agatha Christie as a teenager. I'm sure these help with my own writing - it is fascinating to see how plots are constructed and the extent to which clues are provided. I'd say Ruth Rendell is my favourite author in this genre.

At the moment I'm reading (among other things) Swallows and Amazons. This is a story I somehow missed out on as a kid - and since I write about the Lake District myself, I felt it was a gap in my knowledge (& essential reading since my latest DI Skelgill novel - WIP - is called Murder on the Lake). It's a children's book - but artfully written, fabulously nostalgic, and surprisingly informative - so I've really enjoyed it and just have a chapter to go.

Books I've found most engaging (and would like to read more of the same) come from Dickens, Updike, Steinbeck, Fowles, Highsmith… some epic tales and I hope each time to learn a little more about writing!

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