I know, I know, I'm preaching to the converted here, but hear me out. In order to be a good writer, one must first be a voracious reader. Hands up if you agree with that. Perfect we are all on the same page then, so this will be a short post. Well, no, actually.
'What?' I hear you say. We do need to be voracious readers. Yes, you are right and before you think I am going mad, let me explain. I am a voracious reader. I've been reading since I was three years old -- I was an extremely early reader. I'd read my way through the entire children's section of the local library before I was ten and was fortunate enough to be given an adult library card. Don't ask how that happened. I think it involved sacrificing chickens and my mother spending many hours wrangling with the head librarian. To be honest, I think the librarian gave in just to get this mad woman out of her library.
Anyways, I had read my way through the following series -- Cherry Ames Nursing Books (I followed her entire career), Sue Barton (also a nurse and her whole career), Milly Molly Mandy, Famous Five, Secret Seven, The Folk of the Faraway Tree, every other book by Enid Blyton, The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Biggles etc. etc. There were many more, all of which have faded from my memory. I moved on to Agatha Christie, Maigret (the books not the TV series), anything by Daphne Du Maurier, P.G. Wodehouse, in fact I could read anything I wanted. One Christmas my mother bought me a load of books, which I am sure came from the bargain bin in Woolworths, entitled The Children's Classics. These were the proper classics with kids covers on -- I kid you not. I read all the classics -- Dickens, Bronte, etc before I started at Secondary School. I also spent one glorious summer holiday reading my way through a set of vampire books called Barnabas Collins. That's easy to do in Scotland as we were in a caravan and it bucketed with rain for the four weeks we were there.
Why the trip down memory lane?
The one thing you will notice about all of this is that I read widely. In fact, I read anything I could get my hands on.
Fast forward to today. Am I still a voracious reader? Absolutely one hundred percent.
Do I still read widely? Er, no.
I find I grab the nearest crime book or cozy mystery and there I stay. It's like a warm comfort blanket wrapping me in the familiar. Okay, I've got an excuse I tell myself. I'm a crime writer, of course I read crime. But, does this make me a better writer?
I'm not entirely sure it does. Therefore, I have been pushing myself to read more widely in a variety of genres such as literary fiction, historical, fantasy, dystopian, chick lit etc. I've discovered some cracking books such as They Both Die in the End, and The Midnight Library. I've discovered a new series called Talin and the Tree by Stephanie Dos Santos. Portal Fantasy, it had me hooked from the first word. I've rediscovered my love of reading widely and I am enjoying the adventure. I believe it makes me a better writer because I am steeped in different words, different sentence structures and different tropes.
So, my plea to all writers today is to read widely. My plea to all readers is to read widely. You never know what books you might find and where it might take you. Enjoy the journey. I'm about to go on a two month trip to the United States and I am already planning which books I will be taking with me.
My question to you is, what are you reading at the moment? I would love some suggestions for my trip. Please post in the comments below.
And do you ready widely? I would love to know.
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