I used to burn through books. This stopped dead in the last year of school, when I stopped reading for pleasure and instead read for academics. And for my own pleasure, I swapped fiction books for the internet, watching television shows and films. Then after arriving at university in 2007 I began listening to podcasts as well. I found that I only very rarely went back to reading and almost never went back to the books I had on my shelves.
On the other hand I have been trying to write several different novels on and off since 2011, which I have found really rewarding, at least when Iāve been able to dedicate time to it! Perhaps thatās an odd dichotomy - the writer who does not read, and while researching how best to complete my stories, I found that one thing that all novelists said was to read - as much and as widely as possible.
On the realistic, more physical side of things, I moved cities and couldnāt bring the bookcases and boxes of books I had been collecting for years with the faint, childhood notion of building a little library or study for myself. In the end I brought about 15-20 books with me and sold, gave away or donated the rest. I didnāt count them in the end, but I know it was several hundred. It definitely meant the journey up with all of my stuff was much easier!
I competed in Nanowrimo again in November, and read that piece of advice again - āWriters read. Read as much as you can!ā But I still wasnāt reading. I knew that if I wanted to make my stories the best I could, I would need to read. So I did what any self-respecting human being does and copied a friend. I resurrected my Goodreads account and joined the Goodreads challenge - to read a certain number of books by the end of the year. I wasnāt sure I could meet his target of 26 books, but it was a target to strive for, and I do love a challenge.
I also loved the Goodreads idea of cataloguing the books I was reading and more importantly cataloguing new ideas that I might want to include or exclude from my own writing. That would make this challenge useful and beneficial to my writing.
So this is what Iām going to do - Iām going to write about that here, my own views on the books Iām reading, now that Iām finally reading again, in and among anything else I happen to write. Follow me here, on Twitter, or add me on Goodreads if you want. Let me know what you think.
