January 12, 2009
I have a dirty little secret, and it’s related to a news item posted today.
The item was this: according to a study by the National Endowment for the Arts, American adults are reading more literature for the first time in 25 years. For the first time since 1982, the study found that the overall rate at which adults read literature rose by seven percent.
This is awesome news, in my book. As a fiction writer, I say the more people who buy and read books and stories, the better. It bodes well for continued opportunities for my work to be published. It gives me hope in the publishing industry, which is especially welcome amid all the recent negative news coming out of that sector (layoffs, buying freezes, pay freezes, falling sales, etc.). It makes me want to pat America’s readers on the back and say, “Thanks, man! You flat-out rock!”
But it also puts me in mind of my personal dirty little secret, which is this: I don’t read enough! Not even close! For a writer, reading is a must, a way to learn other authors’ techniques, absorb information, and synthesize fresh styles and ideas. I can’t stress this enough: if you want to write, you have to read. But one of the challenges I face on a daily basis is finding enough time to do the writing…which, of course, is also vital. Butt in the chair, fingers on the keyboard: that’s the only way to get the work done. So I constantly push reading to the back burner and dump all my free time (that not taken up by my day job, chores around the house, daily financial business, etc.) into my writing.
Oh, I always have a book in hand, being read…at least one. Right now, I’m reading my pal Adrian Phoenix’s vampire vs. serial killer opus A Rush of Wings. I’m also reading the Duke Ellington autobiography Music Is My Mistress as research for a novel in development. Plus, I’m inching my way through a pdf copy of Brian Francis Slattery’s Spaceman Blues (which reminds me of what it might look like if Jack Kerouac wrote an SF novel). But the fact is, I’m reading all three books very slowly; I’ll be lucky if I finish 5 or 10 pages in Adrian’s book before bed tonight.
I need to make more of an effort to read more each and every day. Hopefully, you don’t have to make such a resolution, because you’re already reading like mad on a daily basis. And this blog is one of the things you read. I wonder which dirty little secret I’ll reveal next time? See you tomorrow!
