Reading Widely

I mentioned this blog to the woman who inspired it the other day, and she gave me a piece of advice.  "Read widely," she told me, "that's the important thing."

I will attempt to do this to the best of my abilities.  I've noticed I have a tendency to chose fantasy novels, humor, and the weirdest things in reach.  I will likely temper this with more Fitzgerald than Dickens, more Austen than Twain, and more Poe than Hemingway.  This is a matter of taste.  But I will certainly give the Dickens, Twains, and Hemingways of the world a second chance.

In the more immediate future, I have an excellent selection of books at my disposal.  I have "A Feast of Crows," which I have long been meaning to read.  I have the complete works of Terry Pratchett minus a few of the more recent ones.  I also have the complete works of HP Lovecraft, which I have always wanted to read but never had available.  I will try to temper my fantasy and science fiction selections with some classics and some modern non fiction.

And here we come to my weak spot.  True confession:  I have difficulty soldiering through modern (not historical, fantasy, or science fiction) novels.  Especially romance novels.  There's absolutely nothing wrong with liking romance novels.  There's nothing wrong with reading books like "The Lovely Bones," either.  They just aren't to my taste.  I suppose I'll have to confront this eventually.  Maybe I'll force myself through a Nicholas Sparks book.  But I hope I'll find one I like, and not just read books from this category I cannot abide for the sake of reading more widely.

A Bad Habit of Mine

Generally it takes me a few days to finish a book, and I want to develop good blogging habits as well as good reading habits.  It isn't quite New Year's Eve yet, but I'd like to make a resolution today.  I want to make sure I write something every day.  As I continue to work on my novel, I want to know that I'm making progress and gaining experience.  Part of that is this blog, which should keep my skills honed even when I'm experiencing writer's block.  I want to establish a pattern of writing every day.  I want to establish a pattern of reading every day as well.

Establishing a pattern of reading and writing every day is a major commitment that will require planning and developing techniques of self encouragement.  I don't want reading to become cumbersome or dull in my attempt.  This project is about pleasure reading, so I'm going to keep it fun.

I've noticed I have a tendency to read several books at the same time.  That sounds silly, but what I mean by this is sometimes I read a considerable amount of one book, and then I'm not in the mood to read it anymore.  So I read a little of something else and then I come back to the first book when I'm ready.  It isn't that I've decided the book is boring or uninteresting, merely that I'm in the mood to read something else.  For example, let's say I'm reading something very serious, but then the next time I sit down to read, I feel like I'm in the mood for something funny and lighthearted.  I go ahead and pick something else.  I know I'll come back to that first novel eventually.  If I'm reading for fun, I want the experience to be fun.

Maybe that's a bad habit, maybe I should keep plodding through the same book even when I'm not interested in it.  But I find that when I come back to a book after a day or two, sometimes the book seems fresher, brighter, and more interesting.  A book I might have given up on in the middle a few days before suddenly becomes a page turner.

So, maybe it's a bad habit to stop and start, but I do find it helps me commit to reading every day when I can select a different book.