Guest Post
Reading and Writing
— That Delicate Balance
By Valerie Taylor
Author of What’s Not
Said (She Writes Press, 2020) and What’s Not True (She
Writes Press, August 2021)
It’s safe to say that most
authors read a ton of books. The definition of a ton for one, though, may
be different for another.
For example, before I retired
in 2016, my career as a marketing and communications professional was my
priority. As such, I was satisfied if I read a book a month. Thinking back to
those working years, there was probably a fifty-fifty split between fiction and
non-fiction, with most of the books selected by a book club discussion group I
attended nine months out of the year.
Not surprisingly, my life has
changed since retiring. I’ve replaced the daily corporate grind with a 24/7
author life. You’d think writing would be all consuming, leaving little time to
bury my head in a book. Actually, the opposite has happened.
Over the past few years, I started
tracking the books I read on Goodreads. It appears I’m now reading more than
three times as many books annually than I did during my working years. A quick
scan revealed that just ten percent are non-fiction, three percent are memoirs,
leaving a whopping 87% novels. Within fiction, there’s a range of historical,
thriller, mystery, and women’s. I do try to read at least one classic each
year, such as Jane Eyre, The Old Man and the Sea, The Great
Gatsby, Fahrenheit 451, to name a few.
What drove this major shift
in my reading habits?
Several life events. First, I’m
now a professional book reviewer for BookTrib.com, and they provide me with
titles to read. Second, I belong to four book clubs, so there’s those
books. Honestly, I’m thrilled when a club decides to read a book I’ve already
sunk my teeth into. Takes some pressure off! Often I just have to scan that
book, or Google it to refresh my memory. Though occasionally, I’ll re-read a
monthly selection. Such was the case this past year with Hamnet by
Maggie O’Farrell and Circe by Madeline Miller. Both are worth a repeat
read.
What am I reading now? Well,
I have an itch to write a cozy mystery. So, I’m studying the genre, watching Murder,
She Wrote, and reading Agatha Christie’s The Body in the Library,
which was published 80 years ago!
Bottom line. Writers must
read. It’s in our DNA, our lifeblood. Reading books, in our genre and outside
of it, provides us with essential nutrients. Each book we embrace sharpens the
saw, making us better at our craft. We learn, we refresh, we apply. And,
hopefully, in the end our ability to balance our love of books with our love of
creating stories will benefit readers forever. A dream come true.
Please contact me at: www.valerietaylorauthor.com
Follow me:
Facebook.com/valerietaylorauthor
Twitter: @ValerieEMTaylor
Instagram: ValerieETaylor
Sounds like a good read.
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