Reading

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Reading and writing have always gone hand in hand with me.  I read early and read books I found around the house or at the library, whether they were intended for me or not.  I remember making up stories to fit the covers of adult books when I was in kindergarten.

I can’t imagine not fitting in reading now, no matter how crazy life gets.  It would be like not fitting in time for lunch or something.  I fit it into spare minutes during the day and a bit longer at night before falling asleep.

People who know I write usually ask me if I read the genre I write.  And I do—but not the subgenre I write.  Not often…these days probably only if I’m blurbing something for someone.  That may be because when I read my own subgenre, I go almost instantly into market research mode, which is not the same as getting lost in a book.  So I tend to read tons of mysteries, but mostly police procedurals or psychological mysteries, or traditional mysteries that are nothing at all like mine.

Although mysteries are probably always going to be my favorites, I read tons of other books, too. Discoverability is interesting for me.  I buy books that other readers and writers recommend and blog about, books that Kindle emails me as the daily deal, books that friends of mine write, books that my favorite authors release.  I try to read a little of everything—from poetry to nonfiction.  No matter the genre, it always serves to heighten my own creativity (even, somehow, the biographies I read).

It’s always a little embarrassing to me that I usually don’t remember titles or author names or—often—even the endings of books after reading them.  For this reason, I keep careful lists of books I’ve enjoyed and always have the list available on my phone.  People ask me all the time what I’m reading and it’s a relief to finally have an answer for them, even if I have to look it up.  But then, I’m someone who keeps cheat sheets of my own books so that I’m not caught off guard while speaking to a book club.  If I can forget books that I’ve labored over for months, I guess I shouldn’t feel bad about forgetting someone else’s.

I used to read a lot of books about writing, but I don’t so much anymore.  Or, if I do, I jot down notes in a separate document that I can reference during editing.  If I read too much about writing, I don’t write as much, or I write more cautiously (which doesn’t really work for me).

I think, of all the reactions I get when I tell new acquaintances that I’m a writer, the worst is when someone says, “I don’t read.” I’ve gotten very good at an impassive expression when I get that answer, although the first time someone said it, I’m sure I must have looked shocked.  But do also I like to get the message out to these folks that writers aren’t tied to books—because, we’re not.  We’re about so much more than that, moving into the future.  I’ll mention that if they listen to music or enjoy movies or television shows, or even enjoy complex video games…that writers are behind those forms of entertainment, too. We create content.

So…what have you been reading?  When do you fit it into your day?  How do you find new books to read?  And—how long is your TBR (to be read) list?

Image: MorgueFile: jjulian812