Depends what I'm reading. I read business communication b/c I need the information in it. I read non-fiction to inform myself and develop my opinions about the world. Fiction? I used to read it to get lost in other worlds. Since I started writing, I have a harder time doing that (too focused on the craft, I think), but I still always hope it might happen...
Really depends on what I'm reading. Literature is very thought provoking and can be a little slow. I want to see new ideas and new perspectives on old ideas. I want to be challenged. For poetry - I want to feel the music of the words. To be dazzled. For non-fiction I want to learn new things. For genre - I want entertainment and to engage with the character.
Just curious, 1.How many hours per day/week do you read? 2.Do you consider yourself a fast reader? 3.How much of your reading consists of "heavy" reading-eg, literary, non fiction, historical, and how much of your reading consists of "light" reading, eg, popcorn thrillers, YA, etc. Please feel free to use your own definitions of light vs heavy reading. 4.Where do you read? Are you setting aside solid blocks of time for it in your living room, or are you reading during walks, traffic lights, etc? Some of you here seem to get a lot of reading done, which is great, so I'm just trying to get a feel how much time you're putting in. Thanks in advance.
1. Most waking hours of the day, I'm reading something. (a book, currently reading: The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks). Or/Plus articles (political/technology). Or/Plus posts on this board. No games on my smartphone -- only news apps. 2. Not a fast reader, but a fast skimmer. 3. Love literary reads, thrillers and dystopian. No YA. 4. Read on-line, iPad, phone for the most part.
I'd say roughly 2-3 hours per day. Sometimes more, sometimes less. I read two printed newspapers most days, and whatever books I have on the go. I don't really read escapist stuff, although I used to read some when I was younger. But now it's mostly non-fiction in areas that interest me (for research and for pleasure.) And good novels when I find them. I have a Kindle, and do read some things from it. I take it with me when I'm going places where I might find myself with time on my hands. I also read it at home, depending on what I've downloaded. However, I don't enjoy reading non-fiction from a Kindle, as photos don't always appear well, nor does supplemental material. I also find holding the Kindle a bit tiresome, and hate it when I inadvertently press one of the sides too hard and the page flips over. I find it easy to read 'classics' on a Kindle, and that's mostly what I have on it. Mostly, though, I read paper books. Ever since I was a child, my favourite reading place was my bed. So I sit on my bed to read most things. I've got a great 'back wedge' that makes sitting up comfortable. I used to read a lot lying on my side, head propped up on my hand, but since I've had to wear bifocals, that's not a comfortable position to actually see the page any more (dangit!) Fortunately I'm nearsighted, so I can still read without glasses, if I hold the book close enough to my nose! I find this is easier than the bifocals, so that's the way I usually read. The one complaint I have—which again is related to my eyesight—is that many printed books are too heavy to comfortably hold upright in my hands at the right distance for any length of time. I'm working on finding an alternative way to hold them. I think I'm a fast reader. Fast in the sense that I tend to stick to a book till I'm finished with it, without taking too many breaks. (I'm retired, I can do this! Mind you, I tended to do this all my life, and often pulled all-nighters reading books.) If I find myself skimming a book, that's usually because I don't like it very much, but don't hate it enough to stop altogether. I've never QUITE broken myself of my habit of paging ahead in a novel, just to see what's going to happen. Sometimes even reading the ending fairly early on. It doesn't tend to spoil the book for me. Rather it makes me more alert to what will lead up to that ending I already know. I do go back and read the whole thing, word for word, though. So that's not really skimming, is it? Can't page ahead quite so easily on a Kindle, though, so that's probably an advantage to Kindle!
1. Depends. I read for entertainment purposes, and usually read between other tasks. Some days I don't read at all, other days I read about 20-30 minutes, and on occasion, I find myself reading for 2-3 hours. Sometimes I read or re-read books to study the technique and Google words to increase my vocabulary. Essentially, I'm more interested in telling stories than reading them. 2. No, I'm actually a very slow reader, and a lot of the time I tend to go over some sentences or paragraphs twice to make sure I got everything. 3. I like to read a lot of factual stuff as well, but I do it mostly for research or part of a hobby. 4. I read wherever is quiet. I dislike reading outside to be honest; the sun and the wind can just irritate me when I'm trying to focus on the book. I also read from hard copies. I can't stand those Kindles, or reading from computer screens. I can only read websites and stuff from a computer screen because you don't tend to get 'engrossed' in them. Plus, being at the computer is just a distraction; I'm more likely to faff about with YouTube than read.
1. It's pretty sporadic. But I don't think I've ever gone a day without reading. It can be anywhere between five minutes reading poetry to 2 hours on a novel. 2. Pretty fast. 3. I like a mix - non fiction, genre, literary, poetry. But I would say the percentage is in favor of genre. I find genre pulls me in quicker and keeps my attention. Literary can get off to bad starts or can flag at weird moments. It usually takes me three false starts to finish a literary read. Genre on the other hand - if I'm interested - I'll read non-stop. For instance I just purchased Tom Wolfe's new novel Back to the Blood. Which I would consider literary or at least literary general. After 30 pages of the mc trying to park a car - it was a funny scene but loooong - I was in, but then he switched characters on me and dropped a boring info dump in my lap. I set the book down. Kinda wish literary would have genre's pace. My mind feels blown after a literary read and it gets my creative juices flowing. With genre it's satisfying but doesn't quite have the same effect - not that certain literary novels haven't been duds - I couldn't stand Oryx and Crake and certain genre - Alligator by Shelley Kratz have blown my mind. 4. I read when I'm a passenger in a car or in my bedroom or in a bubble bath. Or on my computer - I'm a fan of Open Library.
As much as I can. I usually get to devote a few hours a day to reading. Though, sometimes I can go entire weeks without honestly reading very much. Yes and no. Books I know I don't really need to take in too well, and can just enjoy them as mindless fun I read very quickly. I've read a good few Stephen King books cover-to-cover in a day. While some books can only be about 150 pages and can take me weeks because I'm working through them and learning from them. Especially poets, because after a while I'll return to the collections to reread and try to memorize as many poems as possible. Most of my reading is 'heavy' literary prose (not just fiction but also criticism and philosophical texts) and verse, and increasingly academic prose - even though that'll soon change since I've decided to not do a PhD. I'll read a light novel every once in a while when I want to just switch off, which usually means something by Stephen King or Haruki Murakami or Charles Dickens - something like that. Something that doesn't require a lot of brain-power to understand, even if just on a superficial level. I also like to have seasonal books. Some books just seem to demand being read at certain times of the year. Robert Frost is a poet whose work just demands winter. Homer and The Hobbit are books I try to read every summer. Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon, and a lot of Dickens too actually, seem to demand autumn. Does anyone else have this or am I just absolutely crazy? Anywhere and everywhere. I can even walk and read at the same time, which is apparently a skill, so I walk around reading a lot. For some reason reading while doing exercise really helps me focus on the text a lot more these days. I don't know why. Luckily I live in the country, so I'll take a collection of poems or Plato or something and go for a long stroll with it.
On average, probably 12 hours per week. No. 95%-5% Reading during walks can be painful. Waiting rooms work well for me, or else at night before bed. Sometimes during the day.[/QUOTE]
1.How many hours per day/week do you read? Somewhere between 60 and 90 minutes per day 2.Do you consider yourself a fast reader? Not even nearly. In those 60 to 90 minutes, I only get through two or three chapters (chapters of average length) 3.How much of your reading consists of "heavy" reading-eg, literary, non fiction, historical, and how much of your reading consists of "light" reading, eg, popcorn thrillers, YA, etc. Please feel free to use your own definitions of light vs heavy reading. Nothing heavy. Mainly sci-fi or quirky stuff. 4.Where do you read? Are you setting aside solid blocks of time for it in your living room, or are you reading during walks, traffic lights, etc? When I go to bed at night.
Yes, you are crazy, but not as crazy as I am. There are lots of not only books, but also movies, TV shows, songs, video games, and other things that I associate with a specific season. For example, a novel that starts at the beginning of summer and ends at the beginning of winter and it becomes 10× better when you start reading it exactly at the beginning of summer (i.e. the solstice), read a little bit every day, and finish reading it on the winter solstice. It is strangely poetic (see what I did there?) that Robert Frost demands winter.
I haven't read a book from cover to cover since 2002 when I used to work third shift at the prison. That's awful of me to be here an admit that. I just find looking at the internet and all the news stories and other articles that catch my eye. I do think that now that I am going back to school and will be forced to read, that I will get back in the mode of reading and will probably go back and read all of Vonnegut's books again.
I know we all know the famous quote from his writing book that states if you want to write you must read a lot. I do agree with that, however; I find that when I need an idea I tend to take the ideas from what I've read and feel that I'm not coming up with anything original or of my own. How do you handle this? Does anyone else feel this way?
>_o Yes and no. I'm not a big reader (perhaps my prose shows this, I don't know), but when I do read, I notice the quality of my writing improves substantially. In a way, I do need to read to be able to write, but it has nothing to do with what I read -- the author's technique and the story itself are both irrelevant, I think it has more to do with exercising whatever area(s) of the brain are required for storytelling. edit to add: Your experience may vary.
Reading "a lot" only serves to further the foundation of my disdain for said genre. I do not personally dislike King, but I am not a fan.
I don't think King means you should read a lot of King, just that you should read a lot of everything. In terms of the OP - when I first started writing, I quit reading almost entirely for a few years, and I think that helped me develop my own ideas. Now, I'd been a voracious reader for my entire life up to that point, and after the first few years of writing I started reading again, at an almost-as-voracious-as-before rate. But after I'd developed a few ideas of my own in writing, I found that most of my ideas for future writing came from previous writing - like I'd write a minor character of a certain type and find him or her intriguing, and in my next book I'd borrow some characteristics from that character, flesh them out in a different direction, and explore and expand on my own idea instead of someone else's. All that said, as long as you're not taking the ideas in their entirety, there's nothing wrong with being inspired by the writing of others. That's essentially what genres are - using the structures or general ideas of other authors and expressing them in new ways.
To be clear - reading other fantasy works serves only to increase my disdain for the fantasy genre! It is extremely rare when I can find a good sci-fi book - most are utterly non-nonsensical to me. Large worlds and settings are often covers for a shallow existence where the characters act upon a stage. I do not want a stage - I want a world.
I've always picked up a lot more books than I ended up reading. Read a few paragraphs or chapters, don't like it, put it down and get a different book. Don't we all do that? I tried reading the Divergent series and the Shadowhunters series. I couldn't get past the first chapter of either book. But I loved The Young Elites and Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I can't wait for the next one in The Young Elites series. They're both fantasy genre. It's not the genre that's the problem, it's just one's taste in books. And maybe your taste does exclude all fantasy. I gag at dragon stories. I won't pick up anything about zombies. I don't see it as an issue that we have particular tastes in reading.
Maybe you need to change what you read. If you are reading fiction and science fiction stories and trying to write fiction or science fiction it would be hard not to "borrow" some concepts. If you read some non-fiction stories and try to envision how that story could have ended up you might find some of the originality you are seeking. From another post I know you were writing a story about some people journeying into the Earth. If you read some science tidbits about how the inner Earth is constructed, previous actual explorations, etc. you might pick out some particular aspect and think what-if, if it was not that way, but this way? I guess I am saying use your reading time as broad based research, then put your own twist on it.
I try not to read any one genre. I like to keep it mixed - a couple of gothic romances, a horror, an old YA. Plus I mix in some non-genre - general fiction, poetry and some non-fiction. And the classics. I think some writer's under estimate the power of non-fiction in helping you flesh out an idea even if it has nothing to do with your story. You could be reading about quartz or gems and suddenly you decide the alien race in your new book will grow in the earth like a mineral and voila.
I wonder about how essential it is to read for the sake of quality writing. I am an odd case. My family has no culture that promotes intellect. The first book I've read was The Hobbit, at age 15, now I am 18 going 19, and I've not reached 30 books. I just can't, it's hard when not growing up with the hobby. I do take certain pleasure in being a reader and leafing through pages and settling into words, but it is not without some kind of mental and physical strain, which I am not used to because I am relatively new to this. Now I do write a novel, and I've prepared myself to write in English, which is not my native tongue, via a daily delving into the free dictionary, cosntructing and rerunning words and grammar in my head. I did that for half a year. What's interesting is that whenever I think about construction, of stories, characters, techniques, etc... I find that whatever conclusion I came down to in my head through logical thinking is actually simillar or even sometimes identical to the advice posted on the internet, both in professional helper books and posts from readers\writers, not to mention the opinions of my English teachers. I don't want to sound boastful or anything, but I honestly feel as if nobody can add anything new to my way of writing. Granted, I have not yet finished my novel, which means it may live to be failure, success or in between, but as to the way of writing, I guess logical thinking does the job. There is the matter of simple well-versed-ness in a genre: what is popular, what is considered cliche, what stories are not original, characters, etc... All of those questions may be answered by "reading a lot". 30 books is not much to take from, so the story I am writing must either be influeced directly by those less than 30, or from a source that is not books. The other option being that I think about the massage I want delivered, then think about what setting, characters, senarios, and so on should best convey the essense of my story. The rest is the fruit of personallity - which is where diversity and originality comes to play. So overall we have the combination of personality and logical thinking as the basis of story construction. But anyhow that is just my opinion
@Tella - Proper construction does not always imply excellent execution. Having a strong background and command of different styles and techniques will only aid your craft, but it will not actually put words on the page. Being able to tell an entertaining story does not rely on the application of these construction techniques, but it will greatly enhance the product and make it appealing to readers. Being able to create an engaging and enjoyable novel that reads well will require a surprising amount of work, even for established writers.
Of course, of course , hell yeah to that! Actually, I can relate. Sometimes when I write I tend to get extremely emotion-driven. On an occasional night from midnight to 6 am I might sit in front of a WIP only to finish up with 3 new lines by morning. I often go back to old chapters to reread and edit endlessly. That is my amount of work, which a lot of time is more emotinoal than logical.
