Filling our heads with books

By Heather Shumaker

Starlighters have to make time for reading books too.

I was at a potluck dinner not long ago--a gathering of local writers--when I asked around the table: what are you reading?   To my amazement, many people weren't reading at all.

"If you don't have time to read, you don't have time to write," said Stephen King.

Writers read.  Reading is our life blood, just as much as our own writing is.  If you're a starlighter, it's hard enough to find room for writing, but we've got to make room for books.  I read at night in bed.  When my kids were born my reading dropped off precipitously,  but I found that if I didn't read at least two books a month I didn't feel right.   I made time for reading again and told myself reading was part of my professional development.  And it is.

I read for pleasure.  I read to learn how to put a book together.  I read to study what works (and what doesn't).  I read to understand my genre.  Here's what I've been reading lately:

  • Half Broke Horses - Jeannette Walls
  • The Tiger's Wife - Tea Obreht
  • Little Bee - Chris Cleave
  • A Visit from the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan
  • Three Junes - Julia Glass

What about you?  What are you writers reading lately?  How do you make time to read?

7 responses to “Filling our heads with books”

  1. Heather - Right now I'm reading, "The Virgin Blue" by Tracy Chevalier.

    • Greg Renz says:

      I am reading "Lucy in the Sky" that I purchased from the author, John Vorhaus, at the Unitversity of Wisconsin Writer's Institute. Some of the scenes are hilarious.
      Favorite book lately is "Corrections" by Jonathon Franzen. What a phenomenol writer.

    • Heather Shumaker says:

      I'll have to put it on my reading list.

  2. I finished "Lucy in the Sky" a few weeks ago--this baby boomer enjoyed it immensely. I'm currently reading "The Writer's Journey" by Christopher Vogler (finally!). Some other recent reads were "The Cradle Will Fall" by Mary Higgins Clark and "Knockout" by Catherine Coulter.

    If you count audiobooks as reading, I'm currently listening to "The Pawn" by Steven James. Recent listens have been "Kill Shot" by Elmore Leonard, "Dark of the Moon" by John Sandford, and "The Bad Place" byr Dean Koontz.

    Chris

  3. Zane says:

    Heather, your blog looks great! I love how you're writing about useful writing topics in manageable bits. And I love to hear about what other people are reading!

    I like to take pictures, periodically, of the books next to my bed. It helps me to look back and visually see what I was reading at a certain point in time. Right now I'm reading:

    An Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler
    As Easy as Falling off the Face of the Earth by Lynne Rae Perkins
    Playful Learning by Mariah Bruehl
    A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (love this one!)
    The Hidden Gifts of the Introverted Child by Marti Olsen Laney
    Being Martha by Lloyd Allen

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