Reading is first! Even if you don’t want to write you need to read. I’m reading Miss Iceland by Audur Ava Olafsdottir and love the feeling of living in Iceland alongside volcanos and new islands being created from underneath the sea. And her MC, an emerging writer, named for a volcano.
Hi there. Thank you for this article! I’m a budding poet and writer (and editor!) with a reading impediment and possibly a learning disability, and I’ve had a rough life that has packed my brain to the extent that reading is still very hard for me. But I am attempting to read when I feel that I can. Right now I’m reading Linda Gray Sexton’s first memoir, and I’m scheduled to begin working with her on my first book of poetry. I think it’s possible to be a good writer without reading everything under the sun, but I feel like a more informed writer whenever I read find writing somewhere. And I think that people most seek out informed writers. I’m admittedly ignorant about a LOT of literature in spite of having been an English major! Take care, Karen
Hi Jami, I like to mix it up. Recently I read THE FROZEN RIVER while I was on a hot sunny beach in Aruba. Also HOW TO STOP TIME, then I dove into Ann Hood’s book of essays FLY GIRL. Last night I started FIRST LIE WINS on my Kindle.
I learn something from each book I read.
As usual your writing advice is spot on. Thank you.
I am devouring Molly Prentiss’s TUESDAY NIGHT IN 1980. What a sensory overload (mainly because one character has synesthesia and she captures every colorful detail)!
I was in the reading “rut” you write about. It lasted far longer than I liked to admit. It was as if I had a dear friend close by but just couldn’t access them or be with them. Then just like that I picked up Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder and was drawn into it and reading seamlessly. No friction. I am looking for my next read and will check out this thread for inspiration!
I’ve just started reading the Booker Prize winners, inspired by a Booker Prize Book Club group I joined on Facebook and also by your and other writing teachers’ advice to read constantly and widely. _Saville_ by David Storey was a bit of a slog but I am still pondering it. _Staying On_ by Paul Scott was funny, thought-provoking, and beautiful.
“We must. If we want to write, we must read.” Absolutely. I echo Cindy Mason’s comment: A must “for writing and thinking.” I am currently enjoying Chris Bachelder and Jennifer Habel’s collaborative writing in “Dayswork.” Recently (finally) read Lauren Groff’s “The Vaster Wilds,” which has some of the most beautiful, evocative language I’ve read this year. Thanks for your work, Jami.
I’m savoring Jessmyn Ward’s new novel, Let Us Descend, since it came out because I want to stay with it as long as possible. Today, I read Dorothy Allison’s Two or Three Things I Know for Sure, a very short, very intense and poetic memoir. Also this week, The Badass Brontës a collection of poems by Jane Satterfield and the ongoing year-long slow read of War and Peace.
Just finished Zadie Smith's lovely The Fraud, which helped me re-visit writing a female character's powerful inner thoughts/realizations without too much "telling" vs "showing." Started Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, and tomorrow am expecting (finally!) Kirsten Bakis' King Nyx. So I'm reading a variety of voices to keep my brain on its toes!
I'm reading Kristin Hannah's THE WOMEN, which debuted at #1 on the NY Times bestseller list last week. Very relevant for me because I've been working on my second novel for a couple of YEARS now--my main character is an Army nurse in WW2 and the story of what happens to her 10 years later. And I'm trying not to panic because the main character in THE WOMEN is AN ARMY NURSE in Vietnam...and she's Kristin F'ing Hannah...and it's good the nurses are finally getting their due...and it'll just mean people want more nurse stories, right? I'm going with that. Thanks for asking. I read obsessively and can't understand how anyone could write without reading.
I’m on a vagabond road trip and reading constantly. So far the books have ranged from The Stars and the Blackness between Them by Junauda Petros to Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout to old Helen McInnes and Maeve Binchy novels picked up at campground free libraries. Next up is Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls. Can’t stop. Feel as if I’ve been starving this past year (novel published and the world becomes external).
Just read Remarkably Bright Creatures (I know I'm late to the party) and it was so illuminating and creative and just plain good. I also just finished American Heresy, about the roots of White Christian Nationalism in colonial America. Highly recommend this book. Yes, sad but true fact: white nationalism began even before our country was officially America.
Reading is first! Even if you don’t want to write you need to read. I’m reading Miss Iceland by Audur Ava Olafsdottir and love the feeling of living in Iceland alongside volcanos and new islands being created from underneath the sea. And her MC, an emerging writer, named for a volcano.
Just started H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald. It’s beautiful.
I am reading The Bell Jar but just finished two of S.A. Cosby's books. He is an amazing writer of a genre I usually would not read.
I find reading and writing makes me a better thinker and writer.
Also, late to the party, but I just read "Less" by Andrew Sean Greer and loved it!
Hi there. Thank you for this article! I’m a budding poet and writer (and editor!) with a reading impediment and possibly a learning disability, and I’ve had a rough life that has packed my brain to the extent that reading is still very hard for me. But I am attempting to read when I feel that I can. Right now I’m reading Linda Gray Sexton’s first memoir, and I’m scheduled to begin working with her on my first book of poetry. I think it’s possible to be a good writer without reading everything under the sun, but I feel like a more informed writer whenever I read find writing somewhere. And I think that people most seek out informed writers. I’m admittedly ignorant about a LOT of literature in spite of having been an English major! Take care, Karen
Hi Jami, I like to mix it up. Recently I read THE FROZEN RIVER while I was on a hot sunny beach in Aruba. Also HOW TO STOP TIME, then I dove into Ann Hood’s book of essays FLY GIRL. Last night I started FIRST LIE WINS on my Kindle.
I learn something from each book I read.
As usual your writing advice is spot on. Thank you.
I am devouring Molly Prentiss’s TUESDAY NIGHT IN 1980. What a sensory overload (mainly because one character has synesthesia and she captures every colorful detail)!
Plus - the 80s art scene. What’s not to love?
I was in the reading “rut” you write about. It lasted far longer than I liked to admit. It was as if I had a dear friend close by but just couldn’t access them or be with them. Then just like that I picked up Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder and was drawn into it and reading seamlessly. No friction. I am looking for my next read and will check out this thread for inspiration!
I’ve just started reading the Booker Prize winners, inspired by a Booker Prize Book Club group I joined on Facebook and also by your and other writing teachers’ advice to read constantly and widely. _Saville_ by David Storey was a bit of a slog but I am still pondering it. _Staying On_ by Paul Scott was funny, thought-provoking, and beautiful.
“We must. If we want to write, we must read.” Absolutely. I echo Cindy Mason’s comment: A must “for writing and thinking.” I am currently enjoying Chris Bachelder and Jennifer Habel’s collaborative writing in “Dayswork.” Recently (finally) read Lauren Groff’s “The Vaster Wilds,” which has some of the most beautiful, evocative language I’ve read this year. Thanks for your work, Jami.
I’m savoring Jessmyn Ward’s new novel, Let Us Descend, since it came out because I want to stay with it as long as possible. Today, I read Dorothy Allison’s Two or Three Things I Know for Sure, a very short, very intense and poetic memoir. Also this week, The Badass Brontës a collection of poems by Jane Satterfield and the ongoing year-long slow read of War and Peace.
Just finished Zadie Smith's lovely The Fraud, which helped me re-visit writing a female character's powerful inner thoughts/realizations without too much "telling" vs "showing." Started Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, and tomorrow am expecting (finally!) Kirsten Bakis' King Nyx. So I'm reading a variety of voices to keep my brain on its toes!
I'm reading Kristin Hannah's THE WOMEN, which debuted at #1 on the NY Times bestseller list last week. Very relevant for me because I've been working on my second novel for a couple of YEARS now--my main character is an Army nurse in WW2 and the story of what happens to her 10 years later. And I'm trying not to panic because the main character in THE WOMEN is AN ARMY NURSE in Vietnam...and she's Kristin F'ing Hannah...and it's good the nurses are finally getting their due...and it'll just mean people want more nurse stories, right? I'm going with that. Thanks for asking. I read obsessively and can't understand how anyone could write without reading.
I just started a re-read of Invisible Man
I’m on a vagabond road trip and reading constantly. So far the books have ranged from The Stars and the Blackness between Them by Junauda Petros to Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout to old Helen McInnes and Maeve Binchy novels picked up at campground free libraries. Next up is Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls. Can’t stop. Feel as if I’ve been starving this past year (novel published and the world becomes external).
Just read Remarkably Bright Creatures (I know I'm late to the party) and it was so illuminating and creative and just plain good. I also just finished American Heresy, about the roots of White Christian Nationalism in colonial America. Highly recommend this book. Yes, sad but true fact: white nationalism began even before our country was officially America.