Read as Much as Possible (Fiction)

I don't mind saying, that when people come to my house, they are always looking at my books. I have books all over the house, in every room, even the kitchen and dining area has its books. Every room has books. The first question people ask me about my library is if I have read all of them. Truthfully, there are always a few dozen that I have not read, but the rest of them, well,  I may have read most of them at least five times. I've always loved books, but more than that, I've always loved reading. All kinds of books, poetry, biography, histories, fairy tales, mythology, Bibles, (the Book of Job is my favorite from the Old Testament), Dante (right now I am rereading Dante), and of course, fiction. I adore fiction. Reading good fiction is akin to a big adventure. 

I've developed some great friendships while reading the same fiction. It's a terrible thing to admit, but I'm prejudiced in that I do judge people by their reading! Laughing. Oh, that was mean, but to a degree it's true. I do have some good friendships that are not based on reading, but my deeper friendships have grown out of love of good fiction. A lot of my life is about books and stories and the best relationships that I have are with people who share this passion. It's a good thing Fred and the boys love and read books. And they do, and I am so lucky, and I am going to teach both my grandchildren to read good books.

If you are a writer, it is essential to read as much fiction as you can, all across genres. This is how you will grow as a writer, how you will learn, and how you will understand how fiction changes over time. You can't make good fiction without knowing what it is. It just doesn't happen.

But I guess what I am saying here is, a life is much richer and fuller with books and stories from a variety of styles. The world becomes very big by reading all kinds of stories. So read. I think it was Stephen King who said if you want to be a writer, you need to read a lot and write a lot.

Well, I'm out of here. I moved over five-hundred books today. 

Later...