Reading Like a Writer

I stumbled upon Francine Prose's Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and For Those Who Want to Write Them, a book that I'm very glad I found. Obviously I swallow books whole, devouring them with a hunger to meet new characters, new ideas, to learn new things. I read the way I do because I want to learn everything I can about plot and structure so that I can someday craft a novel that can have an impact on someone the way that so many novels have touched me, changed me. But do I read them slow and careful? No, not usually. Yet reading slowly is exactly what Francine Prose prescribes for writers to do. 

I am not a fast reader. I know from the sheer volume of books I read, some might have that impression, but it's not true. It's simply that I have such an addiction to the written word that it is almost a sickness--I read anywhere from 3-7 books at any given time and spread the books throughout my house, taking drinks from one book in the morning and another while I brush my teeth. When my grandmother was suffering from Alzheimer's, I remember someone saying how far her mind had gone because she started keeping books in different rooms and moving from one room to the next to read a page here, then to the next room for a chapter from this other book. I never thought that sounded like a mind deteriorating, but rather an inspiration, almost a sign of heightened intelligence and several years later found myself doing the same thing.

The virtue of a slow, careful read was a nice reminder to me. There are books that are faster to read than others; some books force the reader to slow down and take it all in. And Prose reminded me of the necessity of a writer reading more of the latter books, which I often tend to take in only sparingly. The book also talked about different aspects of novels--characters, plot, structure, voice--and gave examples that highlighted each. I walked away from this book feeling like I had become both a better writer and reader and highly recommend it to anyone who loves to do either.