Chapter 5, Reading to Write

Monteleone’s advice: read, read, and read. Anything can be inspiring. Maintain also a bookshelf with the books you are planning to read. The “To Read Next” stack.

- “You must be a voracious reader to be a writer.”

Once, Monteleone had a job that required visiting customers in their houses, and sometimes he had a chance to see the whole house. He discovered that most of the houses he visited lacked one thing in particular: books. “It’s always been an axiom of the publishing industry that 10 percent of the population buys 90 percent of the books.”

- “You should read in your chosen genre.”

Well, the story I want to tell is adventure/action, which I used to read a lot in junior high and high school but not now. I’ll visit Amazon.com, and see if I can find something interesting. I also read the first 2 chapters of Jeff Long’s The Descent, and then just dropped it one year ago. I should finish it.

- “You should read nonfiction.”

I like Oliver Sacks’ books –medicine, science, travels, and he is also a great story-teller. Plus, Sacks books are like 2 books in one --the second one is hidden in the footnotes. I also like cookbooks, sports, grammar, yoga, history, the newspaper, etc. Plus all the reading I do everyday at work --trucks, buses, law, official letters, Wikipedia. So, no problem with nonfiction.
- “Reading teaches technique and builds your vocabulary.”

I indeed agree, Mr. Monteleone! I am a big fan of dictionaries and encyclopedias.

I went to Amazon.com and downloaded the Kindle application for PC: this is going to be my “To Read Next” stack.

I bought online two of the books Monteleone recommends: Stephen King’s Misery, and Jack London’s Martin Eden. They were immediately downloaded to my PC, it was amazing.

But of course, my priority right now is Monteleone’s Guide. So, now I’ve got plenty to keep me busy… and happy.