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Read this if you're new (or bored...).
2004-07-19 - 10:40 a.m.
Read, dagnabbit!
Has anyone else seen these studies about how fewer and fewer Americans are reading books? Here's a link if you haven't. So the number of Americans who read books is going down. But you know what? The number of books being published is constantly going up! It gets worse. Because a notable percentage of the people I interact with regularly want to write. Ok. Let's think about this. It's already kind of assumed that more people write poetry than read it. So good luck in that field. (My personal goal is to make a name for myself and *then* try to market the poetry. It won't be able to happen otherwise.) But let's say you stick to prose. Novels, commentary, maybe books of essays or short stories. Self-help, if you can convince anyone that you know what you're talking about. You're still competing with more people than ever for a rapidly decreasing audience. I mean, for a person to be counted in that survey as being a reader, they only had to read three pages of a single book! And that book could have been "Low-carb Chicken Soup for Atkins-Friendly Souls"! Well, I'm afraid there's only one solution. If you want to write, read. It's what all the pros tell you to do anyway. And look at it as good karma. Or at least pragmatism -- you're adding to your own market. Now, a lot of people say they don't have time to read books, but I speak from my own experience -- if you don't have time to read, you don't have time to write. What's that? You *make* time to write? Well, well. See. turns out, it's even easier to make time to read. See, whan you read, someone else's imagination is doing all the work. (Plus, it's a lot easier to read than to write while you're on the toilet. Try it.) And maybe it's because people who read have more leisure time accross the board, or maybe they're just better at making the time, but people who read are far more likely to be active in thier communities -- *and* are twice as likely to go to sporting events. You made time for that Yankees game? Take a book for the train ride. Now, if you legitimately don't have time to read, legitimately can't make time to read, that's fine. It happens. But this isn't a widely-read weblog, so may I recommend that, if you're one of those people, stop wasting time looking at my insignificant drivel and pick up a real book. Because someday I'm going to need an audience to buy my drivel, in the far-off future when my drivel gets more significant. Writers? Let me suggest Stephen King's "On Writing." It combines a good story, good advice, and a nice pile of hints on how you can make time to read. So. What do you think of all that?
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