Why Writers Should Read?

Picking up from last week's post where I spoke of the need to stop reading other people's work, I wanted to focus on why new writers should not only read, but read A LOT!

Stephen King put it best actually... if you don't read you won't have the tools needed to perfect your craft. But I get it, writing is hard, even painstaking at times, so how the heck are you to carve out another hour (or in my case precious minutes) to read when you could be using it to bang out that best seller? We are told to make the time. Several accomplished authors seem to agree you can't be a successful writer without being an avid reader:

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”
― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

"Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it.
Then write. If it's good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out of the window.”
― William Faulkner

"Learn as much by writing as by reading."
 ― Lord Acton

Inspiration:

Often times in the writing process you're stuck, call it writer's block or perhaps you just lack motivation. Sometimes you can shake this by finding one of your favourite authors (I have quite a few) and reading to see how they dealt with a particular situation or the worlds they created, perhaps it can help spark your own creative ideas for your own story; like they say 'artists learn by copying the masters.'

To learn:

That particular awesome book you love to read... yeah that one. Go back to it and read it again ― this time critically. Look at transitions, how the writer shows emotions between characters, style etc. If a scene caught your eye, look to see why it works, how did the writer set the scene? etc. These are all useful things you'll want to put in practice when writing your own novel. I can't tell you how many times I've re-read J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books and several others from Nora Roberts.
Also, don't want to state the obvious but at the very least, reading does improve the vocabulary. Great books can become a dictionary and a thesaurus.

Pleasure: 

Honestly, I love love love reading, books are a perfect escape to different worlds, cultures, where you get a chance to meet people with some fantastic abilities, characters you eventually come to care about and love. Life and its troubles are momentarily forgotten and the story laid out in simple perfection on the page, becomes your own world.

So just in case, you haven't picked up on how important it is for new writers to read, here's another Stephen King quote for ya :)