December 7, 2011

At the beginning of every new year, I make a list of middle-grade books I should read and study, since that’s the genre in which I write. They are award winners mostly, or books recommended as “must reads.”

Most teachers encourage you to read a wide variety of books, and I always start with the best of intentions. But time to read is short for everyone.

Me and My List

Occasionally a book on the list really grabs me, and I sail through it. But more often than not, I have to really push myself to finish.

These popular books are well written, and for the most part, they deserve the honors and sales records they’ve garnered. However, many just aren’t “me.” Either I really don’t like them for some reason (subject matter, language, depressing ending) or I lose interest because I know that I never want to write a similar book. With time to read so very short, I hate spending it reading something I just don’t enjoy very much. I always feel guilty about it, but I finish few of the “must reads” on my list.

Freedom!

And then I read one of the free ebooks I downloaded from the NaNoWriMo give-away last month. It’s called How to Be a Writer: Building Your Creative Skills Through Practice and Play by Babara Baig. Listen to her advice for writers:

You need to learn how to read as a writer. What that means, first and most importantly, is that you need to read for pleasure. Never mind all the books you think you should read; what do you want to read?… Find a writer whose work you admire and feel you can learn from — choose someone whose level of skill you sense you could achieve someday, not a writer whose way of writing feels unattainable…You may want to choose a writer whose books focus on subjects that interest you. Then immerse yourself in this person’s work and see what you can learn.

Even though I agree with this advice, you’ll find plenty of teachers who will say the opposite. This is just my opinion based on years of trying to read the children’s books and adult books I “should” read. Nowadays I start them, but if I just don’t like them after ten or fifteen pages, they go back to the library unread. I’m giving myself the freedom from now to read what I love.

And with that said, I’m ready to dig into a book I bought for my birthday. I love P.D. James novels, and I love Jane Austen. Guess what the new James novel is? A lover of Austen herself, she just published Death Comes to Pemberly. I expect I’ll finish this one!

 

6 Comments »

1. 

   Kristi, thank you so much for this important reminder to, as a sage once said, “own your own mind” when it comes to this business of writing for children. We get tons of advice from all sorts of places, but in the final analysis, each writer walks his or her own path, reading and writing and marketing in those ways best suited to that individual. It’s never a matter of one-size-fits-all. Ever. Here’s wishing you a joyous holiday season. Thank you again for all the good work you do for us.

   Comment by Anne — December 7, 2011 @ 1:51 pm

2. 

   Anne, thanks for the comment. I feel like I’ve spent half my adult life looking for authority figures to give me permission to say no, to set some boundaries, to follow a dream, to write what I want…and it occurred to me to give MYSELF permission to read what I wanted to write. So I’m glad to give you permission to do the same…not that I confuse myself with any authority figure!

   Comment by Kristi Holl — December 7, 2011 @ 3:14 pm

3. 

   Fun post, Kristi! It seems most of us like to get “permission” from somebody else to do what we really want to do. Thanks for granting this one (-:

   Comment by Judy Dearborn Nill — December 7, 2011 @ 9:42 pm

4. 

   Judy, see my above comment. This was funny. Permission granted!

   Comment by Kristi Holl — December 8, 2011 @ 9:15 am

5. 

   Hi Kristi,
   Wow, thank you for telling me what I wanted desperately to hear. I always hear a little guilty voice when I read something for pure pleasure. Now I will give myself permission to do so. It only can help my writing life, not hinder it. The important thing is to read and be inspired so I will want to write. Last Sat. I got to meet the author of The Glass Castle (Jeannette Walls) and she was a lovely person and encouraged me to get working on a memoir that I have wanted to start for years now. I had already read her book, but I bought my own copy and had it autographed and now I will go ahead and give myself the time to re-read it.
   BTW, it took her I believe either 6 wks. or months to write it, but 5 years to revise. It was on NY Times bestseller list for 4 years!

   Comment by Megan — December 8, 2011 @ 6:25 pm

6. 

   Yes, Megan, I hear guilty voices when I read for pleasure too…although I have to say that I’ve just about beaten them down! Enough! I didn’t know about The Glass Castle, but I went over to Amazon and looked at the book and saw a wonderful video clip of the author and her mother. Your comment about how long her book took to write–compared to how long it took to revise–is very telling for a book that ended up on the NY Times bestseller list for four years! Thanks for sharing this! And best of luck with your won memoir.

   Comment by Kristi Holl — December 9, 2011 @ 2:19 pm

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