Words on a page

If you want to improve as a writer, you not only need to write. You need to read. Writing and reading are two sides of the same coin. You need to do both to achieve your potential.

By reading, you’re exposing yourself to different voices and viewpoints. And you can pick up some new techniques. Not only that, you get a great opportunity to see what other writers are doing well and what they’re doing badly. Sometimes, you might just be blown away by what you read. So much so that you’ll try harder to improve.

Of course, there’s definitely nothing wrong with reading for pleasure. It can be relaxing to lose yourself in a book, no matter how good or bad.

While I take my own advice and read a lot, I’ve actually cut down on a lot of reading. I deliberately put myself on a low-information diet and, to be honest, I’m not missing out on much (if anything).

That said, I still read quite a bit. Here’s a sampling of the types of things that I read, and why.

Books

Bet that came as a surprise … Most of my reading is done with books. Either in the form of dead trees or (increasingly) on my ebook reader.

Whether for pleasure or research, the main focus of my reading is non fiction — ranging from politics to history to economics, science, and technology. Why? I think my brain is wired for non fiction. Since I write non fiction exclusively, I’m constantly loooking for inspiration and new ways of structuring and presenting my work (even when I don’t realize it). In all ways, reading non fiction is a great learning opportunity.

But I don’t neglect fiction — right now, I’m working my way through Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon and will probably be re-reading some Graham Greene in the near future. Even if I don’t read all that much fiction, there’s a lot to learn from it. Like what? Cadence, pacing, how to use conversation and quotes, as well as flow and structure. I might not be terribly good at those things, but I am learning.

Articles

Of the magazine and newspaper variety, whether in print or online. I briefly scan two local, and a few international, papers each morning for anything that piques my interests. To be honest, though, most news doesn’t catch or hold my attention. My information filter is on full power, and always has been.

Magazines are a slightly different story. There are a handful that I check out each week or month — like The Economist, Foreign Policy, Prospect Magazine, The New York Review of Books, and Foreign Affairs — and others that I peruse less frequently. Unless I’m doing research, I scan for articles that pique my interests. That usuall amounts to about one or two in 10 articles. If I don’t read them immediately, I save the articles as a PDF and dump them on to my ebook reader or BlackBerry for later reading.

Reading articles is mainly for my personal edification, although I can’t deny that some are useful as background something I’m writing or planning to write.

Blogs

This one might come as a shock … Once upon a time, my feed reader was filled with links to dozens of blogs. It got to a point where I didn’t read many of those feeds. In fact, with most blogs, a majority of the posts didn’t interest me and I didn’t feel like sifting through posts to find the ones that I wanted to read. Anyway, I could find the same, or similar, information elsewhere.

That, plus seeing friends with hundreds (or more) unread posts in their readers, influenced me to go on that low-information diet I mentioned earlier.

Right now, I have only a dozen feeds in my reader. They cover writing, personal productivity and personal growth, technical communication, presenting, and Formula One. Those are the ones that I go back to the most, but I’m constantly trimming and adding feeds. The number stays within the range of a dozen, give or take a couple.

But I don’t ignore other blogs. There are a handful that I check out every couple or three days. Again, I don’t always read everything (or even anything) posted there, but it never hurts to check.

To be honest, blogs aren’t entertainment for me. They’re mostly for learning and research. New techniques for writing and presenting; new technologies; new sources of information; tutorials. Some blogs, whether they realize it or not, also offer lessons on how to write better. You just need to keep your eyes and mind open for those lessons.

Summing up

My reading is split between entertainment and learning. I think that learning has the edge — 70/30 or even 75/25. As more than one person has said, I’m very picky about what I read. That helps me retain focus and to limit what I read to what’s really important to me.

What do you read, and why? Feel free to share your thoughts by leaving a comment.