It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! Time to release our fears to the world or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post the first Wednesday of every month. Every month, the organisers announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG Day post. Remember, the question is optional!!! Let’s rock the neurotic writing world! Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.
March 3 question – Everyone has a favorite genre or genres to write. But what about your reading preferences? Do you read widely or only within the genre (s) you create stories for? What motivates your reading choice?
I read within my genre mostly, middle grade fantasy, both because I love to read fantasy and also because it’s part of the business of being a writer. Some teacher of mine back in the day, name forgotten to the mists of time said, always read widely within your genre, to keep current with what other writers are producing and what kids are reading. So that’s what I’ve always tried to do.
Seriously, though, I don’t need any encouragement. I’ve been interested in fantasy fiction since I was a child of seven, picking up my first Moomintroll books from the school library.
When I’m at a bookstore, there are certain brilliant authors I aspire to be when I grow up, and I’ll buy anything by them, in order to study their craft, like Diana Wynne Jones, Neil Gaiman and Maggie Stiefvater. You can learn from studying the greats. I always pick up classic children’s books, ones I’ve read and ones I have yet to read. It’s become habit to keep an eye out for modern fantasy stuff too. I have two new Spirit Animals books, which I’m excited to read, Hunted and Fire and Ice. In my TBR to-be-read pile at the moment, there are also books like The Grimm Conclusion, by Adam Gidwitz, The Dragon Defenders, by James Russell, and The Dragon Prince, Book One: Moon, by Aaron and Melanie Ehasz among many others.
These sit alongside older books waiting to be read, like Ronia, The Robber’s Daughter, by Astrid Lindgren and The Secret Forest, by Enid Blyton. It’s fun to re-read the classics, so I always buy one or two to add to my collection, where they wait for me to linger. Next classic on my TBR pile is Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery. I can’t wait to spend time again in Avonlea with the irrepressible red-haired Anne.
Sometimes, I’ll buy a book in another genre because a cover compels me, as with the sumptuous cover on the adult urban fantasy, Fire & Shadow, by T.G. Ayer. Sometimes, as happened with a novel I bought on Waiheke Island last year, I’ll purchase it because the title made me so curious I simply had to read to find out what it’s about, Constancia and Other Stories for Virgins by Carlos Fuentes.
At one of the recent book fairs of authors selling their wares, there was one table I couldn’t walk past. The cover and the title both snagged me. Infinite Threads, by Mariko B. Ryan, is hardcover and has a dust jacket. It’s a quality production which presents excerpts from old Maori manuscripts. The author’s blurb on the back of the book says Ryan is of the line of “tohunga” or sage. She is a “kaitiaki” or guardian of the hidden writings, all of which sounded fascinating to me. I look forward to imbibing some much-needed indigenous wisdom.
Given the chance to roam a bookstore (*heehee! *runs around with glee) I’ll delve into any book that takes my fancy. In terms of adult fiction, I have a fondness for mysteries; I have at least half a dozen Agatha Christie stories on the TBR pile. Christie is one of the most widely read authors ever, and it’s cool to step back to a bygone era through the adventures of either Poirot or Marple.
I also have a weakness for large old books with lots of photos on subjects like ancient history and mythology. Sitting poring over one of these books with a coffee at breakfast time was a beloved ritual for many years. There are so many books, so little time!
What motivates your reading choice?
Keep Reading!
Yvette Carol
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“A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight.” ― Robertson Davies
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