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What should I read?
Saturday, April 05, 2003Here is a myth that trips me up from time to time...fantasy writers only read fantasy, mystery writers only read mysteries...it's something that a lot of people claim as a truth. It's also something that I don't understand. Yes, if you're going to write SF, then you need to read SF...and a lot of it. Start with Asimov and Zelazney, Hugo and Wells. These people are your ancestors. Twice in the past couple of weeks, I made an allusion to Nero Wolfe...one of these times was to a writer of mysteries, who had no idea who I was talking about. Mentioning Nero Wolfe's creator, Rex Stout, didn't clear things up. I was a bit surprised, and didn't cover it up very well...but I feel strongly that even if you decide never to read a Rex Stout book, you should have studied enough that you know who he is. If you don't know the roots of your genre, how will you grow? But, you need to read outside the genre. I stand up and announce this to people sometims, and they look at me like I have two heads. You need to learn the conventions, the stylistics of all the genres, so that you can understand better what you're writing, what kind of writer you are (Do you write paranormal mysteries rather than just straight detective novels? Do you want to inject some romance in your SF?) but so that you can borrow form the other genres. I liken reading only in your own genre to inbreeding. In the past week, I read an espionage, a romance, a book on railways, a fantasy and now I'm reading a sort of literary thriller. I think reading in a lot of areas broadens my mind, and helps me keep from getting jaded. Or justy plain sick of a particular genre. I have a feeling I may just be preaching to the choir, but please, for your self, if you only read one kind of thing hit the library sales that should be happening soon, grab a bag and load up on some nifty things. If you don't now how...if you don't have a handle on what you might like, just take what attracts you. If you go to the right sale, or at the right time, the prices mught be really fabulous (a buck a bag, for instance). It might sound silly, but picking up something just because it feels right in your hands is not an evil thing. Or you could always ask me. :) If you've seen my review page, you know I'm pretty liberal in my tastes. :) Permalink Cindy scribed this at 2:17 PM 0 comments |