This was originally written for The Story Club, a community which lives on as The Story Ark.
I strongly believe that it is important for writers to be readers; they must feed themselves on books as a man consumes food, but there is another side to this: There is no end to books. Making time in one’s life to read is hard, but knowing/choosing what to read seems nearly impossible.
At the end of your life, there will be books you didn’t read, so how do you decide what to spend your time on? Should you let your appetite lead you, you may end up missing out on great works that would feed your soul in ways you could never suspect, but should you spend all your time in the classics, you may find yourself dreading the time you’ve set aside to read.
I do not have a good answer for this. I know I’m glad I forced myself to finish Moby Dick, but I much more enjoy perusing some childish adventure from the pages of a pulp magazine.
* How do you decide what to read?
* What are some of your favorites from the classics?
* What are some of your favorites that are not classics?
Tale Told 