Wednesday, December 12, 2012

What I Read, and Why

As writers, we should all be readers first. 

This isn't idle sermonizing; rather, it's a fact of life. Without reading, you have no hope of becoming a successful poet, novelist, memoirist, et cetera. You must know what came before in order to forge a path forward. 

You can see the types of things I read in my own life by checking out my reading list on the tabs below the header of this blog. But that only covers two years of my literary life, and it only shows you the books I read--not the magazine/newspaper articles I encounter every day, which take up a surprising amount of time. But I'm happy to do all of it. I read like my life depends on it, because my writing life does.

Poetry. Biographies. Memoirs. Novels. Short stories. Essays. Picture books. Histories. Articles. I take everything in, and I urge you to do so, as well. Absorb everything. Ruminate on it. Enjoy it. And then go out into the world and write your own works using the lessons you learned by reading.

-Cate-

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