Every serious writer will likely have a bookshelf full. To write well, writers often recommend read a lot, see how others craft their words, tell a story, shape a message.
Take the author Stephen King, for example. He said, “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”
You might wonder how many books is ‘a lot’. King, in his book ‘On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft’ revealed he reads 70 to 80 books, mainly fiction, each year. Mornings, he wrote, were dedicated to working on his latest writing project, afternoons were are for naps and letters, and evenings for reading.
But don’t stress. You don’t have to read 70 books every year to improve your writing. Just read, preferably every day to become more skilled at recognising how words can be used well to convey a message.
A home filled with letters
In my home, each bookshelf holds two rows of books, one showing its spine to visitors while another book hides behind it. This overcrowding of letters, and words, and tales, had already started before the pandemic began. But as the lockdown of 2021 progressed in my home town of Sydney, it soon became so much worse.
With my local library closed, I escaped into the pages of online shopping where I gave away much coin to purchase so many books, saving on postage by buying them in bulk. They soon came to live with me upon my dining table in stacks, only a sliver of space left free for food and a cup of tea (or a glass of wine). Later, they spilt onto coffee tables. And later again, I built them into towers that teeter tottered like Jenga blocks that occasionally crashed onto the carpet, creasing once smooth pages.
These books were such good friends when life was small, when leaving home was a crime. Or near enough. And inside these pages, I made my jottings or attached sticker notes reminding of all I could learn from these readings, these gifts upon a page.
It’s extraordinary. All writers, no matter how long they’ve been writing, I think, sense they can never stop learning; how best to shape a sentence, to tell a story, to say exactly what they mean. It’s a forever after journey along our very own yellow brick road. And if you have a love of letters, it’s a wondrous life.
