Reading and how it influenced your writing

[Timothy M.]

I've spent more time reading than any other activity (yes, that included). I'll read any SF or fantasy book, and I usually like them. I can't say it has influenced my writing, except reading in English has probably enabled me to write in this language too. Reading M/M romance on GA made me try my hand with this genre, but it's hard work.

[Hudson Bartholomew]

On 9/6/2017 at 10:25 AM, BlindAmbition said:

I was in 4th grade when I discovered my love for reading. My grammar school had a book club. I was a competitive child. While trying to win a bike, my life changed. 
I came from a generation where schools had book clubs and fairs to encourage reading. I found an escape into fantasy and intrigue. Opening my mind to knowledge and curiosity. 
The books I immediately was drawn too... Encyclopedia Brown, C.S. Lewis. 
Did you guys always like to read? Why do you read? What do you like to read? How does this influence your writing?

 

I LOVED Encyclopedia Brown! I was just thinking about it the other day, oddly, hehe. I trained myself to read the "solution" page without using the mirror because I thought that made me smarter! And I'm also a fellow Narnian--loved those books. Also loved the Boxcar Children and the Babysitters' Club. I seemed to have like those mystery stories, although my stories now are definitely not mystery. 

 

I got into Harlequin romances in grade 8. It feels like I jumped from kids books straight to romance novels... yikes! My writing now is definitely more steamy romance than kid-friendly! 

[FormerMember4]

1 hour ago, Hudson Bartholomew said:

 

I LOVED Encyclopedia Brown! I was just thinking about it the other day, oddly, hehe. I trained myself to read the "solution" page without using the mirror because I thought that made me smarter! And I'm also a fellow Narnian--loved those books. Also loved the Boxcar Children and the Babysitters' Club. I seemed to have like those mystery stories, although my stories now are definitely not mystery. 

 

I got into Harlequin romances in grade 8. It feels like I jumped from kids books straight to romance novels... yikes! My writing now is definitely more steamy romance than kid-friendly! 

Seems like we have a lot in common. I also loved the Babysitter Club series. I fell in love with Harlequin novels in 8th grade. This was great, growing up in NJ. Then moving to NYC at 19, helped expand my *cough* adventurous side.

 Thanks for visiting. I have a soft spot  for your writing and stories.

Edited September 13, 2017 by BlindAmbition

[CassieQ]

On 9/13/2017 at 12:07 AM, Hudson Bartholomew said:

 

I LOVED Encyclopedia Brown! I was just thinking about it the other day, oddly, hehe. I trained myself to read the "solution" page without using the mirror because I thought that made me smarter! And I'm also a fellow Narnian--loved those books. Also loved the Boxcar Children and the Babysitters' Club. I seemed to have like those mystery stories, although my stories now are definitely not mystery. 

 

I got into Harlequin romances in grade 8. It feels like I jumped from kids books straight to romance novels... yikes! My writing now is definitely more steamy romance than kid-friendly! 

 

Chiming in as another reader who loved the Babysitter's Club.  I also liked all of the Sweet Valley High books (yes, I'm that old).  I also loved the Fear Street books by RL Stine and Christopher Pike.  But I would read anything I could get my hands on.  I remember my parents getting into a fight over my reading choices.  My Dad thought that I was too advanced to be reading stuff like the Babysitter's Club, but my Mom was worried about my reading "horror" books (Stine and Pike).  I ended up reading both.     

[comicfan]

Books started being a love affair at an early age. My mother would read to me all sorts of stories. As I got older I read to her.

When school started there was a program called RIF - Reading is Fundamental. They allowed a child to pick out a book to own and it was paid for by the program. I was in kindergarten and picked out a book of fairy tales. The woman running the program said the book would be too hard, and didn't I want a Cat in the Hat story. Needless to say I went home with my book of fairy tales.

I did the Encyclopedia Brown stories, the Hardy Boys, the three investigators, The tales of Narnia, The hobbit, and then so much more.

I'm drawn to fairy tales and myths. Happens to pop up in my writing.

[Hudson Bartholomew]

2 hours ago, CassieQ said:

 

Chiming in as another reader who loved the Babysitter's Club.  I also liked all of the Sweet Valley High books (yes, I'm that old).  I also loved the Fear Street books by RL Stine and Christopher Pike.  But I would read anything I could get my hands on.  I remember my parents getting into a fight over my reading choices.  My Dad thought that I was too advanced to be reading stuff like the Babysitter's Club, but my Mom was worried about my reading "horror" books (Stine and Pike).  I ended up reading both.     

 

I dabbled in Stine and Pike, but was put off by all the paranormal. Or at least the books I picked up had more paranormal than I wanted to read at the time. Love paranormal now, though! 

[MrM]

I can understand the dislike of LOTR. That book intimidated me because it was so big and in three whole volumes. I read The Hobbit first because I liked the little Anime that came out in the late Seventies and found that the book was equally as charming. The Return Of The King Anime done by the same group was so disjointed that I couldn't follow it. After reading the Hobbit I took the challenge to read LOTR in my 16th year. By fits and starts I finally got into it and something in there opened up to me. Maybe it was where I was in my life at the time. I needed to go live somewhere else for a while because I didn't like where I was at the time. I'd been an avid Comic collector before that time and I'd loved comic epics like X-Men and Elfquest so they primed me for something as thick and weighty as LOTR.

 

The chapter "Lothlorien" in the Fellowship of the Ring finally did it for me on Tolkien, though. When the Fellowship entered into that world and Tolkien put me right there in that place, I was lost . . . A part of me still lives with the elves in Lothlorien.

 

Thereafter the new Star Wars books in the 'Legends' started coming out. I loved the Thrawn Trilogy and it recaptured that childhood love I had for that story. I read everything published in the Star Wars Legends library. Over one hundred volumes! It made me sad when Disney just draconianly wiped that all out in the Canon. The Galaxy Far Far Away was expanded in a way I'd never seen in any other fantasy Sci Fi story.

 

Along the way I read a lot of Asimov. I loved the Robot stories. I think they got close to my favorite Asimov book 'Caves of Steel' with the 'I Robot' movie.  

 

I still think my favorite SciFi writer is Arthur C. Clarke. The Rama series is probably my favorite true SciFi saga I've ever read. It's so wonderfully based in informed scientific conjecture that you could actually see this being what first contract might be like for us. Childhood's End is also very interesting in that way. It started the giant ufo over cities motif used in V and Independence Day.

 

But, the one author that has informed my work more than any other is Anne Rice. Her homoerotic vision of the 'Romantic Vampire' and the sensual way she writes just lit the flame for my own authorship. I have followed her lead ever since in my own style. She can make you feel every stroke, every bite, every rush. She is the grand mistress of eroto-romantic writing as far as I'm concerned. I still read her stuff as my 'bathtub' reading since I can't read my mobile device in there. Hehehe!