On Why Writers Need to Read

Hello, all. It’s been a while. Sorry about that.

As always, here is an amusing picture to make up for it.

We good?

Anyway, the past week has been utter madness. I’ve been ill and bogged down with more homework than I ever thought possible, but those are the perks of being a student.

I know one day I’ll give anything to be back in the situation I’m in now, but right now I’m not exactly feeling it.

All I want to do is read.

I know my last two posts were about how I can’t really finish books.

Well, I’m here to throw in another exception.

I can finish books that are  blow-your-brains-out-with-a-9mm-because-nothing-in-life-will-ever-be-as-good-again amazing.

I’ve found a few of those in my last trip to the library (honestly, one of my favourite places the world has to offer).

These are:

1) Peter Nimble and his Fantastic Eyes by Johnathan Auxier

2) Tales of the Madman Underground by John Barnes

Which reads like if John Green and I wrote a book together. Seriously though. I swear a future version of me, who is a much better writer than I am now, wrote this book and then sent it to the past so I can read it and be amazed by just how awesome it is! Here’s a description, though.

Wednesday, September 5, 1973: The first day of Karl Shoemaker’s senior year in stifling Lightsburg, Ohio. For years, Karl’s been part of what he calls “the Madman Underground” – a group of kids forced (for no apparent reason) to attend group therapy during school hours. Karl has decided that senior year is going to be different. He is going to get out of the Madman Underground for good. He is going to act – and be – Normal. But Normal, of course, is relative. Karl has five after-school jobs, one dead father, one seriously unhinged drunk mother . . . and a huge attitude. Welcome to a gritty, uncensored rollercoaster ride, narrated by the singular Karl Shoemaker.

3) Rotters by Daniel Kraus

 

All three of these books are amazing for their own reasons. All three of them have wildly different intended audiences. And all three of them could teach anyone how proper writing is done.

I can’t explain to you how good these books are.

But I will try.

Peter Nimble has that sort of childish wonder and magic that is either hit or miss in middle grade literature, and this is a total hit! I want to be in that world forever. The writing is spot on and the narrator has a voice of his own.

Madman Underground is so raw and heartbreakingly witty that you just can’t put it down. It’s a slow-going character-driven novel that takes you by the hand and walks you through the tragic yet budding lives of a group of people who’ve been dealt the worst hand life could give them. This novel is the best character-driven story I’ve read–ever. It changed my mind about what a novel like that could do. It has a great voice and a marvelously real world. The main character, Karl, is that kid everyone knows in the back of the class, but no one knows anything about apart from rumours.

Rotters takes the cake, though. It is beautifully written, raw and dark without going overboard, very realistic despite also depicting grandiose events. It seams together two very different worlds, yet two worlds that, in real life, would have to exists side by side. Combining the two, making each as important to the plot as the other, is what makes this novel unique and interesting. All of the relationships form organically. It is marvelously creepy and wonderful at the same time.

 

They are all so good.

And like all good books, they are teaching me how to write better.

I don’t think anyone who is serious about writing should put reading aside for anything. Reading good books in your genre, or even just age range, or even good books with amazing writing in general, will help writing.

Writers need to read as much as they need to write.

The sooner you realise that, the better your writing will be.

If you don’t know where to start, might I suggest these?

Regardless of whether you’re writing or not, read these anyway.

You’ll thank me later.