I’ve enjoyed reading for the longest time. When I was a boy, I would pick up books and absorb them like a plant soaking up sunlight. I was greedy for books and their contents. As soon as I finished one, I would be eagerly starting the next.
My favourite genre by far is science fiction. I devoured Heinlein and Asimov. I dove head first into the Star Wars expanded universe. It made me wish that the future would arrive now, instead of decades from now.
I didn’t limit myself to science fiction. I read everything from fantasy to finance, fiction and non-fiction. If I was even slightly curious about a topic, I would find a book about it. I quickly came to realise that I could never possibly know everything, but that I could certainly try.
However, I find myself reading a bit less of late. The pressures of life intrude. Work, study, and other commitments get in the way of reading (and writing!) time. So naturally, I’ve started reading more about productivity, work flow and time management. It’s having a positive effect on me because I struggle sometimes with balancing my work load. Learning how to solve this problem has freed up time for me to solve other problems.
My love for reading also feeds into my love of tabletop role-playing games. Entire worlds are written and read into the minds of keen players, then their actions make these worlds come alive. The ability to read about these new worlds plants the seeds of imagination. As a writer, I try to water these seeds and shape them into stories.
Reading is the driving force behind my writing. I sometimes find myself reading a piece of good writing and thinking to myself, “That’s what I want to be doing”. Reading a lot has helped to develop my ear and eye so that I can recognise the good and the bad in my own writing.
I think that I would have become a vastly different person without the gift and love of reading. I’m fairly certain I would not have chosen to become a writer. And now that I’ve finished reading ‘Start With Why’ by Simon Sinek, what should I read next?