Writer as Reader

​I have been a reader all my life.  In large part, because my father didn’t believe in buying books, I relied on the public library, which also turns out to be fine because the result has been that I love libraries, they feel like home.
For most of my adult life I’ve also belonged to a book club.  I’ve been a member of the Tuesday Morning Book Talk for about 16 years.  The variety of books we’ve read and commented on in that time is awe inspiring.  I also lead the discussion for the Wednesday Afternoon Book Club at our local library.  I’m in my second year of being the group leader.
Most months I read at least two books a month to participate in these book groups.  Pew research indicates that half of the American population reads five or fewer books a year and have read five or more a year.  Pew also found that in 2014 23% of Americans didn’t read one book a year.  I’ll never forget the story of a friend that purchased my first novel, Murphy’s Troubles, and told me it was the first book he read since high school, and he’s a successful retired insurance agent.  I joked with him that I was going to make him a character in my second book, Out of Darkness, and I did.
The point is, not to brag, but I feel I have some reading chops.  I have learned that becoming an author myself, my reading and appreciation for fiction, in particular, have changed dramatically.  I now view every book as a learning tool and I now analyze the craft or lack of it much more than I’ve ever done before.
One book group recently read The Marriage Plot by Jeffery Eugenides, a Pulitzer Prize Winner.  I waded through half the book and never could be empathetic or even care about any of the characters.  I researched Litlovers.com for reviews and an analysis, certain I was missing something.  I learned the theme of the book was about young folks and relationships.  What I read was about drifting college kids having sex as often as they could.  In terms of craft there are many passages that drift off into arcane detail that I found boring.  I gave it up.
The next selection was Richard Russo’s Straight Man.  I am a huge Russo fan and even had the chance to meet him at the Wisconsin Book Festival several years ago.  Straight Man is a 1998 book about a middle age college professor who has been the interim department head of an English department for a tiny college.  The book is touted as being very humorous.  William Henry Devereaux Jr.  is a “wisenheimer” that never quits.  I found the character exasperating after about 200 pages rather than funny.  Again, I couldn’t care less what happens to Devereaux.  Russo’s craft is exhilarating and I enjoy how he can manipulate a scene.  Russo is known for having loose plots and in Straight Man finding a plot is like finding a needle in a haystack.
So . . . reading for me has become more complex and I find my patience reduced to a minimum.  I feel ambiguous about this change, I don’t know if I’m a better reader now that I’m an author, or more of a snob.  I am certainly more analytical.  Many authors, including Stephen King, demand that anyone who wants to be an author must also be a voracious reader.  That makes sense and maybe the point is that by reading others, as an author, we learn.  I’m not sure.
What kind of reader are you?  Send me an e-mail at [email protected].