First You Read, Then You Write

Before I ever thought about writing a book, I first fell in love with reading.

My Story

With a librarian mother and a sf fan and now writer as a father, it was probably inevitable that I would grow up to love books. Some kids rebel while others struggle to learn to read, and I don’t blame them. For me, though? I’ve always loved them — especially fantasy.

My first time at a zoo, I didn’t know what a horse was, so I was convinced I was seeing unicorns! I devoured piles upon piles of books and filled blank books with fairy tales. I had a pen name picked out by 4th grade.

I also got caught reading 3 different books during the same lesson by that same teacher — although the 3rd one was probably more for the humor of the situation. I got sentenced to clean out my desk and locker — I ended up returning 7 books to the library that day.

I carried giant hardbound books, containing trilogies, to school — where I broke the spine after rereading it too many times. (I eventually replaced that copy of my mom’s Last Herald Mage Trilogy).

Once I hit college, I read less, socialized more, and had all that school work, of course. After graduation, I started reading again.

When I started writing, I stopped reading. I was trying to make my own words and that consumed my downtime. But, after a couple years of that, I found my way back to books.

I go through different phases. Some months, I’m more into the writing or watching tiktoks, and others, I’m more into reading. Part of why NaNoWriMo was so hard on me this year was because I’ve never had a reading binge hit during NaNoWriMo before.

Why I read

I love new worlds and new characters, I love reading about people struggling to achieve their goals, and then realizing what they end up with was even better than they’d hoped for. I love rereading favorite books, like revisiting old friends and getting to see them become the people they were always meant to be — again and again.

I also escape into books. They distract me when I’m stressed, they give me that dopamine fix, and with most books following the standard 3-act structure, my brain knows the patterns and the expectations. They can be comfort food, midnight snacks, or exciting new cuisine.

Some writers (and teachers) struggle to read for fun. Their editor brain kicks in, or they start analyzing the language and they struggle to enjoy the story.

Me? I know I’m lucky. I can choose to slow down and pay attention to how a story is written, but my love of reading comes from wanting to know the characters, and an irresistible urge to know what happens next.

I hope that my joy of reading never ends, and that turning on my analytical side always takes more effort than letting my wonder pull me through the story.

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Do you love to read? When did you first start?
Have you fallen away from your love of books?
What are your favorite things to read?