This past week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Hugh Howey, the bestselling author of Wool, on the Sell More Books Show. We touched on a ton of different subjects, but one of the most important was how writers can improve their craft. Howey said the best thing a writer can do to improve is to read as many books as possible.
I read a blog post a while back about the different kinds of readers. There are occasional readers who buy books once or twice a year, casual readers who will read a book if everybody else is doing it (i.e. Fault in Our Stars when the movie came out) and voracious readers who spend most of their entertainment budget on books. In middle school, I was in the voracious category, but over the years I’ve let myself slip into the occasional crowd. While I’ve read about 15-20 non-fiction books in the last couple of years, I’ve known for a while that I need to take Hugh’s advice and read more often.
One of my issues as of late has been a lack of time. Between my morning writing sessions, my afternoon freelancing and my early evening business work, finding the free time to read has been a struggle. While in transit and doing busy work, I’ve spent many hours listening to the latest self-publishing podcasts to gather tips for the Sell More Books Show. A recent decision to listen to the podcasts at double speed has freed up another 3-4 hours of listening time per week.
I’ve had an Amazon Audible subscription for over a year, which gives me the ability to download one audio book each month for a small fee. With the five credits I’ve built up from the last few months of not reading, I’ve decided to binge. Between my trial Kindle Unlimited subscription, the OverDrive library app and my audible membership, I’d like to begin reading at least a book a week to improve my writing skills and to start enjoying fiction again like I did in the old days.
How do you take your books? Some visual and some listening? All paper books and no Kindles? Let me know in the comments below.
Top Image: Flickr Creative Commons Old Book by Thalita Carvalho
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