In this article I want to look at how, as writers, we can get the best out of reading in order to enhance our writing.
The reading process mirroring the writing process
In his masterpiece, Walden, Henry Thoreau wrote:
‘Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.’
When I first read Walden many years ago I took that line to mean that a book should be read slowly, literally one word at a time. And that is, perhaps, what Thoreau meant. Having now written a few books, my interpretation of this quote has, however, changed in light of what I laughingly call my writing process.
For instance, when I first read a Shakespeare play I know there are bits I don’t understand or fully appreciate the depth of, but I’m choosing for that not to matter – just as I know every word I write in a first draft is up for grabs in the editing stage. I’m just delighting in Shakespeare’s use of language knowing I am building
