YES!! Be varied! Hop across genres! Schedule your reading time as a part of your writing time! Even “terrible” books will help you develop your own voice by honing your critical eye.

Over the course of writing my own novel I read Tar Baby, In Our Time, The House of Seven Gables, A Map of the World, The Unauthorized Version, Tuesday’s With Morrie, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Winters Tale, Tender is the Night, The Constant Rabbit, Gone With The Wind, and one book that was so ill-conceived and poorly written I resolved to only share its name under torture, the influence, or at a bonfire with all known copies.

When I began the proofing/editing process for my own piece I realized how much I learned from this cross-section — and how much (or little) impact they had on my own style and decisions.

If you want to make art visit museums and galleries. If you want to make films watch films. If you want to write: READ!!!