The General Writing Advice Thread!

[JLT]

That sounds like a book worth checking out. My library has it only in audiobook form, but I'll keep my eye open for used copies ($24 sounds like rather a lot for a Kindle edition, I must say).

My dad used to read three books a week, mostly non-fiction. But I'm sure he read them analytically, since his job in the CIA involved him reading a variety of things to get a broad picture of whatever the agency was interested in. My brother and I picked up the habit, although my sister never did.

For me, the effect of a good book can be summed up thusly: it provides you with a world you can immerse yourself in, to the point where you regret having to leave that world after the last page. And good non-fiction is subject to the same standard.

I just finished reading a book on fire-fighting and fire control by Jordan Thomas called When It All Burns: Fighting Fire in a Transformed World, His research on the subject included spending a season as a member of the Forest Service's crack firefighting teams. He links his experiences with discussions on climate change and alternate methods of controlling fires that had been used by Native Americans for centuries. I was pleasantly surprised by his ability to put you right at the scene.

 

[Louanne Learning]

Years and years ago, we were talking about our ideas of heaven, and my mom and I had the same response: Our idea of heaven would be a library with all the books we would ever want to read!

 

[Homer Potvin]

With syntopical reading, the reader engages with multiple books on the same subject, compares ideas, and forms independent judgment - building your own framework rather than adopting someone else’s.

Not sure if this is what the author was talking about, but when I got my history degree a million years ago, step one was always mining the historiography, or the history of the history. Read every single thing ever written about a particular area to distill the common questions, answers, and analytical models. Easier said than done. I think I read at least 100 books on Nazism and that was probably .01% of the historiography.

 

[DLC]

There's books on how to read books?

 

[Tallyfire]

There's books on how to read books?

I feel like I must have drifted into the same thread of inspiration today because I was researching precisely this topic in the morning. I settled on How To Read Literature Like A Professor as a book to pick up sometime in the future.

 

[Rigor Mortis]

If this was the "First thing that comes to your head" thread, my response would be "sex life of a gynaecologist" but it isn't so it's not.

 

[Louanne Learning]

There's books on how to read books?

there's books on every single thing under the sun!

 

[defaux]

There's books on how to read books?

And now I must ask, are there books on how to read those books?

the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.”

This is a truth I have only recently come to appreciate. I used to try to read "more". I had authors and genres I enjoyed casually, and would pick up whatever was on the new or popular shelf at the library.

When I decided to take seriously my attempt at writing my novel, I knew I didn't have the knowledge to do so. I started researching other works in similar style and genre, and built a reading list. I have since become much more intentional with my reading time, and have discovered a swath of books that I love, and that touch me deeply. They are often authors or genres I would not have considered previously, but it seems I am drawn to them unexpectedly, and they now have a manifest influence in my work.

 

[Set2Stun]

I also studied history, and historiography blew my mind. What I learned from that class is always in the back of my mind when I am reading non-fiction.

Wanted to add that I agree, reading a lot is one of the most important ways to prepare to be a writer. Read enough books, and writing can just become second nature - no study of theory necessary.

 

[Rath Darkblade]

There's books on how to read books?

there's books on every single thing under the sun!

I wouldn't be surprised if there was Reading for Dummies, although reading a book in order to learn how to read a book sounds ... counter-intuitive.

I haven't been able to find Reading for Dummies, but there's a book called Speed Reading for Dummies ... that tries to teach people to "increase your reading speed and comprehension." *shrug* Surely that comes from reading more books, more often. Though, to be fair, I suppose that book is aimed at people who are just beginning to read.

Wanted to add that I agree, reading a lot is one of the most important ways to prepare to be a writer. Read enough books, and writing can just become second nature - no study of theory necessary.

Yes, but the question is: how many books is "enough"? Of course, that is unanswerable ... which is how people become bibliophiles.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

There's books on how to read books?

My favorite is How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines. By Thomas C. Foster. I've read it a couple of times. It really is entertaining.

 

[DLC]

I was just re-reading this because reasons.

The Wind in the Willows | Project Gutenberg

www.gutenberg.org

you don't see kids books like that anymore