Stephen King makes a very good point about writing. To paraphrase: if you don’t find time for reading, you will find writing difficult. He recommends a diet of two to four hours of reading per day.

I concur resolutely with this advice. As simple and obvious as it appears, his guideline makes sense. Reading someone else’s words is a reminder that the business of turning sentences into stories is not rocket science. If one person writes a book, certainly a second can, and maybe the process is not so tricky. Books also confirm another fact. Rough drafts do find a home after completion.

My preferences are varied. Here’s a few books I enjoyed this summer:
1) On Writing – Stephen King
2) Master of the Senate – Robert Caro
3) Seven Steps on the Writer’s Path – Nancy Pickard and Lynn Lott
4) From Nobodies to Somebodies – Peter Han
5) Reading People – Jo-Ellan Dimitrius
6) October Dreams – edited by Richard Chizmar and Robert Morrish
7) The Devil Wears Prada – Lauren Weisberger
8) Logan’s Storm – Ken Wells
9) The Interview with a Vampire – Anne Rice
10) Power Broker – Robert Caro

The list is far from exhaustive. Of the rest, I either can’t recommend them, or consider them forgettable. Although in the case of Anne Rice’s Vampire Lestat, I wish I had a fireplace.

BTW, I shaved the mustache off yesterday. The furry caterpillar haunts my upper lip no more!