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I just got back from a vacation in Puerto Rico. I live in Oregon, so it was a significant change for me, and it’s taking some effort to get back into my day-to-day routine now that I’m home.
During my vacation, I took Stephen King’s advice to heart:
“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.”
Since I believe that whole-heartedly (and because I haven’t had a lot of free time to read lately) I took a break from writing during my vacation and focused on reading.
So here’s a short post about my current reading habits as a way to dive back into blogging after my vacation.
I read books in three different ways:
Immediate buys—the books I buy as soon as they come out, without even thinking about it— are authors who have been writing for decades.
These are people like Mercedes Lackey, Laurell K. Hamilton, Patricia Briggs, Anne Bishop, Janet Evanovich, J.D. Robb, C. J. Cherryh, Tanya Huff, Gini Koch, Seanan McGuire, Michelle Sagara, Tamora Pierce, or Jim Butcher (the one male author on my list).
Buying books by newer authors like Leigh Bardugo, Tomi Adeyemi, or Sarah J. Maas is less common, but I do it sometimes when I notice the book on a shelf or someone recommends it.
I don’t always buy a hard copy of these; sometimes I borrow them from the library.
On my Kindle, I read a lot of random romance and cozy mysteries. I don’t follow particular authors, though. Instead, I just read whatever is popular on Kindle Unlimited.
If you don’t have Kindle Unlimited, I really recommend it! You can sign up for a free trial at this link.
And then there are all the indie authors whom I’ve met over social media or people have recommended! I have a mile-long list that I’ll never catch up on.
One statistic I read said that “700,000 to 1,000,000 new book titles appear every year.” (This is the cool article where I read that. The other statistics there are interesting, too. Check it out!)
Reading all the new books is impossible, but I have more than a little FOMO around amazing books falling through the cracks.
During my vacation, I read almost thirty books. (That was LOTS of time lounging on the beach with my Kindle!)
Since it was a vacation, I only chose books that were light and fun—no writing-craft books, nonfiction, or classics.
Over the past year, I’ve been trying to remember to track my reading on Goodreads. Have you ever used Goodreads? If you are interested in finding out what I read during my vacation, here’s my Goodreads link; let’s be friends!
If you have a book recommendation for me, I’d love to hear about your favorite books in the comments!
Fourth and last (for now!) in our series of book reviews featuring Kindle Unlimited books that explain ways to outline a novel. Let’s get ready for NaNoWriMo!
Third in our series of book reviews featuring Kindle Unlimited books that explain ways to outline a novel. Let’s get ready for NaNoWriMo!
Second in our series of book reviews featuring Kindle Unlimited books that explain ways to outline a novel. Let’s get ready for NaNoWriMo!
I help authors, researchers, business people, students, and web marketers to polish their writing before they send it out into the world.
