I read because I write. Simply put, this means that I read to learn from other writers. In the past three years I’ve read more than 70 books. I always take a book with me wherever I go and use any waiting time to read. I may seem like a dinosaur in an age when most people spend their spare time on their cell phones or iPads—and I do read on my iPad—but it’s great to have a hard copy book in hand, too. A few books I’ve purchased as e-books have found their way into my home in hard copy as well. This allows me to refer to them often.
Last night as I read Alexandra Fuller’s Leaving Before the Rains Come, I learned that she had always wanted to write. When she was first married with young children, she arose at 4 a.m. daily and wrote nine novels that were not published. Fortunately, Fuller finally found her voice and began writing about what she knew. Her first memoir, Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, her tale of growing up in southern Africa, became a bestseller and firmly established her as a memoirist. Fuller’s second memoir, Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, went deeper into her parents’ lives and showed her great love for them and the land where she was raised. The book I’m currently reading describes her move from Africa to America after she married and then deals with her attempts to make the marriage work.
Each writer I read offers me new insight into life and inspires me to keep on writing. Like Fuller, I tried to fictionalize my life before finding my voice. After ghostwriting other people’s memoirs and biographies for many years, I began to write my own. The process took nearly 10 years, and I produced an award-winning tale, What Lies Within. I’m currently working on one of its sequels, What Took You So Long?, about finding my birth family in my mid-50s.
I continue to read and focus mostly on memoirs, but I also enjoy fiction, mystery, and humor. In the next few weeks I’ll share names of writers whose books line my shelves and what I’ve learned from each.