Comments on: Writing Has Killed My Desire to Read

By: David Louis Edelman

David Louis Edelman — Sat, 21 Jan 2006 16:07:19 +0000

My one experience with Banana Yoshimoto wasn't a particularly good one, as my review of her book Lizard states.

I am, however, a big fan of Haruki Murakami. Maybe I'll try picking up his latest and see if that helps.

By: Bethanne

Bethanne — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 22:35:42 +0000

This isn’t from a writer’s standpoint, just from someone who likes to read. When I can’t get into any of the books in my to-be-read stack, I read something by a Japanese author. I find them by either looking up “banana” under author in amazon.com and checking the “pople who bought this also liked that” or looking under “Y” in fiction at the bookstore. A disproportionate number of the authors with a last name starting with Y are Asian. Banana Yoshimoto is a young Japanese writer, and apparently no one else has the name Banana.

Western books tend to be action oriented with internal changes as a secondary concern. The reverse is true of the Japanese books. Sometimes they barely even discuss what’s actually happening around the subject. You’ll have to read one to really understand. Yukio Mishima is a classic. Also, no one bothers to translate the crap, so the books are generally all pretty good.

By: David Louis Edelman

David Louis Edelman — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 02:01:30 +0000

I think you might be partly right, Michael. I do feel like I'm reading differently now that I've got a novel under my belt.

It's funny, but I never felt like I read for enjoyment. Oh, sure, the good books were enjoyable, but it always seemed like the purpose behind it was something different -- self-growth, discovery, enlightenment, I dunno. Maybe that's my problem.

Thanks for the compliment on the site! And you've still got six months to get through the To Be Read pile before my book comes out -- plenty of time!

By: Michael Jasper

Michael Jasper — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 17:31:30 +0000

I have the same exact problem.

I wonder if the reason you suddenly slowed down was that you jumped from reading "literary" fiction to reading the same genre in which you were writing -- SF and fantasy.

As a result, you're probably taking more mental notes as you read each word, saying "How'd he do that?" or "That was cool, I wanna try that!" or other such things.

That's what happened to me -- I stopped reading fiction for pleasure and started reading as a writer. For me, I just had to turn off the analytical part of my brain and read for enjoyment again. And hope that the cool writing techniques sink into my unconscious. Because a writer HAS to read.

Great site! I'll keep an eye out for your book (hopefully I'll get through my To Be Read pile before yours comes out!).