Writers Who Don't Read, and Other Mythological Creatures

Three mythological creatures I just don't buy.

Writers who don't read.

I'm critting a novel for a girl who says she doesn't like to read. I don't get that. At all. It's like she's trying to learn a foreign language, but refuses to listen to anyone who is fluent in it, or take a class, or read a textbook about conjugating verbs. In essence, she's trying to recreate a new language without checking to make sure she's pronouncing things correctly.

Why make life more difficult than it needs to be? A lot of the things she struggling with have answers she would get from reading the right book. I can't tell you how many times I found the answer to a problem from a book, or found the trigger that instigated a story out of a novel I'd just been reading.

But she says, she just not a "reader."

I think writing is like talking, and reading is like listening. Have you ever met anyone who liked to talk, but refused to listen. I sure have, and they're obnoxious. Don't be obnoxious. Read.

People who aren't "Readers"

My husband says he isn't a reader, but I emphatically disagree. I think he is a reader, he just hasn't found that one book yet, that book that sinks its teeth into him and won't let go. I know what book it was for me, Melanie and MaryAnn both posted about what book did it to them. Maybe he just hasn't found his book yet.

I just don't understand people who aren't readers. Yesterday, my husband and I were looking online at the new Ender's Game movie. When he saw the cast list on IMDb, he said to me, "Why are there so many kids in this movie? Are there a bunch of kids in Ender's Game?"

I just looked at him. I married you? I though briefly. We've been married eight and a half years, and in all of that time it never once crossed my mind that my husband hadn't read Ender's Game.

I'm going to try to make him read it, hopefully it'll be the book that inspires him, but no promises. He wants to wait for the movie.

A couple of months ago, I was returning one of my kids books to the library, and I had to pay for it, because it was damaged. I said to the librarian, "Oh no, I think we might have a Ramona moment." She looked at me, and I kid you not, she said, "Who's Ramona?"

I stood there, "Ramona Quimbly. Beverly Cleary. Beezus and Ramona?" Still no look of recognition crossed her face. "You're a librarian, and you don't know Ramona?"

It's obnoxious. Don't be obnoxious. Read.

People who like the Bachelor.

I've been told, (through words, and body language) that reading books is a neglect of duties to my family or my house, or that "I'd read too, if I didn't have so much to do," as if reading should be number one of time wasting diversions to avoid.

 As a person who is trying to write as a profession, reading is my education, my training, and my certification. Reading is not like watching The Bachelor.

I mean, come on. The Bachelor? Come on.  It's obnoxious. Don't be obnoxious.

Read.