The Brooks

Doug Wilson on reading and writing

“Read. Read constantly. Read the kind of stuff you wish you could write. Read until your brain creaks. Tolkein said that his ideas sprang up from the lead mold of his mind. These are the trees where the leaves come from.”

• Need to be voracious readers. Output requires intake and literary output requires literay intake.
• Read like a reader and not someone cramming for a test. If you try to wring every book out like it was a washcloth full of info, all you will do is slow down to a useless pace. Go for total tonnage and read like someone who will forget most of it … you will forget most of it. Most of what is shaping you in the course of your reading, you will not be able to remember … the fact that you can’t remember things doesn’t mean you haven’t been shaped by them.
• Mark everything striking that you read. You need to remember some things and you need a way to find what you’ve read.
• Pace yourself – a bit everyday.
• Read boring books on writing.

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