Indiscriminate reading is not recommended for authors
By getbiswa2000
@getbiswa2000 (5544)
India
August 23, 2010 7:55am CST
Hello,
There are readers who read everything that they find readable. We call them voracious readers. These readers often choose their reading material indiscriminately. As long as they don't have any definite purpose to achieve, this goes okay. However if you are an author, it is highly unlikely that you will read without an objective. An author knows fully well that he can't read all those books even if he wants to. At this point he makes a conscious choice. He picks up only those that are in conformity with his purpose. The article http://www.bukisa.com/articles/341153_the-importance-of-selective-reading discusses important aspects of selective reading. We have a limited lifetime, so there is really no time to waste. We will also reserve our energy to make the best use of it.
[b]Do you think we, the writers, should be selective in our reading as suggested in the article?
[/b]
Thanks in advance for your participation.
God bless you
2 people like this
11 responses
@Angelwriter (1954)
• United States
23 Aug 10
No, I don't agree. I'm sure it is a good thing for authors to read in their own genre to see what works what doesn't and all that. But, to limit yourself to just that narrows your perspective. Not to mention it's another way of turning reading into a chore rather than a pleasure. I don't think anyone should be required to read everything. It's okay to have preferences and even to dislike types of books and make the choice not to read certain books. But, I don't think authors should be required to read a limited selection of books. An author should be able to pick up a book and read for no other purpose than they want to be entertained and that book will do it. An author should be able to read a book with no thought of how that particular book will benefit them as writers. Everyone who reads should, among all the other benefits that reading can give, be able to read a book with no other goal than pure pleasure in the book.
1 person likes this
@Angelwriter (1954)
• United States
23 Aug 10
I skimmed through the article out of curiosity. I may give it a thorough going over later. But, from what I gathered, you're talking about reading done for research. That when an author is writing a book and wants to gather information, they should stick to what will provide them with the information they need. Yes and no. For the most part, sure. If you're doing research than you should seek out material that will help. And if you know something won't, than you can skip it. Although even with research, I don't think it hurts to take some slight detours. You may even broaden your perspective or find a new angle for an article or story.
However, what's written here and in the article (at least from my perusal so maybe you clarified) seems to treat all reading as research. Or that all reading should be done for that reason. And that any reading that doesn't directly benefit you as an author is a waste. Even reading that's not being done as an author, but as a reader. That I disagree with.
@Catana (735)
• United States
23 Aug 10
I didn't read the article because it's almost certainly your own and I kind of dislike attempts to use Mylot to boost paying views to other sites. With that out of the way, I partly agree, but we don't spend our lives doing only what is most practical or useful. If you consider everything that doesn't enhance your ability to make money, write, or whatever, just a waste of time, then you're going to live a very narrow life. There are times when I read just to relax or even to fill time when I'm not in a mood to write. And there's no telling when indiscriminate reading will offer something worthwhile and completely unexpected.
1 person likes this
@getbiswa2000 (5544)
• India
23 Aug 10
Hi,
This is exactly why I attached the link with my discussion. I didn't attached it because I wanted to earn from it, but to include everything that I couldn't say in the limited space of my discussion. You should have read the article. I am not opposed to reading as a whole, but it is the indiscriminate use of the word that I intend to renounce. As because you've not yet read the article, I expect that you are still unaware of the process that I described as selective learning. In the selective learning process you check and recheck a certain composition before putting your utmost endeavor in it. For example, once I launched a search on humorous stories. The first result that I got was a page full of incest jokes. I didn't read it, yet I know what it was about. I just skimmed through the page as if looking for something. Then when I found nothing worthwhile, I closed it immediately. This is like a market survey before making an investment. There are other more devastating things than financial loss. Earning money is not my only aim, so you really don't need to waste your precious time rebuking me on that. Thanks so much for your thoughtful response.
God bless you
@rogue13xmen13 (14402)
• United States
23 Aug 10
I think that people should read whatever they are comfortable reading, and I don't think that others have the right to judge what people can and can't read.
I can tell millions of girls not to read "Twilight", but they are going to read it anyway because who am I to tell them what to read?
I don't think that we have to be selective, I think that we should read what we feel comfortable reading.
@getbiswa2000 (5544)
• India
24 Aug 10
I didn't say anything about being selective about what others are reading. Isn't choosing something comfortable is a conscious selection itself?
1 person likes this
@sudiptacallingu (10879)
• India
24 Aug 10
I’m a voracious reader but never a choosy one. Reading books is my passion, its for my own enjoyment and as far as enjoyment is concerned, the more aimless it is, the better I feel. As it is, throughout the day, we do all our work with some definite purpose in mind…no task is frivolous and carefree. At least in my leisure time when I sit down to some personal enjoyment, I want to read whatever catches my fancy. It can be kids books, romance, adventure, detective, ghost, politics, women’s issue….whatever, it just has to be written well for me to enjoy it.
I don’t believe in browsing with a pre-determined robotic mindset…I believe that the world of books and mags hold unending treasures for our appreciation, we must take risks to unearth them and enrich ourselves in the process.
@marguicha (223795)
• Chile
23 Aug 10
I am a writer in my native language and have bee a voracious reader at times. At others, I select my readings according to my needs. I usually read lighter books when on vacations or when I´m stressed. Once a student asked me at a workshop which one was the best short story ever written. I laughed to myself. Everyone has one and it depends on the day and the mood.
But I do tend to get bored with badly written books. I tend to look at the mistakes instead of getting involved in the argument. The characters there are also poorly showed. So I´d rather reread a book book if I´m not in the mood for a new one.
Have a nice day!
@getbiswa2000 (5544)
• India
24 Aug 10
That sounds like a real writer all right. Sometimes we make the choice quite unknowingly. A practiced author with his keen sense will automatically distinguish good stuffs from bad stuffs. Sometimes you don't even need to go through the details. We shouldn't indulged ourselves in reading something that will potentially debase our tastes or capacity neither as writers nor as human beings. We really need to be selective.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
25 Aug 10
I don't think that it is necessary to be a discriminate reader. I've been a writer for almost as long as I've been a reader, and I've never thought that it was necessary to discriminate about what I choose to read. The reason that I feel this way is because I think it is necessary to read both for purpose and also just because I enjoy it. If I am reading in my free time, I really don't hope to achieve anything from the time that I spend reading.
@vijayanths (7877)
• India
23 Aug 10
I always want to read articles that are easy to read, scope to learn something useful to life and interesting. Sometimes I read articles just for fun but that's rare nowadays.I would say I read articles that I think are useful to me. How about you biswa?
@mensab (4200)
• Philippines
23 Aug 10
reading is a habit for an author. it is like eating, one has favorites, but s/he likes to try other food to enrich and inform his/her taste buds. if one is an author, s/he has to read also other stuff to expand his horizon. s/he does not have to stop from his/her interests. the interconnectedness of fields and disciplines press an author to be a voracious read, as you say.
@JudithP (295)
• Canada
23 Aug 10
For me reading is mostly for entertainment. The one chance I get to sit back, relax and run away to another world. I agree that our time here is limited and I do try to fill each day with productive choices but my books are pure fantasy and are chosen for R&R. (Rest and Relaxation).
@saphrina (31551)
• South Africa
23 Aug 10
I don't think so ,sweetie.
Even an author need to know what others think.
What better way than reading almost anything they can lay their hands on, don't you think?
Reading and writing is suppose to be a pleasure to do, not a punishment.
TATA.
@ania66 (78)
• Philippines
24 Aug 10
I don't think so. Reading discriminate or indiscriminate adds up to ones knowledge and knowledge should not be contained or limited to a particular topic or issue alone. Life is full of diversity; therefore, you can't help but to "have" a bit of everything. Most importantly, a writer is the authority of his or her writings and that he or she is bound for the intricacy or validity of his or her writings. Read and Write! :)
