Writing = reading?

I may have mentioned previously that writing more has led to a side effect of reading more.  This remains true.  I've downloaded a bunch of books for my Kindle, many of them free, and enjoyed several.  I'll continue to review them, but for today I just wanted to mention that there seems to be a relationship between reading and writing that I hadn't recognized before. Y'know, beyond the obvious.

I used to read all the time, so much that I was going through books like a fiend.  In high school, it was not unusual for me to finish a book a week, and I was a regular patron of the town library.  Somewhere along the way, I lost that.  My reading habits atrophied to mostly just comics and then eventually just the occasional graphic novel.

In the last few months, I reversed that.  Of course, I'm still reading graphic novels - I just finished the collected edition of Greg Pak's "Planet Hulk" which was sadly disappointing - but I've read several novels and short story collections lately that I've quite enjoyed.  And I've found that reading has enhanced my enjoyment of writing and vice versa.

Last night I ended up writing and then reading before bed, and it was a very fulfilling experience.  I didn't get all that much done, but I felt the juices flowing.  I was on, y'know?  The words came easily, and then when I switched to reading - I'm in the middle of a fascinating novel called 'The Windup Girl' - even that just felt right.  The fact that the book is good helps a lot, I'm sure.

Current Soundtrack

"Need for Speed: The Run"
Brian Tyler