Is Reading Work When You're a Writer?

Even when you're having a good time?

Summer’s here and I’m mostly goofing off before I begin some new projects (more on those later). Which means I’m doing tons of reading.

Now I always say that when you’re a writer you’re like a doctor (paging Dr. Chekhov), in that you’re always on call. You’re always on alert and taking notes on everything. In some ways you’re worse than a doctor, cause when you wake up you have to take notes on your dreams (paging Dr. Melfi).

This summer I’ve been reading some amazing books that take place just about everywhere from 1980s Korea to the New Jersey Asylum for Female Lunatics. But it’s hard to read without putting on my professional hat and thinking, “Hmm, this passage can be quite useful fo my next novel” or “How did she manage to pull that off?” Still, it’s easier to read stylish books like these without having a novel in progress, because you don’t end up sounding like an Oates or a Cunningham or a Kim or a Kwon when you get in front of your laptop.

The solution is obvious.