As a writer this to me is maybe the toughest question I’ve ever been asked and yet I volunteered to answer it. I’m participating in the Blog-A-Licious Blog Tour 9 with many other authors who are answering the same question. I’ll list the other participants below for your continued adventure into which they would rather be – a writer or a reader.
Readers without writers are interpreting pictures while writers without readers must ponder why they write. But don’t we anyway? I sure so. I know that writing is what I do best, know it’s something I need to do to survive and often use it as an escape and comic relief but I often wonder why I keep doing it. It’s for me, of course, and always for my readers but still… with so many other higher paying professions that catch my interest I wonder.
When I pick up a good book, one I can’t put down even though life calls the book travels with me in case I get to read even just one more sentence – and even if I’m reading it again, I feel free. It’s such an easy way to escape the normal humdrums of existence and breath a sigh of relief that a friend isn’t a murdered or being murdered, that everything is solved in just 400 or so pages; just a few hours.
It’s the books that I struggle to get through, the ones I wonder why someone created a cover for or bothered printing from the computer that inspire me the most. The good books make me think “I can do this” while the terrible ones have me realize I bought the book (or someone did) and so someone will buy mine.
I don’t know what the others will say to this – that’s what makes a blog tour so much fun – but I really but believe I’d rather be a reader until my soul and heart scream out to put it down and bleed.
Thank you for this opportunity and thank you for reading,
Sarah Butland
And thank these bloggers for writing (this post is due to be posted before tomorrow):
1. Karen – http://www.karenvwasylowski.blogspot.com
2. Roy – http://royd-spiltmilk.blogspot.com/
3. Janu – http://janukulkarni.blogspot.com
4. Karen – http://www.britsunited.blogspot.com
5. Dora – http://peacefrompieces.blogspot.com/
6. Nat – http://readingromances.wordpress.com/
7. Deborah – http://deborahbatterman.com/
8. Sarah – http://sarahbutland.com/blog/
9. Sulekha – http://sulekkha.blogspot.com/
10. Dora – http://blogaliciousauthors.blogspot.com/
Well, Sarah, it is a bit of both. I have always read and I have always written. Oh none of my work has been published – YET. But you know what? It really does not matter (truthfully) to me whether my work is published or not. That is not the force that drives me to write. I write because I need to. I wrote when I was just a little girl – winning my first ‘award’ in grade 5 – they had a school district contest through CNIB – I think the subject was ‘what does your eyes mean to you’ or something like that. I actually won. I remember going to the CNIB office and getting a cheque (I truly do nto remember the amount) and getting a picture taken for the local paper. I remember writing in High School and having my guidance counsellor tell me I should become a writer – that the English Teacher would praise my work. I remember the teacher taking me aside and telling me I had a gift. I remember writing a parody of Paradise Lost.
But reading – read I did – from Jonathan Livingstone Seagull (I think my still favorite book ever) to other books that I have kept in my bookcase. There is also a shelf of books that I have picked up and never quite got around to finishing – if a book has not caught my attention and interest after the first 5 chapters (depending on the length of the chapters), then I simply close it and put it on that bookshelf. They usually end up going to the University Women’s Annual Book Sale in May.
What I read must be worth my time. And many books have transported me to places I have loved and many places I have hated but have been transfixed and transformed by both.
Writing is my ability to breathe. From the ‘Dear Diary’ entries, to writing letters by snail mail to lovers (before I was married), to letters to my husband, to letters to my son, to journalling when I was lost and confused, to now writing for the pure joy of it; I need to write. I cannot imagine not being able to write. It transforms me as much a good book does. It also transports me to another place just as a book can.
Which do I prefer – reading or Writing? The typical answer of ‘both’.
Nice to know your view. I know the feeling when reading a interesting book, you don’t feel like putting even if your house is burning down.
Hi Sarah! I think all the time about how freeing it must be to just be a reader – to get all the pleasure of losing yourself in someone else’s work without constantly agonizing over your own – but I don’t think my mind and soul would ever allow me to “clock out” and quit writing. 🙂
To be a good writer, one must be a good reader first – yes? As a writer and writing instructor, I tell my students to read good lit – and a little bad as well to build the confidence and realize, hey, I can beat THAT any old day!