Writers write for many reasons. Therapy. Self-realization. Compulsion. Etc.
But professional writers, those who are published with regularity, find an intersection between why they write and why their readers read. Sure, sometimes that intersection is at the corner of “I’m brilliant” and “Everyone loves everything I write.” But more often, we start not with our own need to express ourselves but with our reader’s already-felt need for … something.
Which led me to the following poem, in which I brainstorm the reasons I read, launching with a line from Shakespeare (maybe you’ve heard of him, even read him) and going where, well, I hope you’ll see. It’s called …
Why I Read
To know what otherwise I would not know,
To go where otherwise I may not go;
To feel, to learn, to grow, to see,
Become what otherwise I could not be;
Remember, reminisce, repent,
Restore a bit of what I’ve spent,
Recapture what I miss and, too,
Envision what I’d like to do;
Escape, sometimes, and heal my mind,
Revive my soul, explore, refine,
Solve problems or just plant a seed,
That and more is why I read.
That’s my story, and I’m sticking with it. So, how about you? Why do you read? And do your reasons in any way inform what and how you write?
Your Character’s Key Words
I read to shape an inner land
with values in the firmament
of heart-sky I can understand,
and write from, with a pure intent
to pass along what truly matters
when the worst of storms has broken,
leaving temp’ral dreams in tatters,
but holding still my soul bespoken
to that stalwart other place
where honour reigns, no need to weep,
where every day it showers grace,
and my tower-watchmen keep
determined watch through day and night
to keep me true in what I write.
One of your best, among many, Andrew.
Bob, I am so honoured.
Bob, I read because it is something I have loved since I was a little girl. I remember walking three miles with my mother, to go to the library in town. We only had one car and Dad needed it for work, so she would walk me to the library once a week. I could check out as many books as I could carry home (this was before the days of backpacks). My eyes were always bigger than my strength, but Mom did everything she could to encourage me to read, so she ended up with her arms full of books, by the time we got home, as I transferred the weighty tomes, one by one, into her arms and out of mine. (Dad drove us back to the library, to drop the books off, on Sunday after we ate out for Sunday dinner after church.) To this day, I love reading and literally read everything that is within reach, if it is appropriate for a Christian. That love came in handy when I was working on my Ph.D. because one of my classes had 11 textbooks……
I LOVE the poem! And I’ll add that a good book always makes me a better person.
Beautiful!
I read to grow, to learn, as a person and as a writer. I now know from experience the time, research, and effort an author pours into his published work, and this causes me to enter each reading session with awe and respect.
Reading now not only shapes me in positive ways but teaches me what not to do.
Thank you for the reminder to write for the needs of the readers. It has taken a long time to get beyond my need to write and give my gifts to the readers. God has worked this type of deep caring in me at last.
I love your poem. It captures the many and varied reasons I read, as well. Reading has been such a blessing in my life. It is the reason, when I earned a mid-life teaching degree, that I chose to teach middle school and high school Reading/Language Arts
Thanks for reminding me of the joy!
I recently noticed a new benefit of reading, specifically Christian fantasy. I was at a worship service and a beautiful thought picture from Kara Swanson’s Shadow filled my mind. It gave me a new outlook on reading (and writing) as a way to stock up on mental imagery that is powerful, victorious, and worshipful.
Bob and Andrew, your poems are beautiful. Does reading inform my writing? Absolutely it does. I became a writer simply because I liked to read so much. When I was a child, I thought that the coolest thing anyone could do would be to write a book, but I didn’t think that it would be me because I exceled at math. So I taught math for 25 years and am now off on a tangent of writing. God is good.
I read to learn facts, experience emotions foreign to me, and to take clever sentences for my own use.
Your poetry is beautiful and spoke to me on a profound level.
Why do I read? I read because I breathe.
I am; therefore, I read. Or something like that. Sounds like a quote I read in one of many tangents of reading.
Seriously, I love the thrill of the cadence of words when reading. I love temporarily living in another’s shoes. I love reading that stirs deep thoughts and emotions. I read to learn perspectives I never considered. There are so many reasons for reading. And best of all, it’s free!
I recently read the screenplay for “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” and it was riveting, which inspired me to buy a collection of Tolkien’s Hobbit and LOTR novels for comparison. Comparing a screenplay to the novel or memoir is an excellent practice for learning to write cinematically, which I hope to do. Films have to be pared down, to fit into a two-hour span, so description, dialogue, and other elements are concise, to get to the heart of the story. (There are often many versions of screenplays, so I try to find the final production version. In this case, ScriptLab had it for free online.)
Enjoyed it so much. Love to read, am learning to love to write. thanks for the lovely poem.
Hi, I read because I’m a curious old bitch that needs to be entertained on many, many levels! I LOVE BOOKS! My favorite store is The Library of Congress. Their merchandise is classy and to the point!
It’s all about the books, baby!!!
I read for pure enjoyment. Recently, I have started to write for pure enjoyment.
Next, I’ll see where this takes me.
Thanks for the poem. It says it perfectly to me.
I read the Bible wanting to capture the lives of the characters so that Scripture comes alive. I write about Bible characters to help readers see them as the real people they were. I read to see how good fiction writers bring a story to life. I write hoping to do the same.