A Good Read

Ever since recording an edition of the BBC Radio 4 programme A Good Read, I’ve been spotting books on my shelves and thinking – that’s another book I could have recommended. This morning, for example, my glance fell on Death Comes to the Archbishop by Willa Cather – which is definitely on my list of good reads. 

I read whenever I have time. If I have settled down to writing a novel, I read poetry, biography, history or a classic I almost know by heart, such as Persuasion, or Pride and Prejudice, or The Good Soldier, or The Quiet American (another book to add to my list of Good Reads) because I don’t want to be distracted from the story in my own imagination. When I’m jotting down ideas, thinking about plot, not yet ready to embark on writing a book, I read new fiction. 

At the moment, I’m thinking about my next book. The plot isn’t developed in my head. I have only the germ of an idea which is just beginning to sprout. I sit down at my desk each morning, hoping that Mr Inspiration will see that I’m there and will turn up, as Stephen King promises, “chomping his cigar and making his magic.” I’ve taken down from the shelf in my study 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel by Jane Smiley. When she was in need of inspiration, she read 100 novels. The book is her subsequent reflections on the pleasures of reading, on writing and on what works and doesn’t work in the novel. I hope it inspires me.