In Today's News: Should Writers Be Readers?

Reading too much, my brother explained in his English-teacherly way, is a disaster for a writer. To immerse yourself in literature - particularly those of your contemporaries - makes your work derivative at worst, and unoriginal at best. To keep your voice pure, he suggested, you must retreat, Kasper Hauser-like, only to emerge later with a voice as clear as God intended. It was an argument that almost culminated in our first exchange of blows since 1994.


"Should Writers Be Readers?" by Stuart Evers. Guardian Unlimited. 25APR08.