Writing post of the day: Virginia Woolf was right

Virginia Woolf was onto something when she said, "Read a thousand books and your words will flow like a river."

Writing fuels writing. By reading, our brain grows in general, filled with more more information than before. Our alacrity with words also grows by seeing how other people string their ideas and their words together.

Even reading a book with clunky writing can be useful. We see how writers bore their readers, overdecorate their prose, fail to ring genuine or make sense—or just plain sound awkward. In fact, I think the previous sentence fits that criterion.

If a writer is failing to read, for long periods of time, it's an alarm. Maybe they are too busy or are not making time for something important. It may be the sign you are in a depression or in the doldrums, because losing your enthusiasms is one of the first signs of a funk.

If this is true of you, I suggest you get excited about books again by being among them. Go to the library and, if possible, go to a beautiful library. In my region, the Central Library in the Los Angeles County Library system, located in downtown LA, is stunning. It's truly a temple of reading.

flickr photo by thegreatgeekmanual.libraries

The children's section is particularly wonderful, taking me back to the infancy of my love for books. Spending time there is the closest I get to being at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.




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