Inspire your writing by reading
Read around your topic
How is everyone getting on during the lockdown?
Although you have time on your hands, you may find it hard to settle down each day and spend an hour or two writing.
In the most recent edition of the Sunday Times, Author Louise Doughty (Appletree Yard, which has been adapted for TV) gave some good advice in a list of 10 ‘rules for writing under lockdown’.
“Some days you will find it impossible to write. If so, use that hour to read: you have to learn the language of your novel…
“Read around your topic…
“The rules for writing under lockdown are no different to other times. It won’t happen unless you make it happen… it’s an exciting process, with all the glamour of an affair but with less chance of a divorce.”
So, what am I reading around my subject and how am I sourcing books to read?
Clearly Amazon and Kindle are the prime sources. But I also like Audible because it is both comforting and soothing to hear a book professionally read.
And if you ask Alexa ask to ‘read Harry Potter book one’, you can listen to Stephen Fry reading the whole book for free!
This is part of a free Audible programme, mainly aimed at young people and offers many more classics, such as Austen, Brontes, Chaucer, Kipling, Milton, Shakespeare, in 6 languages - https://stories.audible.com/discovery/
(Incidentally the UK campaign group Fair Tax Mark has recently condemned Amazon for paying only $3.4 billion in tax against revenues of $960 bn and profits of $27bn. However, there are alternatives to Amazon.)
Other sources for books include:-
Your local bookstore. In Winchester, where I live, I email my bookshop P&G Wells and they can usually get me a book within a couple of days, although sometimes it takes a week.
Waterstones.com is a UK chain which can also source books if you set up an account and order via email.
Libraries may have online loaning systems. Check your local council’s websites.
Other online sources include:
Wordery.com has 10million books, I think, with free delivery.
Hive.co.uk delivers books in the UK via the Royal Mail.
e.books.com is global and has books starting at 99 pence.
Currently, for my two book clubs I am reading The world according to Physics by Jim Al-Khalili and A gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. Both are exemplary in their own ways.
The first about Physics stretches my brain as it is like reading a book in another language, albeit clearly written. I find that listening on Audible AND reading Jim Al-Khalili helps me. Towles' delightful book adds up to an elegant tour de force for the reader.
I also have on the go Restless by William Boyd and This year you will write your novel by Walter Mosley.
Finally, other books on audible books I recommend include The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry; Himself by Jess Kidd; and two short memoirs by Deborah Levy (Things I don’t want to know and The cost of living, beautifully read by Juliet Stevenson).
Read on …