We are always admonished by teachers, conference speakers, writers' magazines to READ, READ, READ.  I confess that, in normal times, when I'm not trying to recover my energy after surgery, my first inclination as soon as the morning coffee is made is to get to the computer and write or re-write, edit, compose, research new markets.

Recently with enough energy to hold a book or magazine in front of me, but not enough to sit at my desk to dig into my files in the computer or the file drawer, I have been reading more.  With the hope of making that reading more profitable than simply entertainment, I keep a pen and list-paper handy. 

The most recent book I've just finished is a Sydney Sheldon who-done-it novel with a completely implausible plot, but highly entertaining and with his usual excellent writing.  In reading this novel, I have made a list of words that he uses that I do not use.  They are ordinary words whose meanings I do know, but I just don't use them in my writing.  Here are a few: eclectic, taciturn, impassive, seedy, loath, malicious, entrust, squat. . .  

This further proves the value of reading.  Besides gaining instruction in word usage, plot, character development, voice, point of view –no matter whether it is fiction or nonfiction–adding words to my working vocabulary reminds me that lots of reading makes good use of the time I am not writing. Until tomorrow, Willma