Read About It

There are two motives for reading a book: one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.
~Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970)

I got down to the library on Friday to pick up the next book in the series I've been reading since June 2003. After this one, I own the final 2 books in the series, making for a total (so far) of 19 books in one series. I've read 10 other books by the same author (must be my favorite, yes?) over the past 5 years. 6 were 2 trilogies, one was the first of another trilogy (I think --there maybe be more in a series, but I've never bothered to check) and the other 3 were standalone books (although one could easily be an 'aside' story to the 19-book series). I got the book on Friday and I'll be finished before bed tonight.

Why? First, it's a really good book and an easy read. Second, I have 2 to go and I've been dying to read them since I picked them up at a used bookstore last April.

Just as important to me, though, is that I've never been big on reading books because for the great majority of my life, I was buried in comic books. Granted, I still read those too. About 50 or so a week (that's about 1,000 pages of information), PLUS daily newspapers, PLUS internet chat messages, PLUS a half-dozen regular weblogs (and once a week I do a 'blogexplosion' too), AND to even the tide a bit --while I'm typing this I'm watching TV shows with my Windows Media Player.

How's that for information overload?

I've started reading Marvel comics form the 80s that I may have glanced over 20+ years ago and now I'm curious to see if there's anything appealing in them.

So what's with all the reading? Well, another book I've been reading off-and-on for a few years (it's filled with interviews and articles) discusses the different ways writers come up with their stories. And as I've mentioned here before, I am working on a story right now that so far consists of 1,000 pages (and I have managed to break that down into smaller 'books', so don't think I'm writing something heavier in weight than 'War and Peace'). But writers --get this-- get their ideas from other stories, real-life events and somehow mix them together into a formula for a story. One comic writer uses the same basic formula for everything he's written (and off the top of my head I'd say it's got to be somewhere above 25,000 pages), but still manages to submit work that's considered by many to be rather exciting stories!!

So, is this plagiarizing? No. Think of it this way: I read a non-fiction history book a few months ago and one sentence in that book set up the initial conflict I was struggling with in my story. One sentence. Now, this was a history book, so it's depicting an event that occurred some 700 years ago. It's given part of my story from a single sentence. Next up is the book I'm finishing today. In the foreword by the author (there is something to be said about picking up later editions of books), he explains how he had plans for his characters, but in introducing a supporting character in this story (and one about 4 books earlier), he had suddenly discovered that the direction he had for these characters was no longer the direction they were headed. What could be better?

So, from 2 newspaper articles about scientific results, one history book depicting a minor event 700 years ago , one major (local) news event in the closing days of the 20th century, one major international news event in the past 4 years and I'm suddenly overwhelmed with settings, characters and conflict.

Again, what could be better?