To Be a Great Writer . . .

You have to be a great reader.

Now, I've always been a great reader - seriously, that's not even a question in anyone-who-knows-me's mind. But a great writer? Debatable. Still, since I do enjoy writing and have every intention of pursuing it as a career, I've allowed myself to make sure that reading is a priority. I know, I know - a great sacrifice on my part. "But, Kiana, what do you read?" I'm sure you didn't ask.

The answer is that I will read just about anything. Literally. I might drag my feet if it's boring or dry, but of the hundreds of books that I've read (And that's a conservative numerative estimate, by the way), I've only ever left maybe thirty unfinished with no intention of ever completing them. (Though, I do admit that the number has climbed faster as I've grown older. I might have lost some of my stick-to-it-ness in adulthood, which is a sad thing to consider.) But that's not really helpful, is it.

Well, currently, my reading set up is like this: One book that pertains to my beliefs as a Christian, one book that helps me with relationships, one book that is informational, and one book that is fictional. And yes, that is all happening congruently. I love when a book is good enough to fully consume my every reading moment, but I've also always been a multiple-books-at-one-time person. I do also like to sprinkle in other types of reading here and there - like following some poets on Instagram, a fan fiction work when I find a good one, or blog posts and articles about subjects that tickle my fancy at any given time.

So when I say that I like reading, I really mean that I like reading! I will take any suggestion into account, from any source. Though, I have been a bit more selective in what I spend my time reading since my time is limited. I say that, but I've definitely always struggled to not let my time spent reading outweigh my time spent doing anything else. What can I say! It's my weakness. Anyway, if you have any book suggestions that fall under one of those categories, I'd love to hear from you!