A confession...

Of all the advice dispensed to fledgling writers, one of the most frequently repeated is "Read, read, read!" And I can't argue with this at all. Being widely read is crucial for a writer.

I, however, have been slacking in that department. I can blame some of it on the fact that I left about 2,000 of my books in storage in the States, but really, it's laziness. I have an entire shelf of classics within arm's reach of my desk. All kinds of "been meaning to read" books. Now, I've read some of them, but others? No.

Bottom line: I haven't read anywhere near as much as I should in the last year or two.

I really, really need to get back into reading.

So, I'm following Scarlett's example and posting my 2010 Reading List. This will be one of the ongoing, constantly updated pages which are now conveniently located just below my banner at the top of the blog. At the moment, the list is woefully empty, because I haven't read anything yet for this year. Did I mention I've been slacking?

This list will likely be an eclectic mix of contemporary romance/erotica and...God only knows what else. I've just finished downloading about 300 book from Project Gutenberg, and many of those are classics that I've been meaning to read (plus a few I've been meaning to reread). Short stories will be included as well, but they'll be noted as such so my loyal blog minions don't think I'm trying to pad my numbers with a bunch of short crap.

Now that I've mentioned it on my blog and posted a list, it's as good as written in blood. I'm not yet sure what my goal will be for this year, but damn, I need to get cracking.

I wonder how fried my brain will be if I'm reading Tolstoy and Thoreau in between writing erotica...