The Guinea Pig Report: Reading As A Writer, Part 1
Becoming A Writer, Chapter Nine: The First Reading
While on the subject of corrective reading, Dorothea Brande exhorts us to learn to read like a writer. Farewell to innocence, says she, and the days of reading for careless enjoyment. The writer must aspire to a more sophisticated pleasure in his or her reading, that of being able to identify precisely why a book is so enjoyable.
Until you become skilled at this, the recommendation is to read everything twice.
The first reading is not entirely unlike what you may already be doing. Just read. Enjoy the book, or not, as your tastes dictate. But when you come to THE END, don’t just put the book away and reach for another one. Spend some time thinking about why you liked or disliked the book.
Go on to enlarge on these flat statements. If you liked it, why did you? […] If part of it seemed good to you and the rest weak, see whether you are able to tell when the author lost your assent. Were the characters drawn with uniform skill, badly drawn, or inconsistent only occasionally? Do you know why you felt this?
Do any of the scenes stand out in your mind? Because they were well done, or because an opportunity was so stupidly missed? Remember any passage which arrested your attention for any reason….
By this time you know some of your own weaknesses. How does the author you have just read handle situations which would be difficult for you?
—p. 101
I find that writing out my responses here forces me to think in specifics, rather than mentally skim the topic the sooner to put it from my mind. I highly recommend it as a learning technique. It is by no means wasted writing. Today we have an outlet for book reviews that Brande did not: online bookstores such as Amazon.com. After analyzing your first read-through, go look up the book online and paste in what you’ve written. These are words you can stand by, after all, and others may well benefit from your review.