You’ve all heard it before – the advice that to be a good writer, you have to read a lot. I’ve always wondered why this piece of advice ever needs to be spoken, because I can’t imagine that anyone could consider writing if they didn’t love to read, but apparently it happens more often than you think.

In any case, if the measure of a good writer is how much they love to read, I’ve surely got a lot of potential. Sometimes I forget that books play a less important role in other people’s lives. Can you imagine – most people I know here in Perth aren’t even members of the local public library! I can hardly believe it. The only problem I have with reading is it takes up a lot of time and sometimes, that is time when I should be doing something else, like writing, or cleaning the house.

How I noticed how much I love reading novels

But this post is about a very specific reading incident that I want to remember. As usual, I’ve been voraciously making book reservations through my local library for some of the newer books (sorry writers, I just can’t afford to buy them all). My wish list for reading comes from a variety of places, including works from writers coming to the Perth Writers Festival next year and books I hear about on Ramona Koval’s Book Show podcasts.

Right now there are quite a few books I’m really keen to read, and I had placed a reservation through my local library website for a few that were popular with others too – I was some way down the list of eagerly waiting readers. In the last couple of days I got the usual emails from the library and then read that two books I’m dying to read have turned up for me and are now sitting on a shelf with my name sticking out on a piece of paper, ready for me to pick up. And I was like a kid at Christmas – I had a grin on my face for an hour just knowing that these books are there for me!

Yep, I was more than a little surprised, but I guess I shouldn’t be. I’ve always been a total bookworm. Anyway, I’m off to the library this morning to finally pick up these books.

If you’re wondering, the first is Helen Garner’s The Spare Room. I heard an interview on the Book Show with Helen Garner and she’s an Australian writer whose career has always interested me. She read from (I think) the opening chapter during the interview and it really captured me, and I’ve been eager to read it ever since.

And the second is Christos Tsiolkas’s The Slap (which curiously isn’t available through Amazon, although it’s published by Allen & Unwin?) and after hearing about it somewhere – possibly on the Book Show too – and then seeing it in the shops, the premise of the story has made me need to read it. Apparently it centres on just one incident – a man at a barbecue slaps a child who is not his own – and the idea that such a simple act can create an entire novel is fascinating to me. Tsiolkas wrote the book (Loaded) which became the Aussie movie Head On about ten years ago, a film that really left an impression on me, and I’m hoping The Slap does the same.

An aspiring novelist’s daydream

One day, I dream that someone, somewhere will get so excited when they know they’re about to read my book. That would really be something. I guess I’d better do a bit more writing rather than reading to make sure it’s even vaguely possible.

While we’re dreaming – are there any books that you are dying to read, or dying to recommend? Please tell me about them in the comments. You don’t have to go as loopy as I do though to qualify as “dying to read”. Just a confirmed desire is enough!