I write daily. Does that make me a better writer? Wrong. When I started freelance writing, I thought I found the right job. I wanted to be a writer all my life. So I got into copywriting. I write copies for ad pages. I write marketing collaterals. I write scripts for commercials. And takes pretty much all the freelance writing opportunities I can handle. I thought I was good because I was writing more and more. But it had been hard. It had been awful. It is true that love sometimes is not enough.
In football, we often hear (aside from “I thank God and my teammates”) that it is the extended hours of practice that make players good. It is hard work in the practice gym that makes players good in their game. In writing that is pretty much the case. Writers can’t just write. They have to prepare. And writers prepare by reading, not writing.
I had been a book worm. I love Twain, Mencken, and all those gray-headed men of literature. But I lost it when I started freelance writing. Because of deadlines and grownup stuffs, I lost time for private reading.
But I write for a living. To be caught unprepared is like to risk getting sacked hard in a football game because you are not at the top of your game from not practicing with the team. That would be unprofessional. That would be dangerous. That would be wrong.
So every writer has to prepare for game time. He has to read. He has to be ready. If like me you are always short-strapped for time to squeeze in reading in your daily routine, here’s a list of useful sites for book lovers.
In this day and age of Web 2.0 these book sites are not just a place where you can read synopsis (in some sites you can even download the whole book in PDF format), reviews, and know what other writers think of the book. You can likewise find recommendations from books you generally like, which is pretty much like discovering a new author you have probable never heard of. You can find the list of books sites here.
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