FOLLOW FRIDAY: MY RETURN

It's been so long since I participated in Parajunkee's Follow Friday! I love this week's question, which is basically, "How have your reading habits changed since you were a teen?"

To answer, I'm counting college as part of my teen years...after all, I was a lit major when I was 18-19 years old.

College taught me how to read with a pencil. To scour the books, underlining, making constant notes in the margins as I searched for potential test material or quotes for term papers. When I got out of school, finally, as a 24-year-old with a newly-minted master's degree, I still read with a pencil, looking to find out how successful, published authors got their stories on the page (I had to learn to write all over again following graduation; I sincerely believe there's a difference between academic fiction and mainstream / trade publishing fiction, but that's a post for another day).

Bloggers, though? Bloggers read with their gut. Bloggers respond to books on an emotional level, not just an intellectual level. They view characters as people they either connect with, want to befriend, or punch in the face.

I can't turn off the writer in me; I can't completely silence the margin-note-taker. But more and more, I find myself letting my emotions come into play now when I read, too...And that's definitely allowing me to continue to grow as a writer...

New followers, post comments below so I can head straight over to your own blogs!