Do authors really need to read to be any good?

I've always been a writer. I remember being four or five years old and stringing together a few letters to create words to create a poem. It must have been a formative moment in my life because I remember the poem.  I grew up eventually--not all the way--but I wanted to share my words.

When I finally had the courage to make my writing public, one single post about my glad tidings brought on an onslaught of advice.  There were a few words from friends embarking on the author journey, but most of it was from readers who were eager to tell me what not to do. One of them said something that has been reiterated SOOOO often that it really used to annoy me. This advice was "If you want to be a good author, you need to read." Seven times out of ten, this is said with a patronizing lilt and glasses pushed up the nose.

I thought I was going to fail. I am a pretty fast reader, but I don't like reading generally. In High School, I read all the classics so I could hold conversations with people. I know Pride and Prejudice VERY well, I actually developed a like of Hemingway, I loved to Kill a Mockingbird and The Secret Garden among many others. Honestly, (please no one egg my house) I only made it through the fourth Harry Potter, the first Twilight, the second Percy Jackson and never EVER finished Little Women. (I put it down when I realized the Beth--my particular favorite--wasn't going to make it to the end of the novel.)

The importance of reading was echoed by my mentors and good friends whose writing talent I admired, I tried so hard. But it came down to this: I had (have) five kids and I home school them. I literally had (have) two hours in the morning between 4:30am (if I can manage to get up that early) and 6:30am that I have guaranteed time to myself.  I also have worked out with my husband to have a couple hours a week. (Right now, I'm writing in the middle of the day due to glorious fluke when naps coincide with piano lessons.)

I didn't want to spend my time in someone else's world, I wanted to be building my own. Also: do I want other writers influencing my voice? Maybe people didn't think my voice was good enough on its own?

I really got down on myself.  I knew my writing was rough. I have a critique group to help keep me real. (They're brilliant, beautiful, and brutal.) And things just weren't clicking. I got to one of the many points in a writer's life when I thought. "Am I seriously any good? Why the heck am I investing so much energy and time and emotion if I'm not any good? If I don't care to read books, what business do I have writing them?"

Then my epiphany: I do read. Between the cracks of a scheduled day, I steal time. But I don't read classics. I read textbooks.  I love to research nutrition, psychology, child development, history, travel, war, art, cooking, current events, language, dictionaries. I'm currently enthralled by a somewhat dry book about handwriting.

I also find myself enjoying books that we read as a family. We've read The Secret Garden, A Christmas Carol, and Peter Pan  to name a few. 

The world was suddenly right again.

I do read.

It's not that writers have to read to be any good. I think we do read and then want to add to this creative community that inspires us.