Writers who don't read

Another blog I've been following is fantasy author Glenda Larke's:

http://glendalarke.blogspot.com/

In today's post, she addresses a (presumably fairly recent) phenomenon of people who want to be writers, but who don't read. Glenda says many wise things in response, but the one thing I'd like to add is that I don't think people who don't read can be good writers.

Maybe these people love stories (presumably visual ones from TV and the film industry, since TV is such a fixture in so many lives) and assume writing a novel is somehow easier than writing a screenplay. Or perhaps they're part of that percentage of people who think authors are all automatically rich, and how hard can it be to write a novel, after all?

This theme even came up this week in a library based comic strip I read, Unshelved:

http://www.unshelved.com/

In the past week's strips, a mother drags her teen son to the library, because he doesn't like to read. The librarian tries mightily to interest him in one genre or the other, and fails. When he finally asks, 'but why don't you like to read?" the teen reveals he doesn't have the time -- he's too busy editing his manuscript. (Which, according to the librarian, is 'really good.')

I don't buy it. I don't think you can develop the necessary facility with words that writing requires if you're not actually reading them. It's that simple.

But perhaps a caveat is in order: one NYT bestselling author I know of is dyslexic. She types her stories, but has an assistant check for misspellings and typos, and while I think she does read, most of her story intake comes via audio books. But I'm certain she considers herself a reader.

So...thoughts? Comments? Can you write a novel without being a reader and loving books?