Writers who read, or not

Should a writer of fiction read the fiction of other writers? There appears to be two schools of thought on this question, perhaps three: 1) Yes, you might learn something. Besides writers should like to read. 2) No,   you don't want other writers influencing what you write. 3) Read, but do it between your own writing projects. Most writers always seem to have a project in the works, so I don't know how practical the third option may be.

James M. Cain

I recently came upon an interview with novelist James M. Cain, author of Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice, published in 1983 in The Armchair Detective. Cain recalled meeting Dashiell Hammett without realizing at the time that the man was Dashiell Hammett. The stranger had complimented Cain's work, and Cain said he faked a polite reply. He not only didn't recognize Hammett, but had never read his books.

"I am often somewhat embarrassed talking to other novelists because I haven't read their work," Cain admitted. "Partly because I'm afraid to."

Cain explained, "I don't read a novel just to be reading it. When I read a novel, I'm rewriting it in my own mind, I'm tearing it down, I'm building it up ... it exhausts me."

Then he added that writers who admire other writers can sometimes start imitating them,, whether deliberately or not. He mentioned Rudyard Kipling writing like Bret Harte and Ring Lardner writing like Frank Sullivan. Many writers have copied Hemingway's style.

I happened to meet Mark Winegardner shortly after reading his novel Crooked River Burning, and I commented that the book's style reminded me of John Dos Passos. Winegardner admitted that he had been reading Dos Passos just before he wrote the novel. I wish I would have asked whether the style choice was deliberate or whether he was just under the Dos Passos influence when he wrote the novel. Winegardner later wrote some successful Godfather novels, proving that he is skilled at copying another writer's style.

Other writers could never refrain from reading books by other writers as Cain did. They simply enjoy reading too much. They like seeing how other writers solve writing problems. Or they earn extra money by writing book reviews or even by teaching college literature classes. Obviously no one answer to the question above works for all.