“On writing,” “Reading, the most dangerous game”

The first reading “on writing” was about Stephen King. He talks about his love for reading, and why it makes him a better writer. He talks about reading seventy to eighty books a year not to study the art of writing, but because he likes to read. He tells about how much you can learn from reading a bad book as compared to a good one, and how the bad things in a book can stick into your head. He also talks about the amount of learning one can get from reading good books as well. He says it teaches you as a writer what good style is, character creation, plot development, and other important subjects. He then goes on to say that reading a good story gives some writers a sort of jealousy, and can give them the inspiration to write something as good or better. He says once you read and experience the bad in someone’s writing, it helps you as writer to stay away from that, and create your own unique style. Stephen King also states that anyone who is not a reader cannot be a good writer, period. He believes that if you don’t have the time to read many books to get a feel for what’s out there, you cannot expect people to like what you yourself have written.
The second reading is called “Reading, the Most Dangerous Game” by Harold Brodkey. He calls reading an intimate act. His reasons for this are that when one reads his or her mind is exposed directly to another through the feelings of their writing. He then goes on to talk about how people have changed in the type of books they want to read. He kind of uses the example that people nowadays only want to read “sexy” books and that they don’t actually like a good book if they have read one. He talks about how the United States is not organized by religion or politics, but by economic fashions such as making money and spending money. All summed up he tells about the difference in a “good book,” and what the readers of this world actually want to read.