Do I read my own books?

Jae­da, from Moor­head MN, writes to ask, “Have you read any of your books?”

That’s a smart ques­tion because there are all kinds of ways to answer.

Of course, in the process of writ­ing the book I am con­stant­ly read­ing what I have writ­ten. But when I do that I’m read­ing as part of the writ­ing process.

Then, as I am cur­rent­ly doing now, I am read­ing my new book to a class. In that case I am pri­mar­i­ly focused on their reac­tion to the book.

On occa­sion, when I am asked to speak about a par­tic­u­lar book—such as when, in March, I vis­it­ed Spring­field, Missouri—where they held an “all-city read” event with Seer of Shad­ows—I’ll read the book so I can remem­ber what hap­pens, the bet­ter to answer ques­tions about the sto­ry that will inevitably come my way. I’m mere­ly doing my part for the event.

Then there have been those times when a pub­lish­er comes to me and says, “We’d like to re-pub­lish one of your books. Do you wish to re-write any of it?” Obvi­ous­ly, there too, I must re-read the book.

But if the ques­tion is, “Have you read any of your books for the plea­sure of it?” The answer is “No!” Why? Because, when I re-read one of my pub­lished books I will always come up with things that might have been bet­ter. Per­fec­tion is not my line of work. Hav­ing come across such imper­fec­tions, there’s not much I can do about it. So, gen­er­al­ly speaking—with the excep­tions cit­ed above—I do not read any of my books. Too frustrating!