As you may or may not know, I’m a very strong believer in that in order to be a good writer, you MUST be a good reader.  That doesn’t mean reading only your genre and only in your industry but reading everything and anything that interests you.  Here’s what’s on my bookshelf for December:

My daughter turned 12 last month.  That, combined with some parenting issues we’ve been having prompted me to purchase  Parenting With Love And Logic (Updated and Expanded Edition)
I also bought the edition for parenting teens.

Don’t get me wrong, she’s a great kid. Good grades, good friends, confident and kind.  We just knock heads from time to time and I wasn’t sure we were handling those situations the best way possible.  I did a kind of drive by reading of the first Love and Logic book, whipping through it and reading all the tips and chapter summaries.  Actually learned a bit just from doing that so I’d recommend the book if you EVER have any parenting doubts.  I disagreed with some things, like allowance, however by and large it’s a very good book with a solid foundation in good parenting.  I’m actually going to get it for my sister and her husband for Christmas because they just had a new baby and you can’t start too early!

I’m also reading Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer.  It’s an amazing story written by a fantastic author (I actually have a bit of an author crush on him)  Reading it is, I admit, partially motivated by the fact that I tend to see him from time to time at the climbing gym and well, gosh, you really should read books by people you’ve said, “we’ll be off this route in just a minute” to, right?

Lastly, and completely unrelated to all the other books on my bookshelf is the The Guide to Getting It On, 6th Edition which I purchased not because I’m looking for instruction but because I have a heck of a time writing the more intimate scenes in my fiction projects and I thought a book on the subject might help me figure out some unique yet completely plausible positions for the characters to be in (blush)

So….What’s on your bookshelf this month?

Last month was extremely busy so I didn’t have much time to read for pleasure.  I did however read 6 books for RomanticTimes Book Reviews - they were all pretty darn good so that was fun.  You can check out four of them if you pick up an issue - shameless plug:-)

Bird by Bird is another book that I had the pleasure of picking up at the bookstore.  I don’t typically read too many books on writing because, well, they take away from the actual time I could be spending on writing. However, I’d heard so much about this particular book by Anne Lamott that I had to pick it up and I’m enjoying every single word of it.  She’s poignant, practical and very funny.

I also picked up the 2009 Writer’s Market but that’s more like a giant database than a book to sit down and read.

Hoping to make next month more interesting! ( I have a list of books stored on my Blackberry and I’m waiting for them to come in at the Library - keep your fingers crossed for me.)

What are you reading?

Yesterday was the end of the month and in typical fashion it’s a harried day.  End of the month invoices to be sent (though this is much easier now that I have a bookkeeper for AllCustomContent.com)  It also means an abundance of content deliveries, also for All Custom Content clients who prefer to receive thier content at the end of the month each month.  And then there are my own personal writing projects which need to be wrapped up at the end of the month and the forecasting for next month and paying the contractors and posting blogs for the upcoming month and following up with clients before the next month gets too far underway and…and…and…

Typically the last day of the month is spent working tirelessly until around 9 or 10 at night.  Fortunately I’ve streamlined my systems and hired out a bit of work so I was actually able to wrap it up around 4:00.

Time for a little R & R!

To reward myself for a job well done (A habit I’m strongly in favor of) I like to:

Go through all of my juicy, frivolous magazines.  I LOVE magazines and have about 10 -15 subscriptions and there’s nothing quite like sitting down with a stack of them and flipping through all the pretty pictures.  I feel the need to also point out that I read and subscribe to Kiplinger’s and I read my husband’s Wired and Climbing too and I DON’T read tabloids or entertainment magazines.  My favorites are strictly design, fashion and home, and health and fitness.

Okay so down time reward #2.  Fiction writing!  I know it’s supposed to be downtime but there’s something about indulging in a few hours of creative writing, after a day of non-fiction, that is just plain fun.

Reward #3 - Um….HGTV.  I’m not sure what the appeal is here - I don’t really have any overwhelming need or desire to redecorate or remodel and yet I can watch people do this for hours.

What do you do to reward yourself for a job well done?  How do you unwind?

Reading is such an integral part of being a writer, I thought it might be fun to share what we’re reading.

This month I’m reading:

“The 4-Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferriss - I have to say that I am enjoying his writing style - he’s funny and entertaining while at the same time he makes some very valid points and walks the reader through his process for becoming the NR - New Rich.  Not sure if the system works but on paper it looks good:-)

“The Island” by Aldous Huxley - I was prompted to read this after listening to an audio book by Eckhart Tolle.  Apparently it was written later in Huxley’s life when he was contemplating spirituality more. The book is about a man who wakes on an island who’s lifestyle is committed to living a contemplative life.  However corruption always comes into play.  It’s Huxley’s attempt to explore the possibility of a perfect society.

So what’s on your bookshelf this month?