A writer who does not read is a writer you should not read
And that means read widely.
“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”
The year I wrote Gorgeous, I consumed non-fiction, bios, auto-bios, street lit, horror, romance and classic lit. Stephen King, James Baldwin, Leah Remini, Nicole Falls, Agnes Nixon, etc. Most of it didn’t align with the contemporary non-speculative book I was working on, but on non-writing days I was engaged with the function of language. Reading everything allows you, as a writer, to develop style, perspective and recognize that every word has a job.
There’s obvious value in reading inside of your genre. You want to understand genre conventions, i.e. how a romance ends with a Happily Ever After (or Happy For Now) and a tragedy ends with death. Adhering to genre conventions is valuable for marketing; a way to make sure you place it in the right category or on the right shelf. It sets reader expectations so they’re not angry with you by the end of the third act. But reading widely, outside of your genre, infuses your language with depth and pushes your reader into deeper understandings of the range of human condition and, by extension, your skill. It also prevents your project from being formulaic.
Have you ever had a conversation with someone who claims to be a music fan, but they’re a fan of just one artist or genre? They might be an expert on that artist due to their own fandom, but is this someone you want to listen to when it comes to music overall? Probably not. You don’t want to read a writer with a similarly limited perspective.
As a writer, every day might not be a writing day. You have a life. But, on your days off, have a couple of books nearby. Don’t just read tweets and articles and text messages; engage with any form of prose on the written page. Your readers are relying on you to understand the assignment.
If you consider yourself a writer and don’t read books, then you’re just talking without listening.