Hey everyone! We took a break from Question of the Week to celebrate ONE MILLION VISITORS to this blog (and you’re one of them! Thank you!), and now we’re back. Pretty much the only thing writers love as much as writing is talking about writing. So each week here at Adventures in YA Publishing, I post a question for you to answer. The questions cover all topics important to writers: craft, career, writers’ life, reading and books. Together we’ll become better writers by sharing tips and discussing our habits and practices.

A quick question this week: On average, how many books do you read every month?

photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/43602175@N06/4070018686/”>goXunuReviews</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/”>cc</a>

My answer: Before I started seriously pursuing publication, I probably read six to eight books a month. When I got my first e-reader, the number of books I read each month multiplied—boy, did it multiply! With a simple click on that magical little device, I could download any book I wanted in seconds. The ease and convenience of my e-reader doubled the number of books I read each month.

Then I started writing. For real this time. Any spare moment I had, I wrote instead of read. While my word count increased, the number of books I read each month diminished. Which was really, really sad. And it was bad for my craft. Every writer knows that the more you read, the better you write. So, to improve my writing skills—but mostly because I just missed it so much—I started reading voraciously again. Writing (and revising) still take up much of my time, but I make sure to read every single day. I’m still not reading as much as I used to. Unless I’m deep, deep, deep in writing/revision mode, I probably average three or four books a month, about one per week. I’d like to read more—my want-to-read list is a mile long—but for now, I think it’s a good balance for me.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? How many books do you read each month? Does writing take away from your reading time? Conversely, do you wish you’d spend less time reading, and more time writing?