So what are you reading?

We all ask this question and get asked this question. But when it comes to becoming a better writer this question can mean more than your everyday small talk.

I took the opportunity to attend a lecture at Manhattanville College's Summer Writer's Week, where Francine Prose read from her book on this topic, Reading Like a Writer (2006). Prose looks at "the greats"--Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, Kafka, Austen, Dickens, Woolf, Chekhov, to name a few--and examines why their works have endured through the years.

Prose, who also teaches at Bard College, wants aspiring writers to savor the language of the masters and decipher why they choose particular words to convey certain feelings.

I think Prose's book has some valuable advice to a reader like me, who also wants to write. When I read, I usually speed my way through a story, anxious to know what comes next. It takes a special kind of writer to make me slow down and get lost in the language of the book. Sometimes, I get both.

By poring over the finer details of a story, Prose proffers that the reader, for instance, can learn about creating character and advancing the plot through dialogue.

But then there is Anton Chekov. During the lecture, Prose read from her "Learning from Chekhov" chapter, which examines how Chekov broke all kinds of "rules" for writing fiction. He practiced "writing without judgment" and be the "unbiased observer" of his characters. 

In the spirit of Chekhov, Prose also advises, "Forget about what you read. Go out and look at the world."

With this, I came away with two pieces of advice that somehow don't conflict: learn and then unlearn. This way, the writer has a store of knowledge and tools at hand. Yet, the writer still makes room for the muse.

So what is Francine Prose reading? Well, she said she had just finished rereading David Copperfield. How 'bout you?