Reading rocks :) English was one of my best subjects at school and I used to read for well over 4 hours a day...nowadays it's much less than that but I still keep a novel close to hand.

I find I go through stages with different authors. I've read just about everything Stephen King's written, same goes for Iain Banks (don't know if he's popular in the states but for gods sake READ HIS STUFF!) I love crime authors like Patricia Cornwall, Minette Walters, Iain Rankin...crime is very stimulating because I always want to know what happens next and how a seemingly unsolvable mistery can be solved....subsequently I often devour crime novels in two or three sittings.

Books that can be considered proper literature can be cool too. I studied English Lit to advanced level at college and wrote analysis of books like Forster's A Passage to India which has loads of good ideas about colonialism and invasion of culture....experience of other cultures is essential...as I can read in three languages I've come to appreciate this. An understanding of the original language of a text I feel brings the reader closer to the author...I've found in my study of German literature that some words and phrases can be almost impossible to translate, so the translater gets as close as he can resulting in something thats not completely accurate or what the author intended.

Whilst on German lit, Kafka is a fantastic author. The only thing more mind-blowing than reading his work is writing an essay on it - it works on so many levels and sometimes it's impossible to really figure out why he wrote what he wrote and what he wants people to take away from reading his fiction...in order to even get close to this you have to know about the author himself.....reading literature takes you to a greater level of understanding when it comes to people. (If you can read German I'd recommend Kafka as he greatly improved my knowledge of the language itself too. If you cant, most available translations read quite well.)

I'm currently reading 'Cronica de un muertea anunciada' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (thats in Spanish) and 'Noble House' by James Clavell - thats in a series known as 'The Asian Saga'...the third book of the series, Gai Jin (thats japanese for 'Foreigners') is my favourite book of all time.

Good Post, Incidents....its nice to see someone your age realising the value of knowledge and reading....as I know so many young people who frankly dont give a f**k about either. Although I've never really noticed how it affected my guitar playing.....yes when I write songs/instrumentals i often take inspiration from literature, but the technical ability and practice influence I've never thought of....food for thought. :)

^Chacron^.