Read. It's good for the soul!

I am and have been reading voraciously.  I can not seem to get my fill of so many different, revealing, personal, touching and unique ways that writers write. I have allowed myself to become the flesh and breathing of characters in the books I have read, so much so that I cry and laugh out loud when the characters in the books do so.  I allow myself to block out the chair in which I am sitting, the treadmill on which I'm walking, the view out my window so that I may sit in a chair in the book, walk down paths I would have never walked down, and see out my window the view of the town, village, city, street, room that I have suddenly been welcomed into. I am happily, magically, completely overwhelmed with desire, pain, happiness, and oneness to each setting/character(s) into which I melt  The voices around me, dialects new to my ear--seem so strangely familiar.  New smells and aromas, colors and sounds fill my world, my thoughts, my passion, my need to be able to put down on paper words that will evoke those feelings and complete surrender of readers to my writing.  If you've not read these books, you surely must....
.The Help by Kathryn Stockett, Little Bee: A Novelby Chris Cleave, and the one I am currently reading that has brought me to snorting guffaws of laughter and heart-wrenching sobs of sorrow One Vacant Chair: A Novel (Graywolf Press) by Joe Coomer.  Joe Coomer is magical. His characters will reach out their hands and beckon you into their lives. This is his latest. He has many others.  No doubt I will read them all.

I am hearing from many sources that to be a great writer you must read, read, and read some more.  I've come to think 'So many books, so little time'.  Read, it's good for the soul!