As you may know, I not only write but edit as well. And, as I believe I have stated in this space previously, my personal reading preferences run strongly to nonfiction. My leisure reading rarely includes novels, and only on select occasions does the nonfiction I read include anything political or scientific.
But my work often brings me manuscripts to edit that range far afield from my usual reading tastes. And, to my mind, that’s a good thing.First of all, I find myself working on novels. Second, I find myself working on nonfiction on subjects I wouldn’t normally seek out to read just for enjoyment. And third, I find myself working on memoirs of people whose life stories I would never be impelled to pick up in leisure reading. I also edit the occasional cookbook, children’s book, or other miscellaneous title. I was supposed to edit a book of poetry some months back, but the author’s daughter had a medical emergency, and there went the money the author had been intending to pay me with. The project remains “on hold” as of now. I may yet get to work on that book. We’ll have to wait and see.
I like the diversity of reading matter. I like the change of pace. And I like the fact that I get to learn about subjects I otherwise wouldn’t read about.
It broadens my enlightenment, widens my outlook, enlarges my understanding of the world and all that comprises it. It also adds to my store of trivia. I pick up odd facts in some of these books, facts of no real importance but still of interest. And if I ever again go on Jeopardy! (I was a contestant on the show once already, many many years ago), who knows what odd fact, picked up from some book I edited, might be worth money?!
But if I never profit financially from my acquired store of odd tidbits and trivia, no matter. I’m profiting in another sense from my diversified reading in the course of my work.
And it’s a good thing indeed!