I keep writing posts about writing, but reading is a huge part of writing, and something hit me yesterday as I started reading THE STAND by Stephen King. There are books that inspire you to write, period. This is not to say that there are books that don't inspire you to write for some reason. Every single book you read, whether you like it or not, is a learning experience. You can always pick up things, like how to write, or how not to write, and both are valuable. But there is something about some of them that speaks to you as a writer on a completely different level, and that is why we keep coming back to those authors again, and again, and again. They hold our hand and tell us it's okay to write, in fact, they say, yes, you can. Stephen King is one of those authors for me. It doesn't matter what I read by him, I get giddy like a little girl and I can't actually read him without interruptions because I want to jump up every 5 minutes and check my current manuscript, Oh, how did he say this thing again? And how did I say this thing? Oh, I can say this thing like this? Oh, I didn't know I can! And so on. After only writing (and reading) full time for a little less than 2 years, I now firmly believe that to be a successful writer, and by successful I mean to have a readership large enough to sustain you as a writer financially, you have to read only those kinds of books, until you develop enough of a stamina and belief in yourself to know who you are. I'm nowhere near that point, I'm very green. In a sense, I consider myself as a 2 year old (as a writer) and as a 16 year old (as an American writer) because I started learning English 16 years ago when I came to US from Russia, and I have a long way ahead of me to master the language. But let's pull this phenomenon apart and see what is it that makes you want to write, that magic stuff that you read in those special books.