One of the things that came up repeatedly at the con was the idea that one must read outside one's genre. I figured that was an obvious thing, but then I know entire boards full of folks who seem to only read one genre and, if they write, they write only within that genre. I think Landsdale said something to the effect that he'd talk to someone who reads, say, horror, and they'd have only read books that go about five years back or, if they were classically minded, start with Stephen King. He'd ask them, "what else have you read?" and they'd say something like, "Anne Rice." They might, when pressed, also state, "I've read *all* of Anne Rice." O-kay then. I read Stephen King when I was in high school, but not really since. The first page of The Bluest Eye, for instance, simply blows things like that out of the water. The monster isn't some random, external force. The monster knows where you live, who your kin are, and is probably your second cousin twice removed, if that.

I think that this is partly behind the great masses of genre fiction that I don't read -- you know, the stuff with the same plot but different names? Where I just know what's going to happen by page ten? Yeah, that stuff. It's not entirely the incestuous read-write-genre-only thing, I know. It sells, and booksellers know it sells, just like Harlequin romances...but you know, those romances actually have set plots and they really do just change up some of the details.

So. How many of you writer-folks read outside your genre? Fans of the classics (by which I mean things like O'Conner, Steinbeck, etc.)?