Intentional Reading

I read as much as I can, but it never seems like I have enough time. My TBR list on Goodreads stands at an impossible 150 books! But I've recently taken a slightly different approach to my precious reading time, and it's paying benefits for my writing.

First of all, my TBR list is crazy big because whenever I hear someone suggest a good book, I throw it on there. Then I classify it with a "shelf" description: I have 37 different shelves, ranging from "writing" to "young adult-paranormal-werewolves." Before you write me off as hopelessly OCD, these shelves have been fantastically helpful for intentional reading. This is what I call looking for a book with a specific purpose in mind - either a new MG book to review for my blog, a new writing book to bump up my craft, or books similar to my current WIP.

For the manuscript I just launched, Byrne Risk, I intentionally read three different books (Hunger Games, Dark Life, Inkheart) and analyzed them before launching into my final draft revisions. I read each of these books with a specific purpose in mind. Hunger Games has a similar "rebellion fiction" theme to my novel; Dark Life is a recently published dystopian SF MG novel, also similar to Byrne Risk; and Inkheart has multiple POVs, including an adult POV, again similar to my novel. I read these books with writerly intent, looking for lessons I could learn and apply to my manuscript.

It worked so well, I'm trying it again, this time for my young adult paranormal WIP. I'm reading White Cat, Evermore, and Paranormalcy - books culled from my expansive TBR list (under "ya-paranormal-powers") and relevant to my WIP. I'm only 40 pages into White Cat, but I'm already gleaning lessons on characterization (Holly Black is an amazing writer!).

How do you use reading to juice your writing?