You tell me: Do you read in the genre you write? A question posed by literary agent Nathan Bransford. The answer seems obvious: "Of course I do. Every writer does." Some better questions would be:

• Do you read in genres you don't write?
• Do you read in multiple genres?
• Do you you stretch yourself to find great writing and great storytelling?

As an example, here's a cross section of books I've read over the last year. This isn't a complete list. I've left out rereads - I love rereading a good book after setting it on the shelf for a couple of years - and only included those I've read for the first time:

• Revelations of Divine Love by Blessed Julian of Norwich
• Greywalker by Kat Richardson
• Your Life as Story by Tristine Ranier
• The Reformation by Diarmaid MacCulloch
• Push by Sapphire
• Crazy for God by Frank Schaffer

A memoir and a book about memoir writing - so yes I'm reading in my genre, but also two very different novels, a historical narrative, and a medieval theological work.

Here are a few I'm planning to read this summer:

• A New Kind of Christianity by Brian McLaren
• Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood by Melissa Hart
• The Fence My Father Built by Linda Claire

Plus more books on craft, and lots of articles and essays to inspire my freelance work.