"Better Writing Involves Reading Widely"

In his Write Like a Champion (美國老師教你寫出好英文), Scott Dreyer listed reading widely as one of the "magical seven" elements of better writing. He gave an example to illustrate the idea:

"A good friend and Chinese teacher of mine, Richard, was a fine example of this. When I met Richard, I thought that he had lived in the U.S. for years; not only did he speak with an American accent, but he also had excellent word choice and even know English idioms and when to use them. You can imagine my shock when I learned he had never left Taiwan! He was truly gifted with languages, but he also had a secret: he read English each night before bed. And he did not read English textbooks; he read native-speaker materials. One of his favorites was Reader's Digest (a great resource for learning English). Of course all this reading took time, but Richard knew that there is no shortcut to success." (p. 13)

Reading authentic materials gets us to know not only more words but also how words are put together in real life. Still, the main purpose is to get information.

I love reading Reader's Digest too. Not only do I read the Asian edition I subscribed to, but I also borrow the American RD from the library. RD never fails to inform, touch, and inspire me.