I thought creativity would come back with writing, but in reality, reading is what’s been responsible for the little spark that’s been creeping into my consciousness every now and again. I’m not quite there yet, but it comes in waves. I’ll start looking at something at work, something inspiring, and I’ll get so excited about an idea that I am compelled to get up and walk around, as if to calm myself. It’s kind of annoying, like an incurable itch, a distraction, to get an idea when you can’t act on it right away, but it’s forced me to start archiving these ideas, and that has proven so much more valuable. Once I start writing (or more often, typing/Swyping), even more little ideas come tumbling out. I scribble everything I can down, and get right back to work.

A great deal of what’s influenced me to begin reading more often now is none other than my Kindle Touch. I was given an Amazon giftcard and thought immediately to blow it on videogames (shame on me; my hands are already full) but then it occurred to me to try a Kindle. After careful research, I decided on the Touch, and while I didn’t like it right away, I’m in love with it now. I have a short attention span at times, so being able to switch to another book at any time without worrying about the weight, papercuts, dogeared pages, or finding a bookmark, is just amazing. I can annotate and take notes without the anxiety of writing in my books. It just goes to show how much creativity is tethered to learning; if you’re brain dead, what could you possibly hope to create?

Now I’m studying everyday, keeping my RSS feeds up to date in Google Reader, and becoming the voracious reader I was as a child. And with that appetite rekindled, creativity will only follow. I should have remembered. Reading was the first thing to inspire me to begin with.