Image: Read the write book. (Image: courtesy Kylie Abecca)
It sounds like an ideal that we should aspire to - to read books that are right (write). Not just those books that are popular, but those that impact us at a deeper level. Books that make us feel. Books that take us to place we could otherwise not have imagined. Books that provide inspiration, solace or hope. But this blog is not about telling you what books you should be reading – you probably already know the answer to that question. Neither is there a typo in the title.
Read the Write Book is the thought-provoking name on an online business designed for book lovers of all kinds, and writers who aspire to writing books that demand to be read. It is the brainchild of Kylie Abecca who operates her business from the idyllic location of Albany, on Western Australia’s Southern coast.
I was first introduced to Kylie’s company at the inaugural Bunbury Indie Author Book Fair run by Ian Hooper of The Book Reality Experience (featured in my blog of 11 June 2023) and Leschenault Press.
Image: The Book Realty Experience (Source: BRW Website, Ian Hooper)
Kylie and Ian, and my own publisher Geoff Hughes of Madhouse Media, are typical of the generous people who seem so common in the independent publishing world. Each knows how tough it can be to get into print – they have lived the journey themselves. Ian, Geoff and Kylie are all published authors in their own right, but each of them goes above and beyond to assist aspiring authors like me, through informative blogs, guidebooks, sales and cross referencing to other author's platforms (such as this).
Image: Madhouse Media, publisher of Darwin’s Wake. (Source: Geoff Hughes)
Kylie’s story is even more incredible. Not only does she run Read the Write Book, but she also manages to read almost 1,000 books per year (yes, that's one thousand, not a typo). Some of these might be junior or young adult fiction and therefore not in the league or length of a major literary work – but it is still an enormous number of books. I aspire to read more than 25 and feel so inadequate by comparison. Yet this isn’t the full story of how amazing Kylie’s 1,000 books per year accomplishment is. She does this with several challenges, including photosensitive epilepsy, which makes reading digital books almost impossible.
Kylie’s voracious appetite for books might also pose a pretty substantial financial challenge, but she has creatively overcome this hurdle too. This is how Read the Write Book came into being. To support her reading habit, she buys books in bulk, usually from garage sales and deceased estate sales. This can lead to a problem of double-ups, as well as a continuously growing to-be-read pile. I understand she has a spare bedroom that if full of some of her 30,000 plus books. Even her own private collection of books numbers around 10,000. Her private collection is made up of junior classics (Enid Blyton, Blinky Bill, Paddington Bear, Goosebumps, Baby-Sitters Club, etc.) plus a signed books collection and favourite authors like Kellee Strickland, Michael Robotham, Paullina Simons. Even Kylie's pet cockatoo, Enid has a literary link, being named after the aforementioned favourite children's author.
Kylie's book collection has been featured on ABC (radio and TV) earlier this year, as it is allegedly one of the largest private collections of books in Australia. Kylie is unsure of the number of books that might be considered as too many, as she believes (as I am sure we all do) "it isn't hoarding if it's book".
Image: Just part of Kylie's collection (Source: ABC News)
Kylie’s Read the Write Book website has more recently expanded to feature a special area for independent authors. It is here that you will find new books by indie authors, like Darwin’s Wake. Here too you’ll find anthologies of Kylie’s work and short stories from a range of authors too.
“Read the Write Book is a place for all lovers of books, writing and the magic of storytelling. Where writers can share their masterpieces and readers can find new and pre-loved books ready and waiting to guide them on a unique journey into their own imagination.”
Image: Not Kylie’s spare room, but the Bodleian Library, Oxford UK. (Source: Englandrover and Google Images)