Do You Write What You Read?

I used to be a voracious reader, scarfing down new books like M&Ms (this message brought to you by the New M&M's Dark - chocolate the way it was meant to be). Then gradually life started to get in the way and I read less and less. I also wrote less and less. Coincidence? Of course not. Only I was too thickheaded to notice at the time. I read because I loved to get lost in the story not because I thought I'd actually learn something from it. I mean reading is supposed to be fun not educational for goodness sake. Blame it on my inexperienced, wide-eyed youth. Hmm...not buying that are you? Okay, blame it on plain old stupidity if you want. Either way, I missed out not only on a whole slew of new authors and good books, but also the chance to be inspired by really great writing. We are what we read right? Or is that eat...damn, I always get my mother-type cliches mixed up. Anyway, I've slowly been trying to rectify this but find I'm having a difficult time trying to figure out what to read. I'm interested in everything from mysteries to paranormals to traditional historical romances. And of course, there's the oft-told advice to read extensively in the genre in which you write. I actually took this to heart over the weekend and picked up a paranormal that looked interesting. I won't name the book because quite frankly it wasn't my cup of tea. And it had nothing at all to do with the writing. The story was a bit too dark for my taste and the heroine didn't strike the right chord with me. Again, this had nothing to do with the writing. The author did an excellent job with the pacing and tension not to mention wonderful worldbuilding (there's that word again). And I realized that even though I probably wouldn't buy another book in that particular series, I could still learn a lot just from a writing standpoint. I'm determined not to give up. Even if the writing had been bad, I guess it would have been a good lesson in what not to write. Of course, if I wanted that, I could just re-read some of my old manuscripts.