A funny thing happened

It just occurred to me today that I am reading less. Substantially less! I have been reading fewer books and have been reading them a lot slower than I normally do. I usually start a book and have to consume it as quickly as possible. I wonder if its because I'm writing my own that I need to put my energies there or because I don't want to be distracted from MY story and MY characters that I can't 'dilute' them with another author? A NY Times best selling author actually mentioned that at the RWA conference this year during a key note speech and I remember thinking at the time that I could still be true to my own story even if I read someone else's at the same time. Now I'm wondering if I am self (and subconsciously) monitoring and controlling that automatically. I did look at all the great romance titles out by my favorite authors today and felt a bit of a spark but nothing that I felt like delving into immediately. Perhaps my own stories have become enough of an 'out of life' experience that the elements I usually got from reading are now coming from writing? Interesting and something I'll have to observe over time....