Plagiarism by other means.

I read a comment in a "writing forum" where the author would not read the works of other authors whilst writing his own in case those "other authors" influenced his own writing. The fellows name is Joel Goodwin and when I thought about his comment I realized that he was right. Reading the works of others, whilst writing, can influence your own writing. I find that happens to me. It does not make me plagiarize in any way but little bit's of the (read) authors writing style creep into my own (especially if I am particularly enjoying the book) novels, but I do not think that this is necessarily a bad thing. I am not so good a writer that other, greater, authors may not have helped me along the way. After all it was reading the great books of the past that made me wish to write in the first place and add my voice to that great pantheon. I suspect that in some way or another almost every book I have ever read has influenced me in some way or another.