Reading or Writing?

"I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice--not because of his voice, or because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God . . ."
John Irving A Prayer for Owen Meany

I've given up a few things to make time for novel writing, and one of them is reading books. I read the paper every day--much of it while I'm working out on the treadmill at the Y--and I have some periodicals I try to keep up with, but my book reading has diminished.

I picked A Prayer for Owen Meany from my too-full, too-neglected book shelf when I headed to Tim and Emily's last week to do my research. A week later, I'm all of 124 pages in to it--barely a dent. If I weren't writing a book, I'd be reading this one feverishly. It's got a sense of place and time that captures the reader, and Irving has created characters so precise and tangible they have come to life inside my head. That I can't sit down for a couple of hours and read, well, it's so sad.

Reading the work of great writers is inspiring. I read words like those at the top of this post and I invariably come away with an idea or a rhythm or an inspiration that will help me in my writing. Of course, if I read more, there's less time to write, and I need every minute of my writing time, even if sometimes I lack the inspiration to write another word.

So the question here is, which do I need most: Inspiration or discipline?

Catch 22, anyone?