Reading and writing: A symbiotic relation?

"On the Art of Writing Fiction", a book from 1894.

The convention says that reading is good because improves your writing. It helps with grammar, plotting, character development, etc. Technically, we get better under the influence of famous authors. 

And of course, like anything else in life, reading may bring some negatives to a writer. It can make you a benign imitator, raise insecurity by comparison, and damage authenticity and originality. Reading too much can even stall your own writing - well, reading takes time. 

Because all this, some say that writing is more important than reading. The belief is that novelty and the story always will trump grammar and structure. Besides that, creativity can't be taught or imitated - I agree 100% with this. And some writers even advice reading bad books to get clearly what doesn't work. 

Any famous writer that didn't read much? 

There is a small list mentioned here and there - some without credible sources. But my guess is that the key here is the word "much", not that these authors didn't read at all. 

1. Henrik Ibsen.
2. Truman Capote.
3. Cormac McCarthy.
4. William Gibson.
5. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

Perhaps, we can add Umberto Eco, who once said, "I'm a writer not a reader". Which only meant that he didn't have the time to read everything that was considered of value. He saw this under this rationale:

There are more books in the world than hours in which to read them. We are thus deeply influenced by books we haven't read, that we haven't had the time to read. Who has actually read Finnegans Wake – I mean from beginning to end? Who has read The Bible properly, from Genesis to the Apocalypse?

This makes perfect sense. We've to be selective in what we read. And the book selection depends on our interests.

The best advice is, "read because you love reading", not because you need to read to get better at writing. Only practice will make one a better writer. The imagination, for good or for bad, is already inside yourself.

Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.

          Oscar Wilde