Creative thinking may mean simply the realization that there's no particular virtue in doing things the way they have always been done.

You can't build a vocabulary without reading. You can't meet friends if you ... stay at home by yourself all the time. In the same way, you can't build up a vocabulary if you never meet any new words. And to meet them you must read. The more you read the better.

A writer must know how people read, what are the main sources of reading errors, and what can be done to possibly forestall them.