How many books do you read at once?

15 comments on “How many books do you read at once?”

1. Phyllis says:
   March 12th, 2009 at 12:02 pm

   One. If I am not into a book and put it down to start another, it’s the kiss of death; even if I try to kid myself that I will, I most likely won’t get back to it. Oh wait, I’ve been reading bits and pieces of a book on editing your own writing. Sometimes, there’s one I have to slam back for a book club and I’ll put my other one aside, but I hate doing it. Most of the time I’ll just stay up late instead.

2. August says:
   March 12th, 2009 at 1:30 pm

   Right now it’s two, but usually it’s only one. I’m making an exception in this case, because The Anatomy of Melancholy is going to take me so long to read, that I’m just going to sort of “have it on in the background”, so to speak, while I do my other reading.

   I’ve actually found that switching to a one-at-a-time system has allowed me to not only engage more fully with the books I read, but to actually read more books. But then, I’m not currently being paid to read books, nor am I still in school, both of those things requiring a certain amount of multi-tasking.

3. Stephen says:
   March 12th, 2009 at 2:41 pm

   In the past I’ve read four or five at once, but I found that sometimes that can have the book drag on quite a bit and I can lose interest. This year I’m attempting to read one at a time and have been doing well with that, except I’m currently reading two. I swear, no more than two. I’m also attempting to record and find out how many books I read this year. Never tried that before.

4. Chris says:
   March 12th, 2009 at 3:48 pm

   Depends on what “reading right now” means. How long ago can I have made progress in something? I put down a copy of a Neal Stephenson book in 2001, but I still have a bookmark there. If that counts, “umpteen”.

5. Paul says:
   March 12th, 2009 at 4:48 pm

   As someone who reads primarily poetry, there is almost no upward limit to the number. Somedays, I’ll be darting in and out of a dozen or more books, or several dozen.

6. Basil says:
   March 12th, 2009 at 6:55 pm

   Hmmm.. Three bedroom three bath house. That’s one novel in each bathroom next to each toilet, one by my comfy chair in the living room and one in the den. There’s a novel in my gym bag, an audio book in my truck CD player, and another on my PDA.

   Seven….seven books to get to the center of my reading addiction…

   :D

7. Franklin Carter says:
   March 12th, 2009 at 7:17 pm

   I read one book at a time. It helps me focus.

8. jon says:
   March 13th, 2009 at 1:43 am

   Typically one novel, a few volumes of poetry, a book of short stories, and all the randomness in between.

9. Jolie says:
   March 13th, 2009 at 8:30 am

   I occasionally put down one novel to read another and pick the first up again later, but usually if I put a book down partway through, it’s the kind that’s broken into discrete sections. Current unfinished books on my nightstand: Lorrie Moore’s Birds of America (I take my Moore in small doses), and a book of Oscar Wilde’s plays. Oh, and a nonfiction book on the brain and religious experience, loaned to me by my girlfriend, because let’s face it: even the coolest nonfiction rarely holds my interest as much as fiction.

10. Remi Gunn says:
    March 13th, 2009 at 10:26 am

    A couple of novels, a book of poetry, a couple of nonfiction books and a biography of Willie Nelson on my bedside table for when I need a break.

11. Roland says:
    March 13th, 2009 at 1:03 pm

    The greater a reader’s promiscuity, the more fruitful the juxtapositions.

12. Basil says:
    March 13th, 2009 at 2:52 pm

    I guess that makes me a literary adulterer…or polygamist…yeah, that’s what I’ll go with since it’s more socially acceptable…in some circles at least.

13. Colleen says:
    March 13th, 2009 at 3:03 pm

    I’ve got three on the go right now, in part because I can neither finish reading my endless collection of Henry James short stories nor completely ignore or abandon them. Sigh.

14. John says:
    March 15th, 2009 at 4:14 am

    I tend to read two – one novel and one non-fiction. Currently the novel is McCarthy’s Cities of the Plain and the non fiction is Hitchen’s The Portable Atheist. More frequently than one would expect the most amazing parallels crop up.

15. ed says:
    March 15th, 2009 at 10:33 am

    Only one work of fiction at a time, along with one or two works of nonfiction.

Discuss