Ever since I was a kid, I have been prone to reading multiple books at a time. I just can’t help it. It’s an instinct I have to actively fight against if I want to read one book all the way through before picking up another. Sometimes, I’ll exercise that discipline muscle and actually grit my way through a single book before moving on, but those cases are rare. Most of the time, I just go with my poly-reader flow and end up reading several fiction and nonfiction books all at once.

To give yo...