The Readers discussion

Loving the fact that Simon considers multi-reading a "filthy behaviour" as everything I like is either immoral, illegal, fattening, expensive or impossible. Or filthy, it turns out! :-)

Not sure whether I'm actually a good multi-tasker or simply suffer a mild degree of ADD, but I can't even remember the last time I read only one book at a time. At university, there were so many text books to go through simultaneously, that I got used to being surrounded by big piles of books everywhere, and these days I usually have 3 or 4 reads on the go (and a TBR list that has started to stress me out because clearly I am going to die before I can get through it!).

Mostly I read (literary) fiction, and I'll have one or two physical books that I'm reading (one would be my choice, one for a Book Group) along with an audio book (yes, I do count those, Simon!) for when I'm on the road, in the gym and doing boring housework chores, and one e-book. Usually, the stories are different enough for me not to confuse them.... perhaps I can accredit it to years of training from watching Home & Away, Neighbours, Brookside and East Enders all in one day/week, and following all story lines and characters throughout their twisted yet predictable lives. Ha!

Clearly, the downside is that I take much longer to finish a book..... War & Peace has been on my "currently reading list" for a year now. But then, it may just stay there forever as I've not opened it for months..... oooops.

i always read one book at a time. the only time i might pick up two is if i leave my current read at work or elsewhere. but i find it difficult to follow more than one book.

I'm a bit like Gav - usually have an eBook, an audio book and a 'real' book on the go all at once. Sometimes I throw a short story anthology in the mix too. I normally read something from each one every day so it's not like it takes that long to finish any one of them.

There a wonderful app called ReadMore wherein you can track your filthy multi-reading behavior. It shows the percentages and you can make notes. As I write this, I'm up to 9 going at once - from all sources: audio, paper, and electronic.

I like the word Polybookualist. We coined that during the War & Peace readalong last year (a Facebook group started by Ann @ BOTNS). I think everyone was a multi-reader during that epic read.

EDIT: I uploaded a picture of the app, but can't figure out how to share it. It's in my profile meanwhile.

I guess I am in the minority. I ALWAYS read one book at a time, except for right now! I am reading a goal book of mine, "All the King's Men," and although I'd like to read just that, other books have come in from the library. I'm reading Stephen King's book, "On Writing" during breakfast. I usually only read magazines or do a puzzle when I eat in the morning, but I read this one morning and it's been my thing to read this month. I find reading more than one book is really distracting. It's hard enough for me to remember when it's been a couple of days with one book, with more than one book I'm REALLY confused! :-)

I have become a devoted audio "reader" - with an hour commute to work, it's allowed me to knock additional books off my TBR list. So, for a few months now, I have two books going simultaneously - one via audio, one via traditional book or ebook format. But I max out there. One listen, one read, at a time.

Currently, I'm listening to The Observations by Jane Harris and reading The Passage by Jonathan Cronin.

Chris wrote: "I guess I am in the minority. I ALWAYS read one book at a time, except for right now! I am reading a goal book of mine, "All the King's Men," and although I'd like to read just that, other books ha..."

"On Writing" - one of my favourite all-time reads. What a great book.

Chris wrote: "I guess I am in the minority. I ALWAYS read one book at a time, except for right now! I am reading a goal book of mine, "All the King's Men," and although I'd like to read just that, other books ha..."

"On Writing" - one of my favourite all-time reads. What a great book.

Read one book at a time? Impossible! While I'm engrossed in one book, the stack of TBR books are taunting me with their mere presence. It's an addiction I know, but one I will gladly live with!

Jana wrote: "There a wonderful app called ReadMore wherein you can track your filthy multi-reading behavior. It shows the percentages and you can make notes. As I write this, I'm up to 9 going at once - from ..."
Thanks for the info!!

At the moment I have 4 books going on (one always being an audio book), and have decided that is my cap as I get kind of frustrated if I don't see progress.

I've never gotten my plots confused - they're always pretty different - but I find that different books just suit my mood at different times. And of course one book always takes the lead over the others... currently A Novel Bookstoreand I are inseparable.

We got talking about this the other day at the library. One man's wife thought he was nuts to be reading more than one book at a time so he asked me I did. "Of course". But the next time I see him I'm going to play a bit and say "When you were talking about reading more than one book at a time, you did mean simultaneously, didn't you? Like both at the same time. You're the first person I met who can do that like I do." :)

Paula wrote: "I have become a devoted audio "reader" - with an hour commute to work, it's allowed me to knock additional books off my TBR list. So, for a few months now, I have two books going simultaneously - one via audio, one via traditional book or ebook format. But I max out there. One listen, one read, at a time."

This is exactly how I do it. I've tinkered a bit with maybe having one going in fiction, one in non, and one in audio but I've found that it works best when I only have one book going in each audio and in print or ebook.

At any given time I have a book that I am reading at my bedside, a book in my study, one at work to read at lunch and an audio book in the car. When I really get into a book though I will lug it around and read it at work, at home and in bed until I finish it.

I may have a couple of non-fiction books going but never more than one fiction.

GR has been a BAD influence. I only started reading multiple books after joining here.

Typically try to have one audiobook (they totally count) one on my Nook and one regular book and a graphic novel going at once. Eventually I get focused on the one that has me wrapped up and sprint to the end.

I am definitely a multiple-reader. I almost always have an audiobook, an ebook and a hardcover or paperback going at the same time.

My most recent addition is Margaret Atwood's CAT'S EYE. It's a book I've had sitting on my bookshelf that I never got around to reading until I heard Simon mention it on one of The Readers' podcasts. Thank you, Simon.

I usually listen to one audiobook in my car, and another on my home computer (I can't get the Audible ones onto my car stereo). On top of that I'm usually reading 3-5 novels.

One for my book club, and then a few others - usually very different genres. At the moment I've been reading F. Scott Fitzgeralds collected short stories for ages, as I only read 1-2 stories at a time. I like reading like, a literary book, a chick lit, some fantasy/ya and maybe a short story collection or biography.

I'm so impressed by all the folks who can read multiple books at once. I am trying to do it now myself with a fiction and a nonfiction...but I keep picking up the fiction as it's the one I'm most engaged in. So it sounded like a good theory but I'm having trouble with the execution. Any other "filthy behavior" I can give try instead? :-)

Jennifer wrote: "Any other "filthy behavior" I can give try instead? :-) "

Ehhmmm, book related, I suppose?! ;-)

Jennifer, are you going to be at Booktopia in April? Maybe we could have a book swap there.... would that be filthy enough? I guess, it depends on the state the books are in...

Kats wrote: "Jennifer wrote: "Any other "filthy behavior" I can give try instead? :-) "

Ehhmmm, book related, I suppose?! ;-)

Jennifer, are you going to be at Booktopia in April? Maybe we could have a book..."

I figured I would throw that comment out and see what came back!!! :-)

I will be at Booktopia again this April- a book swap sounds like fun.

I keep debating with myself how many books I should bring when we go to Booktopia in June.
My husband is still apprehensive about me bringing more than 2 or 3, because last time we went to the U.S. I bought so many books - we had to get an extra suitcase... (but it's 7 years ago, and personally I think I've much improved! :-)

I tend to buy a lot of books when I travel too so now I just have the book shops ship my books home. I tried mailing them myself from Scotland but the post office didn't tape the box well (as they promised to do!) and it arrived broken open with only 2 books out of the original 18 remaining. Tears were shed.

The bookshops have never let me down since.

We wish you could as well...I bet we could round up plenty of support for a future Booktopia UK.

Jennifer wrote: "We wish you could as well...I bet we could round up plenty of support for a future Booktopia UK."

I'm in!

Simon wrote: "Awwwww I would love that, though its a Books on the Nightstand thing not a Readers thing, though the two of us teaming up is a dream of mine."

Books on the Readers Nightstand Booktopia 2013!

Simon wrote: "Awwwww I would love that, though its a Books on the Nightstand thing not a Readers thing, though the two of us teaming up is a dream of mine."

Here in the US there are crossover television shows sometimes, where characters from one show will be on another. I think it would be so much fun for you to do a crossover podcast. In fact, I think you've mentioned doing that.

Absolutely! There is no reason why BOTNS and The Readers can't join forces to the benefit of readers on both sides of the pond.

Jana wrote:
Books on the Readers Nightstand Booktopia 2013..."

I LOVE this idea! :-)) I wish you guys could come to Vermont as well this year! Start saving for next year!

Jana wrote: "Jennifer wrote: "We wish you could as well...I bet we could round up plenty of support for a future Booktopia UK."

I'm in!"

Me too! It will be so much cheaper than going to the U.S. :-) (I'm still in denial about the 4 plane tickets I bought last week)

Not sure Gavin would want to be there given that the book everyone is going to talk about is "Sense of an Ending". Too much "self-relief" for him, I think! LOL

I am almost always reading multiple books at one time but I recently lost my job and since then, I've just been reading one book at a time. Plus, the audiobook that I'm listening to when I travel (but not much of that going on right now). In general, I have no problems reading 4-5 books at one time. A lot of it depends on what kind of mood I'm in at the time and what I want to be reading.

I have a tendency to just read one at a time, but I do sometimes start another one when I am just about to finish the one that I have been reading.

Simon wrote: "I seem to have gone book crazy! I've one fiction, two nonfiction and an audiobook on the go!"

Go Simon! Thanks to The Readers, Booktopia Oxford, and my real life book club I'm pretty much in the same boat: 3 fiction (Half Blood Blues, Augustus: A Novel; Dovekeepers), 1 nonfiction (Every Day by the Sun), 1 audiobook (Ready Player One which I'm loving most of all right now).

I think you will be surprised by Ready Player One Simon. I think you'll really enjoy it. I'm not a big fantasy reader but I enjoyed it well enough.

I agree Tasha - Ready Player One would normally not even be on my radar so I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Simon, the audio version was quite good so you might want to try it in that format.

Also the fact the audiobook was read by Wil Wheaton gave it an extra sense of nostalgia

I view reading multiple books as the same as watching more than one television show. When I watched TV, I watched several shows a week, some similar (e.g. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel), others quite different. For whatever reason, I never had a problem cluing in right away as to what plot I was watching; but now that I think about it, it may have been because there was always that flashback sequence ("on last week's episode" or "previously on The X-Files") at the beginning of every episode. Oddly, I don't need to flip around pages in books or rewind an audio to know what's what; but maybe that's because my memory retention is better these days. Ironically, that may be because I don't watch TV anymore! Anyway, yes, I am a dirty girl with the filthy habit of being a book polygamist: Not counting the reading at work, I usually have three books going: an audiobook, a fiction print book, and a non-fiction print book that I read a bit of every week. This week, I'm starting A Short History of Byzantium (by John Julius Norwich), starting Zombiestan (by Mainak Dhar; narrated by John Lee) and continuing with Snow Falling on Cedars (by David Guterson.) I really don't think I'm in any danger of confusing plots across any of these titles :-)

Michael wrote: "Also the fact the audiobook was read by Wil Wheaton gave it an extra sense of nostalgia"

I loved the audio edition of Ready Player One (by Ernest Cline; narrated by Wil Wheaton)! It's one of those titles that I recommend over the print edition. Wil Wheaton was perfectly cast: Not only does he sound young, but he even sounds comfortable with the language. Plus there is that meta moment... :-)

Anyway, may not be great literature; but it is certainly great fun :-)

@ tanya dog-eared copy,

i love the comparison of reading multiple books to watching varied television shows. i never quite thought of it that way.

Tanya/dog eared copy wrote: "Michael wrote: "Also the fact the audiobook was read by Wil Wheaton gave it an extra sense of nostalgia"

I loved the audio edition of Ready Player One (by Ernest Cline; narrated by Wil Wheaton)! I..."

I heartily second that! I don't think I would have finished print book (some of the writing was too clunky for my taste) but Wil Wheaton's performance helped carry me through the weaker parts. If folks are in between, definitely go with the audio!