Metafilter discussion

I usually do not read one book at a time, but usually read at least two but often three at a time. For example, I'm plodding through Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, but there's no way I'll be able to sit down and finish it, so I'll pick up another book or two to take my mind off of the heaviness that is Jonathan Strange until I get through it.

At this moment, I'm reading the aforementioned Jonathan Strange..., just finished Kim Harrison's Every Which Way But Dead and started The Hunger Games. But I'm curious if I'm the only one that will read two or more books at a time. Anyone else?

It depends. Right now I'm paused on A Dance With Dragons on my Kindle partly because it is advancing slowly, partly because I've had a series of other books I needed to get read, for book club or because my electronic library loan was expiring. And I'm also on pause with Saturday because I have that in corporeal book form and am reading it only when I fly, during the no electronic devices part of the flight. And I'm paused on Mildred Pierce on my Kindle too, for reasons I can't articulate, as it is pretty good. I am ripping through The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America on my Kindle as it is excellent and the library loan expires fairly soon.

On the audio book front, I listen to Under the Dome whenever I'm in the car doing errands or taking long trips, and to One Good Dog, which I think is ending soon, whenever I walk to and from the train or take my dog for walks.

This feels fairly normal . . . so I guess you are not the only one!

Usually I read one at a time, but sometimes I need a break and crack open a second and even a third book.

2 or 3 plus magazines such as the New Yorker.

I didn't even think to count magazines because I zip through those so quickly. ^_^

Magazines! Yes, always reading at least one National Geographic or Smithsonian in the bathroom, plus Runners World or Atlantic at breakfast, plus one of a number of magazines on my Ipad (New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, The Economist, and some lighter numbers) on the train ride home.

I'm not even going to get into other reading material like stuff for work and newspapers.

I used to read only one at once. Lately, however, I've got at least three that I'm reading at a time. Let's not even talk about my backlog of magazines. :-/

I used to be able to have three or more books going at once when I had the spare brain cells for it. Now I'll very occasionally get two going when I'm reading something weighty that really needs lots of attention and thus isn't good bedtime reading. I have to have something to read before bed, so I'll often have a volume of short stories or essays on my nightstand when I'm making a project of a doorstop book.

In reality, it's usually 3 (or 4 if you count Harper's or magazines) now -- one novel and one non-fiction on dead trees; one novel on my phone -- but I actually do prefer reading 1 at a time, which happens with the best of books, I think.

Magazines, heh. I used to write abstracts of articles in periodicals and was allowed to take the old copies. I've got 200 New Yorkers from 1993-1997. That wasn't the super long-form era, but still, hard to keep up with every week.

I can usually juggle a fiction and a non-fiction at the same time; and then there's the never-ending bathroom book, the book in the car, and now, like other's have said, i'll set aside Dance with Dragons for a bit, read 'the Sister's Brother's' over the weekend and then get back to Westeros once HBO has whet my appetite.
So how many is that...3 to 5 at any one time i guess.

I too have a car audiobook and a never-ending bathroom book. Also a kitchen audiobook, and a book in my bag that has been languishing ever since I got a smartphone.

Sometimes it depends on the book for me. Currently I have two on the go: the Ware Tetralogy and The Etymologicon. I'm finding I need "breaks" from each of the books. When I was reading the GRR Martin books I didn't read anything else at all.

Normally only one fiction, and possibly one or more nonfiction. When it comes to nonfiction I might only read certain parts, so there isn't often a clear boundary to say whether I'm done with a book or still reading.

If I do interrupt one long fiction book and start another, chances are I won't get back to the first one at all.

I tend to have 2-3 on the go. Mostly non-fiction but if I find myself getting bored to it I switch to whatever fiction peaks my interest.

With the kindle I find myself having a lot more on the go than previously. So easy to switch to another book when the reading gets boring. I have a lot more unfinished books since having a Kindle.

I read four at a time. I'm a German and French teacher, so I tend to do this:

1. ENG/fiction
2. ENG/non-fic
3. GER/lit
4. FRE/lit

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I usually have at least 3 going at once, often of different genres but not always. For me, it's usually an e-book (for reading on the train to school), a library book (for the return trip home on the train because my battery is usually too low), and a book from own stacks for reading at night, etc.

I've only recently rediscovered my love of fiction after nearly a decade of only reading for grad school, and I'm kind of going crazy with it at the moment. I'm hoping I'll settle down soon to concentrate on one at a time.

I always have one fiction book on the nightstand*, but often I only get through a few pages at night before falling asleep. I try to have a non-fiction book in my bag when I go out/to work, but it can take months to finish something.

I need to build more reading into my life. And probably less internet faffing around.


*One that I'm reading, I mean. There's usually a stack of four or five because OMG what if I ran out?!?!

2-3. One of those is a "car book" that I keep in there for those Starbucks hangout times. There is usually one lengthy fiction book on the nightstand as well.

Usually 2, maybe 3. Usually have one on my phone for the train to work (right now A Game of Thrones) plus a print library book or two (right now a collection of Irish short fiction).

Unless I'm also going through a collection of short stories, I only do 1 book at a time.

I usually have three: one on my Kindle, one in print for the tub and one audiobook for the drive to school and back.

Two, I've always got a cookbook\food related book going for after meals and then my other book for everything else.

I can (and occasionally do) add another book or two in there, but I usually churn through books fast enough that I get my variety from the turn over.

Right now I'm reading 3, but that generally means that none of the three is really holding my interest. If I'm really dug into a book, I don't come up from it till it's finished...

20-50. I treat them as one big book. But this is a problem.

I am actually not reading any books right now O_o which is strange for me, but I've been way busy with a lot of junk and every time I pick up a book -- any book -- I just tend to read the same page over and over again until I put it down. It's been odd, really. I'll get back into the swing of it when things calm down.

I have different books for different kinds of reading. I generally am reading between two and three books at a time. I have one for the commute which must needs be fairly plot driven and one for bedtime reading. If the one for bedtime reading is fairly tough reading, I'll have something easier to alternate with.

Around 4: One novel, one non-fiction, and then a couple of things that I'm dipping in and out of, usually anthologies of shorter pieces.

I mean to read one at a time but it tends to turn into 2, plus whatever never-ending read of some amazingly long book, like the Bible or my Modern Library "Basic Writings of C.G. Jung" that I've been working on for ages. Long complex texts are great for insomnia.

There's no limit because I'll stop reading a book in the middle and decide to pick it up years later. But then, I also post in discussions that are 8 years old. At least I don't post the Treaty of Westphalia.