I'm currently on one book, Don Quixote. I'm thinking about upping it to 3 to cover more ground when I get tired of reading a particular book (btw, Don Quixote is freaking fantastics).
How many books do you guys keep under the thumb at a time?
I'm currently on one book, Don Quixote. I'm thinking about upping it to 3 to cover more ground when I get tired of reading a particular book (btw, Don Quixote is freaking fantastics).
How many books do you guys keep under the thumb at a time?
No man should die without first reading the world's greatest literature.
one, only and ever one.
unless i'm reading a novel and at the same time some essay or history thing for study...but i dont consider that 'reading'. and it happens very rarely anyway.
dead on the inside, i've got nothing to prove
keep me alive and give me something to lose
Not including school books, I try to minimize my reading to as few books at a time, such as one, two, or three. The seldom times I do read more than one book, I usually ensure I read different genres, such as fiction combined with poetry (like now), or non-fiction.
Rarely can I focus on reading more than one book in the same genre simultaneously. I once tried reading The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain along with The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer and Agnes Grey by Anne Brontė. Though Schopenhauer seemed a difficult read, I had to set aside Mark Twain until I completed Brontė, which did not take long, feeling twisted in too many plots at once.
One at a time of course.
But when l'm tired of any book,l simply throw it away
and turn to another one:P
One, but when that one is very lengthy and is taking me a month to read I will sometimes stop and blaze through another very short book as a little intermission, and then get back to the big'n. When I do that though I also try to make the two as different as possible so nothing gets twisted around, like taking a break from MacKinlay Kantor's Andersonville with Robert Graves' bitty little The Siege of Troy.
I'm a one at a time man, with regard to fiction.
At this moment it are 4, but I think it's too many. But I have to say, it are 4 different genres and 3 of them take a long time to read them completely and aren't the books I read just for fun, but also to learn something from. And they aren't fiction. So 1, maybe 2 fiction at the time.
Huh. I seem to be the oddball, reading undetermined numbers of books at a time. I can't help it. I *try* to help it, but then there's always a new book begging to be started. Just now... Almost finished with Stranger in a Strange Land, halfway through Notre Dame de Paris (have been for a good year or so...), also midway through Peplum, and then there are the countless books that have gone back to the library overdue and unfinished, or even just gotten forgotten... I won't bother counting the books I read for my studies. I agree with Koa - those don't count.
I think my problem is locality. I have to have a book on hand at any given time, which means I have half-finished books all over the place. I have one that travels in my backpack as bus/train reading (Peplum) which is usually light enough that you can get away with reading just a few pages at a time. I have one I keep by my bed that I usually only read before I go to sleep. I'm usually working on an E-book (good for breaks in the library)...
Etc, etc, etc.
There are disadvantages, of course, and if I find a really good book, it comes with me wherever I go so I can read until I'm finished. But what I really like about this system, is that books seem to speak to each other. Even books you wouldn't suspect of having anything in common. It can be very nice.
100,000 lemmings can't be wrong. ~heard from a friend
Life is the first gift, love is the second, understanding the third. ~ Marge Piercy
Earth's crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God;
but only he who sees takes of his shoes. ~Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Well, I don't think I remember ever reading only one book at a time. The number of books (not related to study materials) varies, between 2 and 10 (wild guess), latelly Im finishing most of the books so right now I'm reading only... wow, 3, two Jeanette Winterson books (Art Objects and Art & Lies) and Brave New World. Though I'm about to borrow Seize the Day and if the someone who's supposed to return the book as in, two days ago, Metaphors We Live By.
I have a plan: attack!
betweewn 7 to 1
Most of the time I read only one book at a time, but if a book is very boring or hard to read, I might read it beside an other book.
wow, I seem to be almost the only one who reads only one book at the time!I thought it wasn't so common to read many at once...
Once I tried to read 3 books at the same time, but I said that to someone who told me it was 'very wrong' and I think that scared me off (I was a child). But I never really felt the need to read more than one anyway.
dead on the inside, i've got nothing to prove
keep me alive and give me something to lose
people generally have a difficult time believing it is at all POSSIBLE to read more than one book at a time. especially when you're in school. it makes me cring when i hear people say the only reading they do what they have to read for school. ERG. however, it's like you say, sometimes certain books get kinda slow, kinda boring etc. you still wanna finish them, but you also wanna stay intrigued and stimulated. i also like to have a book just for by the bed to read before sleep...it gives me something to look forward to. plus one with good portability to throw in my bag with everything else! and then, there is always one kind of staple that is never very far that i will often read sectionally whenever the mood hits me.
Koa, i once had a teacher wail on me for walking and reading. she took my book away. i SO remember it. than, she "made" me go "play" rather than walk around reading all recess. who does that? i say go for it! read the three books at once! spite the inappropriateness of all horrid literacy un-advocates!
it's a funny thing this reading business.
Last edited by faintingink; 05-01-2005 at 10:01 AM.
I usually try to stick with one book at a time, also. Even if I read more than one book of different genres, I have difficulty focusing, but with a few exceptions, such as reading textbooks for school, along with leisure reading with novels, poetry, essays, etc. Only with very few books, additionally, have I set aside to read another; when picking up the book again, I realize how much I have forgotten, and how much interest I have lost.Originally Posted by Koa
wow, I seem to be almost the only one who reads only one book at the time!
Once I tried to read 3 books at the same time, but I said that to someone who told me it was 'very wrong' and I think that scared me off (I was a child). But I never really felt the need to read more than one anyway.
I've heard that reading multiple books and getting used to it is supposed to help you focus, because you have to think about what you're reading or somthing. Anyways, I usually am reading 1 fiction, 1 current-social-political type book, and a Short Story book. Right now I'm reading those plus Paradise Lost which is awsome by the way.
...Also baby duck hat would be good for parties.
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