Several Books at Once vs Focusing Your Energy on One Book

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Originally Posted by Mutatis-Mutandi

I could very well be misinterpreting what you meant with this statement Jozanny, but are you saying that only those with a high reading comprehension read multiple books at a time? I agree you have to have a high reading comprehension to do so, but for me, one book at a time is just personal preference.

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I suppose I should expand this to illuminate. I take Foucault very slowly, sometimes no more than a page or two a day, because philosophy is difficult for me, one, and two, I am less dismissive of him than Drkshadow, and his insights on the social pressure on the physical body are important to disability studies. I find, however, that to understand Foucault I need to understand Marx and Kant, thus I am in this for the long haul. Brian Greene may be more daunting still.

But a science fiction writer like Connie Willis? Strange as she is, I had her in lockdown in about five minutes, and an Asian noir author like Henry Chang is here today, gone tomorrow.

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Originally Posted by Jozanny

I suppose I should expand this to illuminate. I take Foucault very slowly, sometimes no more than a page or two a day, because philosophy is difficult for me, one, and two, I am less dismissive of him than Drkshadow, and his insights on the social pressure on the physical body are important to disability studies. I find, however, that to understand Foucault I need to understand Marx and Kant, thus I am in this for the long haul. Brian Greene may be more daunting still.

But a science fiction writer like Connie Willis? Strange as she is, I had her in lockdown in about five minutes, and an Asian noir author like Henry Chang is here today, gone tomorrow.

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This only confused me more, lol. It didn't really address your assertion between reading comprehension and the reading of multiple books.

And, of course philosophy takes more mental energy than genre fiction.

But, if Drkshadow, or anyone else on here, is involved in disability studies, I'd be very interested.

All right, let's try this: I can handle dividing my attention between say five novels and Foucault and someone like Ferguson in a month, but not Foucault and Sartre and Brian Greene at once, and I did not mean to imply that Drk is interested in disability studies, only that he doesn't like Foucault. I do, and I don't know what Foucault would have thought about it, but to the extent that disability studies has an intellectual voice, Foucault has been drafted in.

I enjoy Foucault too, I think some people take him far too seriously, but he is probably the most interesting of the post-war French philosophers. My ex once said about Foucault that it was "all so wrong, but so brilliant."

I breezed through the history of sexuality though, but you have to read it closely because Foucault isn't the most direct of writers. I'm sure my understanding of him is only superficial.

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Originally Posted by Jozanny

All right, let's try this: I can handle dividing my attention between say five novels and Foucault and someone like Ferguson in a month, but not Foucault and Sartre and Brian Greene at once, and I did not mean to imply that Drk is interested in disability studies, only that he doesn't like Foucault. I do, and I don't know what Foucault would have thought about it, but to the extent that disability studies has an intellectual voice, Foucault has been drafted in.

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Okay, understood now :nod:.

I usually like read one book at a time, and sometimes I'll have one fiction, and one non-fiction on the go to give me a break. I don't see a problem with reading more than one at a time, because you're reading things all day anyway - what's the difference between that and a book really? *ducks for cover*

I'm reading A Forsyte Saga at the moment and because it's pretty heavy, I have a light hearted non-fiction book on the go as a breather.

When I'm in between semesters at school I'll read multiple books at once in order to engulf as many as possible. Unfortunately I don't have the time or focus to do that so I only read one at a time during school.