How many books do you read at a time?

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Originally Posted by Koa

wow, I seem to be almost the only one who reads only one book at the time! :eek: 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.

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I don't feel so alone anymore...

1, always one. Can't keep my head with two or more plots at the same time, although sometimes enthusiasm does get the upper hand and I start to read another one. But that one gets finished before I start the first one again.

This does not include information-reading for essays and stuff, but that I usually do in a day or a few hours...

Although I should say I am reading two at the moment. Mrs Mortimer's 19th century views on the rest of the world is still in progress, but that is an inbetweeny for when my hubby is gone to the toilet and I am waitng to go out... :D I don't consider it serious, a little like the newspaper...

I have got in the habit of having multiple books going at the same time. I wonder how many of you have two, three, or more books being read at the same time? I've gotten into this habit, and the benefit is that if a book has some boring parts, you know you can put it down and go on to another book, then return to the first book a little later. I find that over a period of time, I read more than if I just force myself to stay on one book. Curently, I am reading the following:

The French Revolution by Carlyle
Fathers and Sons by Turgenev
Politics by Aristotle
The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov
The Torrents of Spring by Hemingway

I try to read some of each book on a daily basis, but I am never more than two days from reading some part of each. What about you?

Usually about three or four at once. Let's see, right now we have:

Heimskringla by Snorri
Paradise Lost by Milton
From Asgard to Valhalla by O'Donoghue (non-fiction)

All good stuff!

I really like the experience of reading a whole novel in one day (but I've never read more than 600 pages in a day) so I read books one at a time, even non-fiction. But I do keep up with blogs while I read.

I'm reading Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchel and The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama (I may or may not put this on hold or at least fast forward through certain parts). Online, I'm going to start The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and I've already started What Is Anarchism by Alexander Berkman.

I think it's a good idea to have no more than 2 fiction and 2 non-fiction books going at the same time. You have the diversity of 2 different subjects or stories without having an excessive load that makes it a long time to finish any of them, I don't know if that made sense. 4 seems a little excessive to me but I have to be reading fiction, I can go a long time without non-fiction.

I can go with 2 or 3 books at a time, though I absolutely can't read them one after the other. I need at least 4-6 hours to process the data in my head and repackage them into info I can use.

2 or 3.but it's horrible because it's very hard to focus on and instead of reading at once and done with them,actually it slows you down.

I usually read 2 or 3 at the same time. Which one I choose to read depends on my mood ;)

Right Now:
T.S. Eliot - Selected Poems
Tim Winton - Breath
Brain Caswell - Double Exposure (re-reading)

I might have ten going at the same time. This seems reasonable to me - you do ten subjects at school, why not read ten books when you are out of school? These books all tend to be different in subject matter and/or form. It wouldn't seem right to read Dickens and Hardy at the same time, but it seems fine to read Dickens and Homer.

I usually I read three or four. Right now I have going

Faust, part one by Goethe (reread)
Gravity's Rainbow by Pynchon (reread)
The Recognitions by Gaddis
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by Joyce (reread)
Finnegans Wake by Joyce (reread, have been rereading for the past 6 months, taking a break as of now though)

I like to read more than one book not only to keep me occupied, but to see if there is any connections between the works or how works contrast. The Faust rereading and the reading of The Recognitions is showing slight correlation and the Recognitions is a harsh contrast to Gravity's Rainbow.

I only read one novel at a time. I enjoy being immersed in the story.

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Originally Posted by CollegeGal09

I only read one novel at a time. I enjoy being immersed in the story.

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I'm with you on this one. I like to take one book at a time, if nothing else to keep from meshing styles.

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Originally Posted by mal4mac

I might have ten going at the same time. This seems reasonable to me - you do ten subjects at school, why not read ten books when you are out of school? These books all tend to be different in subject matter and/or form. It wouldn't seem right to read Dickens and Hardy at the same time, but it seems fine to read Dickens and Homer.

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I remember doing 4 subjects in high school and university. What school did you go to, lol.

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Originally Posted by dfloyd

I have got in the habit of having multiple books going at the same time. I wonder how many of you have two, three, or more books being read at the same time? I've gotten into this habit, and the benefit is that if a book has some boring parts, you know you can put it down and go on to another book, then return to the first book a little later. I find that over a period of time, I read more than if I just force myself to stay on one book. Curently, I am reading the following:

The French Revolution by Carlyle
Fathers and Sons by Turgenev
Politics by Aristotle
The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov
The Torrents of Spring by Hemingway

I try to read some of each book on a daily basis, but I am never more than two days from reading some part of each. What about you?

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I think it's quite boring to read only one book for time and not only because there are parts we don't like or like less in a book! I think the mind needs to receive multiple stimulus and of different nature. For this reason I use to reading three or four books at least and all of them of different subject. At the moment, since I'm deepening some aspects of the English and North-American life-style and culture with my students I'm reading a critical essay by Harold Bloom, "Genius", two novels by the English writer, EM Forster, "Howards End and "A room with a view", and the some selected poems by Emily Dickinson.
I

Well, I think it depends on book. If it is boring you need other one but, sometimes when you read an interestring bookyou won't need to alternate.