Reading One Book at a Time or Several?

I read a lot.  It’s safe to say it’s my favorite hobby; maybe my only regular hobby.  Today I thought I’d write some things about reading that I have been jostling around in my brain for a very long time.

The thing that has been taking up my thinking reading-wise lately is whether it is better to read one book at a time, or the polar opposite, more than one.  I have read arguments for doing it either way.  The arguments all make very good points.  I personally read more than one book at a time.  I don’t know when I began to do it.  I know I read only one book at a time for most of my life.  I remember as recently as when I was working in NYC (1987-2004) I was reading only one book at a time.  When I retired in 2010 and moved to Lexington I was reading more than one.

On the plus side, it is a lot like watching various shows on TV.  I can enjoy a variety of programs and stories at the same time.  The only requirement is to remember what you are reading and where you left off.  The downside is that it takes me longer to finish any given book.  But as long as I am enjoying the book, why would that matter really? 

But there is a problem with multi-book reading and that is how many is too much?  And how do you schedule all of them (and you do need some sort of a schedule or you will get hopelessly lost in one or more of them)?  I’ve read as many as six simultaneously before, but have found 3-4 to be the optimal number.  I usually read only one fiction at a time while the rest are usually different types of nonfiction.  

Having said all that, at this time I am reading four.  The fiction should be read as a nonfiction math or philosophy book.  As is my general habit, a couple of the books are only “I’ll start to read them and see if I’ll like them” kind-of books.  I’ll as often stop reading them as not.  Often I’ll return to them at another time, but then I may not either.

One factor that has an impact on my decision is how much time I can reasonably devote to reading on a daily basis.  Obviously, the more time I have to read, the more books I may decide to read at the same time.  When I do that and then run into a time crunch or some other problem that affects my reading, I have to let some books go.  And regardless of whether that happens or not, and I have all the time I want, there comes a time in my reading that one book reaches the final stretch and I then drop the others to finish it. 

I guess in the end it will depend like so many things depend on: the situation.  And what I am reading of course.



(Cambria 12)