Do you read multiple books simultaneously?

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Do you read multiple books simultaneously?

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1clamairy
jan 16, 2007, 11:17 am

I always do. I used to limit it to one Fiction and one Non-Fiction at a time, but now I seem to have four or more going at once, much of the time.

What about the rest of you?

2Mantra
jan 17, 2007, 1:06 pm

I used to NEVER read more than 1 at a time, but for some time now I'm always reading at minimum 2 (actively) - usually a hardback at home and a paperback I carry around to work, etc. - and any number of non-fiction books that I'm reading off and on.

The only time I ran into trouble was when I was reading 2 different novels that dealt with Jackie Robinson at the same time. Things started to get jumbled a bit at times!

Mantra

3vpfluke
jan 19, 2007, 6:38 pm

I am currently reading a bunch of books, including four for a course in spiritual autobigraphy that I took this week: Louise Kehoe In this Dark House: a Memoir, Julius Lester Lovesong: Becoming a Jew, Dennis Covington Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia, and Kathryn Harrison The Kiss: a Memoir. The book, Searching for Your Soul: Writers of Many Faiths Share Their Personal Stories of Spiritual Discovery, by Katherine Kurs, the instructor, is out of print and we had photocopied extracts. The two books that I have been reading as a counterdote are Deep Ancestry: Inside the Genographic Project by Spencer Wells, and Seven Nights by Jorge Luis Borges. Lovesong and Seven Nights are the best written and recommended.
I tend to have a dozen books from the library checked out simultaneously, but some are just to look at and figure out whether I want to read it.
Bob Campbell

4bemidjian
jan 21, 2007, 5:49 pm

Greetings from Duluth

I usually have at least three books going at a time. The only restrictions, as Mantra points out, is to avoid works on similar topics. Currently I am on the Elvis biog, Last Train to Memphis, and The Poisonwood Bible, and Spook.

Dave

5clamairy
jan 22, 2007, 9:55 am

Welcome, bemidjian! Oh, please let us know how you are enjoying Spook, when you get the chance. I really enjoyed Stiff.

6Meridiani
jan 23, 2007, 1:19 pm

Long long ago, I would read one book at a time. Now, there are just too many books that attract my interest at any one time, so there are always several that I'm in the middle of. Last summer, the library in our neighboring town had a contest, in which you would keep track of how many hours you read and submit an entry for every ten hours. During that contest, I focused and read one book at a time. I found that I actually finished more books that way, but without a special focus I just follow my interests . . . which results in a large pile of books on, and next to, my nightstand.

7pdxwoman
feb 10, 2007, 1:24 pm

Being a student for, oh, I don't know, my entire freaking life, I guess I'll always be reading at least a half dozen or more books at a time. When I'm on break, I generally read one fiction after another and have a couple of nonfiction I'm poking at with a rather dull stick.

8vpfluke
feb 10, 2007, 4:58 pm

I just went to the library (libraries actually) and checked out Harry Potter and Philosophy, Borges: a life, Sacred Paths: essays on wisdom, love, and mystical realization, The Unending Mystery, Digital Photography for Dummies, From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow, Saxons, Vikings, and Celts, The Genius of Language: fifteen writers reflect on their mother tongues, Something Like an Autobiography, Sufism: Wisdom and Love, - edited by Jean-Louis Michon and Roger Gaetani. Looking at all of this, I see that "Sufism is not in librarything.com yet. I have a passing interest in traditionalism and this book has a foreward by Seyyed Hossein Nasr, so I thought I'd take a look at it even if I'm not really into Sufism. The books on Borges, and by Kurosawa represent an effort to complete a paper for a spiritual autobiography course I took in January, and due the end of March. "The Unending Myster" came up on a list of books I jotted down two years ago (my wife and I sometimes go to the lunar monthly labyrinth walk at Little Portion Friary (Anglican Franciscan). I also got "Sacred Paths" because I saw and decided to peak at it. "Squaw Tit" is about maps and I have a lrage map collection. "Saxons, Vikings.." represents my continuing interest in dna and population migration. "Digital Photography" was not ordered by me hrough interlibrary loan, but came to me anyway. My wife thinks I am a real klutz on our new digital camera (which I am), so maybe there is some backdoor stuff going on. Everyone likes Harry Potter, so I checked out the first mentioned book because of its link with philosophy. Most of these book came in via interlibrary loan, or I traveled to a libary other than North Bellmore on Long Island to get it.
By the way, it is neat how Touchstones work!
Bob Campbell

9ScarletLark Første besked:
feb 21, 2007, 7:31 pm

While you're waiting for bemidjian's response, I can gleefully say that I loved Spook! I found it very hard to put down, and there were a lot of times where I felt I was just bursting share all the tasty factoids I'd learned to just about anyone near me. I love ghost stuff, but generally more in a fictional sense and not where "parascience" is concerned, but if you've read Stiff, then you probably already know that reading a Mary Roach book inevitably leads to a much more engrossing, entertaining read than first impressions of the subject might imply. I think the most surprising/entertaining part of the book was the chapter on mediums... some of the things old timey mediums got away with really freaked me out (in a good way, of course). My conclusion: Read it, posthaste! You won't regret it and you'll probably never put it down!

10jjcopper Første besked:
feb 21, 2007, 8:08 pm

I use to never read more than one book at a time, until a friend of mine who is also an avid reader "corrupted" me. Now, I read at least four or five books at a time.

11bemidjian
feb 22, 2007, 11:27 am

Sorry. I sent my Spook by Mary Roach appraisal direct to claimary. I had never read Mary Roach before and tried this book on a whim when I saw it on the new books section at the public library. It is irreverant, often very funny, makes surprising connections, and is not what you want to read if you are planning a Lilydale vacation.

Current reads for me now are Crusaders in the Courts by Jack Greenberg, a good historical portrait of the landmark civil rights cases by an NAACP attorney who was an advocate in many of them. It would help if someone had done basic fact-checking, e.g. Harry Truman is twice identified as being the President in 1944 and a few other glaring problems, but it is a valuable read, especially for white guys who do not really have a clue how bad it once was to be non-white.

I tried Destined for Destiny. While I am a flaming liberal, the style of humor is not mine.

About to start the sixth Harry Potter.

And for pure recreation...Internal Revenue Service Publication 17.

Yes, I do have a small refund coming.

Dave in Duluth

12clamairy
Redigeret: mar 6, 2007, 7:47 pm

I bought Spook : Science Tackles the Afterlife today! I can't start it until I finish Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier (touchstone isn't working) but I think I'm going to ignore the rest of my ENOURMOUS TBR piles, and read it. :o)

13vpfluke
mar 8, 2007, 3:25 pm

Let us know how Spook: science is. - Bob

14clamairy
Redigeret: mar 15, 2007, 3:36 pm

Spook was quite good! I love Mary Roach's sense of humor. It was very informative, too.

15keigu
Redigeret: mar 19, 2007, 7:38 pm

I not only read several books at a time but write several books at a time.

However, note that the best books tend to be several books in one, do they not?

Look at Moby Dick, a bit o novel a bit o metaphysical musing a bit o novel a bit o musing. I wish more authors would do that, because i do not care to have all the fact and fiction mushed together as pablum.

Maybe we should work on splicing books, or to use the current musical term, mixing them.

Rise, Ye Sea Slugs!