I was looking through my library and noticed eleven (I counted!) books with bookmarks sticking out! Meaning I'd started reading them, stopped at some point, and started reading something else, eventually replacing them on the shelf. Over on my desk are two books about half way read. On my computer were tabs with dozen articles from the dozen news sites. So I realized I'm the kind of person who likes to read several things at once and switch between them for variety. Anyone else around here do this? Do you like switching things up and cross referencing things you just read out of one thing with another or do you prefer to focus with laser precision on a single thing and master it before moving on? Do you like to read different things for different moods and times of day or hunker down with a single volume and let it direct your feelings?
I have many books on my bookcase that have markers still in them, unfinished books. If I don't read a book in large chunks I get distracted and stop reading. I have had several virtual books (on my ereader) that vanish as the borrow dates expires. Do I crossed reference/switch my reading material? No I don't. Its one thing at a time until it is finish or discarded.
This sounds like me. I have many books I haven't finished reading. Usually it's not because I don't like the book, but rather because something else came up that demanded a lot of my attention (sometimes these are work-related). Occasionally I've even forgotten that I was reading a particular book, and I pull it out of the shelf, eager to start, and find it seems familiar, and then I spot a folded corner marking the page I stopped ... "How about that? I started reading this book five years ago!" I'm terrible that way. Sometimes I feel like it's my duty to finish a book - it's a classic, so I have to read it through. This is how I got through Ulysses and Moby-Dick. (I loved both of those books, but there are parts that are dull or difficult or both.) I'm kind of circling Gravity's Rainbow with the same attitude - it'll be tough, but at some point I'm going to have to buckle down and read the damn thing. I'll probably love it, too, but it'll be work.
There should be another option in the poll as ordinarily I always finish the book I'm reading before moving on to the next but currently I've got three on the go. This transpired primarily because my wife and children have a tendency to move a book forcing me to start another before the original book surreptitiously appears again at a later date.
I usually have 3 or 4 books I read at once. I try to have it so that I'm reading one collection of poetry, one work of fiction, and a nonfiction book. That way I can choose what to read based on my mood.
Sometimes but I marked never because you left it off the options. I usually have a audio book going in the car while reading one at home plus I have a handful of books I'm using for research for my novel but those aren't books I read straight through.
I'm actively reading at least 4 books at the moment and then there're a few I'm planning to get back to later. I rarely read just one novel at a time 'cause I pick the reading depending on my mood. At some point I had 4 books in 4 different languages underway, and that just got way confusing. For some reason French and Swedish get easily mixed in my head. English, on the other hand, remains quite neatly in its own brain compartment.
Before Kindle I usually had 4. The Car Book The Bed-Time Reading Book The Prolonged Potty-Break Book. The Living Room Book.
This is interesting - I never even thought to separate these! I usually have a poetry book on my bed, but it never occurred to me to say "I'm reading this book of poetry." I always tend to think I'm reading poetry just to fill in the time when I'm not reading, you know, books. Also, I don't count nonfiction for some reason. I'm always reading books on writing, and sometimes I'm reading books on science or the history of science. I don't know why, but I never think of these books when someone asks, "What are you reading?" When I'm asked that question, I only think of novels.
i will mostly finish one first, but if i start one i get bogged down with, but am not sure i want to give up completely, i'll put it aside for later... doesn't = reading both concurrently, but it does mean i sometimes don't finish one before starting another, but you don't allow for 'sometimes' in your poll...
Aw dude, you're missing out on some great nonfiction. Especially Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, which is considered by many to be one of the greatest books ever written.
It's good, but greatest? Those people have to be kidding themselves pretty hard or trying to look cool to all the other history buffs. Like people who say "Reconstruction" was their favorite book, or "A tale of two cities".
I don't think the people who loved the book are judging it on historical accuracy or anything like that. They're looking at the language that Gibbon used and the accessibility of the text. That's what they mean when they say it's one of the best books ever written.
