In the High Peaks
















Sunday, September 5, 2010

A Quiz about a Particular Reading Habit


As you can see, my autumn header photo needs considerable work! I'm in progress...

Before I wander to the main point of this post, I will say I am so much happier and productive when temperatures are in the low 60s rather than the high 80s. We endured nearly seven full days of 87 degrees F and high humidity. I know many of you have experienced far worse, so feel free to complain here about terrible weather in your neighborhood!

The main point, the primary question of this post? I'd like your input. How many books do you have going right now? That's right, if you're willing, please count them right now, and, if you wish, name the titles.

What prompts you to read multiple books at one time? What motivates you to jump around amongst a number of titles? Please delve deep into the reasons for your behavior.


I'm asking you, my readers, the preceding questions because I hop around between and amongst books, depending on my mood. Sometimes I jump around and around, back and forth, then I fall hard for a book and I won't stray, not for a moment, until I've finished it. I'm experiencing this phenomenon now with Still Missing by Chevy Stevens. It's so compelling that the book demands to be read in one sitting. Of course, real life intervenes and I can't comply, but I plunge back in whenever I have some free moments.

So why do I jump around?

The most pressing reason is because there are so many books I'm yearning to read. How can I sit still reading just one book while so many demand my attention? I must confess I like to be surrounded by piles of books, and, no, I don't read them all, all at once. But usually I have at least two books going, and sometimes three. Oftentimes one of the books is nonfiction and the other fiction. Or, one's a slower-read or a classic, while the other is a gobble-it-up page-turner. So right now I'm hopping between Still Missing and Dragonwyck by Anya Seton. (Scroll down to my previous blog posts for more information about these titles.)

3 comments:

  1. Those photographs are beautiful, I'm so envious.

    I usually stick to reading one fiction book at a time at the moment it's Oracle Night by Paul Auster. I often have a non-fiction book on the go at the same time though. The kind you can dip into, often history. Unusually for me I've started Thomas Carlyle's Sartor Resartus. I don't think it is one for reading in a rush, it's probably quite hard going.

    I love your use of the word *oftentimes*. We dropped the *times* bit about 200 years ago I think. So New England or is it U.S.

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  2. Actually, only one at a time for me. I'd always been a "monogamous" reader until I started blogging, and then things got out of hand, and I started taking on a couple books at a time. What I realized after doing this for a while was that if I was reading two or more books at the same time I wasn't able to get totally engrossed in any of them, and I really missed that feeling of beeing totally "in" one book. So I went back to the old one book at a time me, and I'm really enjoying it and actually getting more books read than when I was reading a few at a time!

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  3. I always have multiple books going at once. It usually because I like to have different books for different moods. I'm almost done with The Jungle, which took quite a while because it's so depressing and I could only take 2 or 3 chapters at a time! Then I'm in the middle of The Girl Who Played With Fire, and I just love this trilogy so much that I don't want it to end, so I'm reading slowly and cherishing every moment :) Then I usually have a go-to book, which isn't too difficult to read but not too fluffy, which I spend the most time reading. Love the Fall photo you have posted here :)

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