Thursday, April 09, 2009

Booking Through Thursday - Numbers Game

Some people read one book at a time. Some people have a number of them on the go at any given time, perhaps a reading in bed book, a breakfast table book, a bathroom book, and so on, which leads me to…

Are you currently reading more than one book?
If so, how many books are you currently reading?
Is this normal for you?
Where do you keep your current reads?


These questions come at an interesting time, because I finished up my most recent read, Anthony Trollope's The Warden, right at bedtime last night and I have yet to decide what I'll start next.

Of course, I also have three books in languish mode at the moment - Eudora Welty's Losing Battles, which I haven't picked up in several weeks but fully intend to complete, The Metamorphoses of Ovid, in which I'm maybe 10 pages behind schedule, and Muriel Spark's All the Stories of Muriel Spark, from which I intended to parcel out one story a night but set aside after a major binge the very first night. But since I usually have two or three books that I read from in fits and starts, those don't seem to count: I'm between books right now. Check back later.

These books are all either on the library table by my reading chair or on the chair's ottoman. Whatever book I decide to read next will no doubt be started in that chair, or at the kitchen table if I decide by breakfast, and then will be placed in my tote bag along with my Kindle to accompany me wherever I might go when I leave the house.

Booking Through Thursday

10 comments:

  1. I like your term 'languish mode'...it has a much more pleasing ring than my 'inactive
    pile'.

    I still can't decide about a kindle. My cousin just got one for her husband. I'll have to play with it next time we see them.

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  2. Yeah, I am definitely in a transitional period too. Need to pick a new book. I just bought Pride and Prejudice and Zombies at the bookstore last night... I am thinking that will be my next book.

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  3. I really need to start reading another book :) I am only reading one at the moment, the horror

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  4. Ah, languishing books, yes, I have quite a few of those too.

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  5. Like JoAnn, I think "languish mode" is an excellent term. It sounds as if the book itself is taking a rest, rather than that it's incomplete because I have Reader's Attention Deficit Disorder. Lol. =)

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  6. I think books like The Metamorphoses of Ovid require concentration and close reading. I might ration the reading as it cannot be hurried. In that case I would most likely be reading something else that is lighter. But inormally I'm a book mongamist! :)

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  7. I want to read Ovid this year, too. I even recently bought a nice new edition of The Metamorphoses, but my good intentions don't always get me far.

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  8. I am currently reading several books at once, which is very unusual for me as I tend to like the focus that monogamous reading gives. My main squeeze is a reread of "Wives and Daughters" to end my end-to-end Gaskell reading, but I am travelling in early June so I am currently reading a Travellers' Tales (Ireland), Umberto Eco's "How to Travel with a Salmon," Nick Hornby "Shakespeare Wrote for Money," and Brian Fagan's "The Little Ice Age." All of these are easy to read in bits and pieces--essays, short bites, with discrete topics.

    I keep all bricks-and-mortar books bedside and take them to living room, bath as needed.

    My lovely iphone with Kindle and Stanza is always in my purse, so W&D Stanza-style is always at the ready should I need to pass the time whilst waiting somewhere.

    Oh yeah, I'm also getting Joyce's "Ulysses" via Daily Lit, and am about 4 emails behind because I've been travelling and reading on the computer is not easy.

    I bought Ovid's Metamorphoses last year, but have yet to crack it. Do you like it?

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  9. It's rare for me to be reading just one book. Right now I have six on the go: two in the bedroom, one in the bathroom, one in the kitchen, one that I carry around with me from room to room, and one I keep at work.

    One of the bedroom books is a book of diary entries, arranged by date, and I am reading each dates entry on that date, so the book will take me a year to finish.

    Several more are on hold for one reason or another.

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  10. Anonymous12:49 PM

    I usually have four or five going at once, stashed in various places like liquor bottles for an alcoholic.

    I keep a book of poetry or a play or an inspirational book on my night stand to read a few pages of just before sleeping.

    I read some sort of book on theology each morning along with a few chapters of Scripture.

    I keep a business related book on my desk at work, which I read one chapter out of each day and take notes on the content. Right now that book is Mindset! by John Naisbitt.

    Then I have a few others I pick up during odd moments and serious times of reading. These are usually biographies, fiction, books on historical or sociological topics, and classics.

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