Sunday Book Brunch – Reading multiple titles

How many books do you read at the same time?

Are you one of those people who read one book at a time? Do you like to have several titles on the go at any one time?

I’ve been asked this quite a bit recently as I read a lot of books as you can imagine. I used to be the person who reads one book, finishes it and puts it down. However, I read several titles at once now as I have this urge to read as much as possible. I go into a bookshop and realise there just aren’t enough hours in the day. This doesn’t sound relaxing does it? But I read differently when I want to relax.

The joys of reading more than one book at the same time

Reading in store

Read at different speeds

I read historical fiction slower than crime fiction. Why? There’s often more detail and plot lines which flit between various times so require more concentration. When I fancy a classic, I read that slower still as the language isn’t modern. When you read a few books, you can leave the one you need to think about or have a  break from, and then go back to it, whilst reading the others in the meantime.

Some books I read for scouting purposes, others I read as I’ve chosen them myself. On top of that, people send me books or I wander past a bookstore and a novel jumps out at me and makes me buy it. Choosing one and having the others line up ready to be read…well that would stress out the little darlings so I don’t do it.

Reading according to mood

When it’s cold outside, I want to read crime for some reason. When it’s nice and sunny, I often feel like something more light-hearted. I can have a pile of crime books but if I’m tired or sad, I just don’t want to go there. I’m a huge mood reader – what about you?

Crime thrillers

Romantic reads

Reading to travel

I haven’t got a time machine sadly. With books, I can travel back in time, forward in time, spend time in someone else’s shoes, and of course travel to anywhere in the world at the drop of  a hat. This is SO addictive. I was in a ski lodge in Sweden last week, have been to London, Peru and Croatia on a boat recently and am currently solving a murder in Darwin,  in the middle of a drugs cartel in Cuba and am about to visit a Botanic Garden in Edinburgh …no wonder I’m tired.

Books in different languages

Do you read books in different languages? I find I can read books in similar genres or on similar subjects more easily if they are not in the same language. I like to think I’m exercising my brain. To me, this is a sport. The only one I do if I’m honest.

Books set on a beach

Citybreaks in books

Take advantage of the book’s many journeys

Read a paperback on the sofa, peruse a kindle on your commute, listen to an audiobook in bed. I also find I read books very quickly on trains as the noise of the rails sets me on a rhythm. Years of playing music to a metronome perhaps. No? Just me?

BookTrail it to any country in the world

Package Holidays in Books

Book magic

I remember reading a novel about Samuel Pepys and his life at the time of the Great Fire of London so I was fully immersed in that world. Then I started to read a saga book which happened to be set at the same time and which contained snippets of information that I’d read in book one. Another novel had a dual time line where the historical part was partly set in the years leading up to the fire. Whilst this one didn’t mention it in particular, it described the way of life then, how women lived and the sense of how the city was growing. All three books painted quite a remarkable picture of London :that setting, that destination and that time.

Do you read multiple books at the same time and why?

Susan