A month into the new year, and it seems I’m doing well on my resolution to accurately track what I am reading and review books that are on their way. Since I’ve done a lot more personal non-review reading than I have been, it’s been particularly nice to capture those books (I’m using GoodReads and welcome new friends if you want to follow me).
I logged in this weekend to add a couple of books that I started reading and noticed that brought the total on my currently reading shelf to nine. I am almost always reading more than one book, but NINE? It seems like an awfully lot, but looking at the breakdown, it makes sense in its own way. I’ll explain mine if you’ll leave a comment and tell me about your habits.
AUDIOBOOKS:
One reason that I have multiple books going at once, even multiple novels at once, is because I love audiobooks. I can “read” them while I’m driving, while I’m doing housework, when I’m too tired to read etc. etc.
For that reason, when I decided to download Wuthering Heights on my Kindle, I took advantage on the special low-cost whispersync audio, where I could listen when I wanted, and read when I wanted. I made some good headway, but then it got set aside, but I like having it sitting on that virtual shelf to remind me.
A week or two ago, I started listening to CDs, in the car, of the 3rd book in Gabrielle Zevin’s YA Birthright series, In the Age of Love and Chocolate. It’s slow-going, because I didn’t put it on my ipod, but I’m still listening.
I wanted a book on my ipod for my recent trip, and thinking about The Fault in Our Stars movie, I decided that I wanted to reread it, so I loaded it up on Thursday and got started.
Having three audiobooks on my list has definitely pushed my “currently reading” total higher than usual.
NOVELS
I’m always reading at least one novel and sometimes more than one because I generally have one on my Kindle and one “hard copy.” I have reasons for the four novels that are currently on my list now as well:
The main novel I was reading is Burn, the third in Julianna Baoggott’s trilogy. I’m liking it, and I even have extra pressure to finish it quickly, because my daughter wants to read it too — but I generally don’t take hardcover books on flights, so I left it behind.
I had barely begun Maddie Dawson’s The Opposite of Maybe on my Kindle, so I knew that would be good reading fare.
But when you are on an airplane, you can’t use your e-reader at takeoff and landing, so I always have a paper copy too. I brought Liv, Forever, a YA boarding school paranormal mystery that I’m enjoying immensely.
The fourth book is a result of a common reason for multiples. I started A Little Irish Love Story on my Kindle a while ago, and I like it fine, but it’s a little slow, so I sort of forgot about it as I got pulled into more pressing and exciting books. I want to know how it ends, so I’ll finish it.
NON-FICTION
Another reason I always have more than one book going at a time, is because I’m generally reading some sort of fiction and non-fiction.
I started Trapped Under the Sea: One Engineering Marvel, Five Men, and a Disaster Ten Miles Into the Darkness before any of these books, almost a month ago. It’s the kind of gripping narrative non-fiction that I usually love. It’s been a little slow-going, but I think I was just a bit burned out on narrative non-fiction. I’ll pick it up again, but it might stay on the list a while.
I was inspired to read Kelly Corrigan’s Lift after I read her most recent memoir, Glitter and Glue (linked to my review). Lift is a microscopically short book that I’m enjoying. There’s no real reason that I’ve been reading it for weeks.
I know that nine is totally out of hand, and since I’m in the last quarter of three of them, the list will shrink, but I want to hear about your reading habits. Leave me a comment and let me know how and why your “currently reading” list grows larger than you think it should. Or do you ordinarily handle multiple books at once with no regrets?
Gidgets Bookworms says
My stack is always growing between library books and ARC copies for my book review blog I think it\’s a bottomless pit. But that is OK I would be sad if I came to the bottom and had nothing to read.
Jennifer says
I agree that I can’t imagine ever coming to the bottom! Not having anything to read would be awful. That said, I’d like to narrow the stack of books that I have going at one time. Nine is a bit excessive.
Kim says
I have a lot on my “currently reading” shelf, but I’m only *actually* reading two books – a novella and a short story collection. All the rest are ones I started and then set aside for one reason or another. I was just thinking that I really need to read or DNF the rest, it’s bugging me for them to just sit on the “currently reading” shelf! I think the biggest issue is that most have been sitting for so long that I really need to start over.
Jennifer says
That is another reason that some remain on my list a while. Like you said, I’m not really “currently” reading them after a while. In this case, I really am pretty actively reading five of them, which is weird.
Jen Robinson says
This post so made me laugh, Jennifer. I don’t know that I’ve gotten to 9, but I always have at least 3 going these days: one on audio, one on Kindle, one in print. Travel will increase that number for me, too, especially if I’m near the end of a print book (not worth carrying it to finish it), or if it’s heavy. I tend not to count the books that I’ve put aside unfinished, as I rarely do get back to them.
Jennifer says
What’s even funnier is that I started the post, because I thought I had 7, but then counted the 8th, and realized the 9th I had started that weekend! Three or four isn’t unusual for me, because I have the same travel “issues” you do, and sometimes I’m reading kidlit, YA, and adult novels, but 9 was a little out of hand.