For those who read multiple books in parallel, how does that usually go for you? In a given day, do you read a little of all your books? How much do you read in one book at a time before switching? How many do you read at once?
I’ve tended to end up just focusing on a single book when I’ve tried parallel reading in the past, so I’m curious how it goes for others.
by panda_vigilante
38 Comments
When I was on deployment, I would read multiple books at the same time. Usually, at night, I’d start with the hardest one, then after I got tired, switch to the easier book, then when I got really tired, switched to a graphic novel before bed.
I just read whatever I’m in the mood for. It might be three days in row of book A, or book A B and C in a single night.
I always read at least two. I read one book whenever I can during the day and listen to a different one when I’m out or do things around the house.
Mostly, though not strictly, I read different books at different times of the day. Novels, memoirs, book club books on paper or kindle in the evenings; audiobooks on any topic during my commute, walks, housework; business, self improvement, management in the mornings or during work breaks.
2 things:
First, I have audio books for work and kindle for home. Those are separate by necessity.
Second, I read whatever holds pop up on libby. There’s usually one author that is my main squeeze, and then a backup series in the case of poor timing.
2 at most. My main genre is crime and thrillers. When I read more factual books that require more concentration, I switch for a break. Mostly I stick to one at a time
I read two books at once, one fiction, one non fiction. I simply alternate the days of reading. One day i read the fiction, next day i read the non fiction. Been doing this for about 3 years now and it’s the best way I’ve found to read multiple books.
I usually do an audiobook, a physical book, and an ebook. I make sure the genres are different so I don’t get confused. I do audio when I’m doing things, physical at home relaxing, and ebook on the go. Sometimes I get really into one of them and finish it way before the others. I can read a little out of all three in one day or only one. I don’t have rules.
I used to do 2 novels at the same time, one in English, which is typically plot driven, and another in Chinese, which is often characters driven. I probably do one each for every month.
Recently I had added an audiobook, typically English non fiction when I am driving, cooking, or recovering in the bath.
For May, I am doing:
Empire of Silence
我在北京送快递 – a Courier in Beijing
the Splendid and the Vile – Audiobook
So far so good.
My strategy isn’t very complex. Typically, I’m listening to at least one audiobook and juggling 2-3 ebooks at a time. I listen to audio while driving, on walks, or doing housework. When I’m reading, I read whatever I’m in the mood for and switch when I need a break. It’s good for me to have something lighter or more fun when I have something dark or really dense going so I can lighten my mood when necessary. I’ll finish some books in a sitting, while others might take me a few weeks if I’m just dipping in and out.
As a kid I did this a lot. As an adult, I still do it weirdly enough, but not as often. If a book tires me, I switch. And sometimes when I am in the mood, I go to continue some old loved and trusted tome I may already have read a Dozen times – like LOTR, Tom Clancy trash or some Philip K Dick.
like others have said, different mediums, locations, and times. I have a daytime print book, a nighttime ebook and audiobook, a weekend book, etc.
I always have a fiction audiobook and a non fiction actual book on the go. In a way, I prefer the story of a fiction book being ‘told’ to me. At the same time, I don’t like non-fiction audio books because I find factual information like scientific concepts, much harder to retain only hearing the information.
I pretty much read by vibes so it’s just whichever one I’m in the mood for at the moment. I’ve got about 8 books going currently. 🤷♀️
If I am reading a book that is scary or disturbing, I will have a different lighter themed book for bedtime reading, so I can get to sleep more easily.
Also if my main book has a tiny font I will have another book in the bedroom with an easier to read in poor light layout as my sight is not what it was.
I usually keep a longer book or two and a couple shorter novels/novellas. It depends on what I’m in the mood for at the time and I switch a lot depending on the day, but usually it just comes down to what I’m in the mood for at the time. If the longer novels start to slog I’ll pick up the shorter one, read it for a bit, and then come back to the longer one.
I read books for book clubs (both r/bookclub and in person book clubs) so I keep a lost of books and due dates that I work primarily off of. Then I also borrow books from the library (usually for a book club, but not always), so add those due dates too. Then, I work on them for each due date. For reddit’s bookclub we don’t read more than 100 pages weekly usually, which is where a lot of my parallel reading typically comes from.
This week, for example: the next section of Leviathan Wakes is due Saturday, the next section of A Darker Shade of Magic is due next Monday, then I’ve got online book club on Sunday I’m trying to read another book for that I haven’t started yet (it’s a theme so we’re all reading different ones, I’ve already read one but want to do another), and then I had a library hold come through I want to finish before next week because next week I’ll have to read two more books for clubs! It’s a science trying to fit it all in but I haven’t had confusion reading anything yet, and at most I read 5 books at a time.
I don’t do it as much anymore, but would generally have 3 different books going. One dense or challenging book, often classics, one non-fictuon, and one light best seller.
I would just pick up whichever one appealed the most at the moment, not specific pattern or plan.
I have been doing all that only recently, but Dracula broke it for me.
I’m readying Dracula, Carmilla (a volume with short stories including Carmilla) and Dune. I think the best thing what you can do while parallel reading, is to choose majorily different books. Dracula and Carmilla is just boring english men being haunted at different capacity.
I also try to read one book in English, one in Russian, so languages want become jumbled in my head. Which actually happens. Dracula sucks in English even more, but I will admit that reading it as an adult is more compelling.
It’s easier with audiobooks, particularly in digital form. You don’t have to worry about your bookmark getting lost or anything like that. I tend to just flip back-and-forth and click on whatever strikes me is interesting at any given time. Sometimes I stay on it for a couple of hours or a couple of days. Other times I get bored in five minutes and click off to something else.
I tend to just focus on a book or two – generally one fiction and one nonfiction – for a few days then I pick up something else and so on. Idk, there’s no real thought to it. Generally I read like 10 books at a time and read some of each one at least every few days but sometimes I get hooked on a book and ignore all the others for it. Also, it should be mentioned, 10 seems like a lot but at least half of them are collections: short stories, poems, essays, whatnot. With these one doesn’t run the risk of neglecting for too long and thereby forgetting.
I read multiple books simultaneously for the sake of my mental health. Some things are very heavy, so I need edifying, refreshing books to balance it out.
I have a pile of 8-10 books next to my reading chair. Most all genres represented, including periodicals, literary magazines, poetry, short stories, non-fiction and graphic novels. There are also academic texts, and books in translation.
I think of it as choosing which friend I’m going to visit in that moment. Some books I read cover to cover on a rainy afternoon, because they are an absolute hoot, some I read for 20 minutes between laundry loads. Some I carry with me to appointments to read in the waiting room. Some are tomes that I read for two months. Some are on-again, off-again. Some are DNFs.
Current reading list:
– Fascist Spectecal, which is about the aesthetic history of Mussolini’s regime. This is an academic publication, and just plain depressing content.
– A Stitch In Time, which is a Star Trek book
– Mister Blue by Jacques Poulin, a creative nonfiction title detailing the author’s internal dialogue, struggle tow write, and generally full of ennui.
– Mahmoud Darwish’s Why Did You Leave The Horses Alone, which is Arabic poetry translated to English.
– What Adults Don’t Know About Architecture, a children’s book.
– A local indie literary magazine.
– A graphic novel from my library.
– An A.C. Grayling title.
– Will Ferguson’s Road Trip Rwanda.
– Culverts Beneath The Narrow Road by Brenda Schmidt, which is a poetry collection about culverts in Saskatchewan. It’s simultaneously silly and risky poetry.
Just live life. Read what interests you at the time you want to
Edit:
What helps me is a light jacket with pockets big enough for books. I just pull something off my shelf I want to (continue to) read that day and head out.
If I don’t finish a book in 2-3 days the odds are that I’ll put it down somewhere and forget about it. Then the next time I remember I have books I’m usually in the mood for something else. Eventually I’ll circle around and finish them, but who knows how long that’ll take…
I read one book during the day, listen to part of another on Librivox during my daily walk, then read a third out loud to my wife in bed at night before we go to sleep.
I have a very long tbr but I have a short list that I work through. It always contains one of each
* contemporary fiction
* classic
* memoir
* social issue (race, reconciliation, feminism, those kinds of things)
* woo woo / metaphysical
* long series reread (i.e. Outlander series which I’m working through for the second time)
So I’m basically reading this short list concurrently depending on my mood. Sometimes I’ll only be focused on a few of them at a time. But once I finish the short list, I add another short list of six to my storygraph currently reading list and work my way through them. I listen to audio while painting or in the bath so I might listen to a few books a half hour each, or one book for the day, depends on my mood and what I feel like. But the short list really helps.
For me, they need to be different genres… if I read a scary or serious book during the day, I like something light and fun right before bed. Sometimes I have an audiobook for one book that I’ll listen to on drives/walks and a physical book for a bath or bed.
I’ve found I’m able to focus more on difficult topics in the earlier part of the day compared to night. If the book I read at night is very interesting I often stay up too late, which doesn’t help the next day at all. So handheld paper books in the day time – usually a mystery or a classic, short stories on audiobook while I sew or do chores around the house, a romance novel on my phone if I have to wait somewhere or travel/commute, an easy to read classic or something that I have read multiple times, so I can nod off to sleep at night without missing the story. I can track stories pretty well so at a time I’m reading around 4 books at a time, not counting Audible.
I will read 1 fiction and 1 non fiction book at the same time. Sometimes I want to learn, sometimes I want to escape. Some days it’s all one or a mix depending but usually I like to read nonfiction to help me fall asleep.
Usually whatever I’m feeling but the typical pattern is non fiction during the day and fiction at night to help relax for the day. If I get really absorbed by one book I’ll just read it for a few days though
I tend to go nesting doll. Start a book, jump to something else, then do it again. Then finish that third book, go back and finish the second book, then return to the first book and finish that, etc.
I absolutely do not try and evenly read my way through or spend equal amounts of time with each book, nor do I have a maximum number of books. I don’t take any notice of that at all. I just read what I’m in the mood for. This varies depending on lots of factors, including fiction/nonfiction, ebook vs audiobook, am I starting a new book or picking up where I left off, which book am I finding most compelling right now, do I need something a bit less mentally demanding right now or am I alert and up for it, if I start this chapter am I going to stay up all night reading til the end, etc etc
I also don’t force myself to finish a book if I’m not into it, so sometimes I start a book and then I just…never get back to it. I don’t necessarily consciously decide to stop reading it but I just keep reading what i’m in the mood for and oop, turns out i was never in the mood for that one again lol
The thing is I don’t think focusing on a single book for a while rules out parallel reading. I sometimes do that because maybe you’re midway through a book already and then you start a new one and it’s just a page turner so you finish it and then you go back to the book you already started, I’d count that as reading more than one book at a time. As opposed to people who will not start a new book until they finish the book they’re already reading.
I like the variety. I just switch back and forth evenly.
I always have two books going at a time: one physical book, one on my phone/ipad. My work has lots of little down time to fill, while you are waiting for a lab run to finish before you can start something else. So I have these little 10 min increments that are unusable for anything but reading. So I read on my phone.
At home, before bed, I read my physical one.
At any point I can get absorbed in one and then I’m reading it everywhere, but mostly they stay separate.
I have a big brain book and a tired brain book, for however I’m feeling on a given day.
I’m very much a mood-based reader, so I’ll pick up whichever of the books that suits my mood at the moment. If I’m just starting out on a few books (like I just picked up a stack at the library) I’ll typically rotate through all of them at first to get an idea of them. If a book really catches my attention, I’ll focus on that one and leave the rest until I’m done, but usually that doesn’t happen until I’ve gotten pretty far into it. Really dense books I’ll often only read in small chunks interspersed with a lighter read when my focus starts to flag. Also, I typically have an audiobook or two that I’m working on when I’m driving or working with my hands.
In other words, it’s kind of all over the place. I don’t read multiple books at once because I am actively *trying* to do so, I do it because that’s just how my brain works.
I have one book on my living room table that I read whenever I’m home.
I have one book in my backpack that I read when I’m out and about, usually on public transit.
I have one book in my workplace locker, which I read on breaks and lunch.
I have one audiobook ready on my phone, for time spent doing chores or when I’m walking.
This all works very well for me. The only guideline that I try to stick to is that my workplace book is usually something slower paced. It makes it easier not to lose the thread of the plot between days off etc.
During my experience of reading books in parallel, I would read just one of them in a given day. Some days I would be reading the same book each day but other days I would swap around.
I think I rarely read parts of more than one book a day. I don’t do it anymore. Not that it affected my enjoyment of the books, but I was just on a reading kick and was reading a lot for a period of time.