Thursday, April 9, 2009

Monogamous reader, dirty two-timer, or philanderer?

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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…

  1. Are you currently reading more than one book?
  2. If so, how many books are you currently reading?
  3. Is this normal for you?
  4. Where do you keep your current reads?
As a kid I read many books simultaneously. I also read certain books over and over because I loved being inside their world, but read other new ones at the same time. I was greedy to read as much as I could. After college I became a more monogamous reader. As an actor and director I wanted to immerse myself in the world of the character completely and not get distracted. It was an all or nothing affair. Lately, I have begun to read multiple books again, as you can see from my side bar. Yes, I confess, I'm a philanderer. Seven are officially on at the moment, although the one on the top - Little Boy Lost - I finished last night (terrific, I'll write about it soon). Middlemarch is an ongoing project that I'll probably finish by the summer, because I simply enjoy reading it that way. The book on Japan I was sent by a publicist and I dip into it every now and then, the two books on development I was reading for school unassigned, but I have so much official reading for school now that I will not finish them until after exams. Treasure Island I started on a whim because Verbivore mentioned Robert Louis Stevenson and it was staring at me from the shelf. And the Isaac Babel stories was recommended by the author Sasa Stanisic. I love the stories, but they are too intense to read all at one go. Lately this is typical for me. Often one of the books on the current list becomes a wishful thinking read and eventually falls off. There is a certain kind of book I really want to read all in one go, usually contemporary fiction and usually something under 300 pages - like Little Boy Lost. Once I started it I couldn't stop and I think I knew that it would be that kind as I bought it. Some books you open and you read and others take you by the neck. This was one of the second kind. My current reads all live by my bed, but on the tops of various piles, otherwise some of them get buried and I forget to read them.

5 comments:

Olga said...

Sometimes I wish I were more of a monogamist, but there are just too many books to read. How will I ever get through my personal AND the public library's collection if I stick to one book at a time?

PS--I love the name of your blog. :)

Jess said...

I am a philanderer as well -- you caught me.

J.S. Peyton said...

I'm a dirty ten-timer. I say, at this point, I might need counseling. I wasn't always this way. Once upon a time I was a monogamous, faithful reader. Now I cheat with anything that has an attractive cover and a good first paragraph. I'm hopeless, really.

JoAnn said...

Another good term I've found today...a 'wishful thinking' read!
I just took Nick Hornby's Housekeeping vs. the Dirt off my current reading list. It had been there for almost 2 weeks and I hadn't really even started it.

Anonymous said...

usually one but sometimes up to three. No more than three because I'll be schizophrenic! With Russian literature, one is more than enough because all these characters have such long names.