Book-lovers! Serial monogamy or a more free-wheeling approach?
Are you a serial monogamist or do you like to have several books on the go at the same time? For myself, I am rarely reading just one book. Sometimes I must admit that I spread myself too thin. Here’s a snapshot of what I am reading at the moment.
I am approaching the halfway mark of Niall Williams’ novel, History of the Rain (2014). I have a deadline for this one as we’ll be discussing it at my book group next week.
I am also a few chapters into Elizabeth Hawes’ Fashion is Spinach: How to Beat the Fashion Racket (1938), a fascinating and amusing account of the author’s adventures in the fashion business in the 1920s and 1930s. Moira at ClothesinBooks.com wrote about this on her wonderful blog: I often read books she has reviewed.
These are both London Library books. I didn’t want to take them with me when I was away for a couple of days earlier in the week, so I took a break from them and read Ellie Griffiths’ new novel, The Woman in Blue on my e-reader. Arriving home tired, I didn’t want to read anything the least little bit demanding: Agatha Christie’s Towards Zero was perfect.
There is also usually something on my e-reader that I keep for when I can’t sleep or wake up early. At present it is Ethel Lina White’s The Man Who Loved Lions.
Also by my bedside is a brand-new book, just out, Lab Girl: A Story of Trees, Science and Love by Hope Jahren. I’m 100 pages in and have had a bit of a break, but I do intend to finish it.
So that’s the state of play at the moment and I’d love to know how others organise their reading.
4 Comments
Martin Edwards
July 10, 2016Whilst (or because) my reading is not terribly organised, I usually find I have several books on the go at any one time.
Christine Poulson
July 11, 2016This can be rather confusing with crime novels and I do tend to read those one at a time.
Sue Hepworth
July 15, 2016I am shocked by your philandering, Chrissie. I couldn’t possibly have as many books on the go as you do. It sounds like the literary equivalent of channel-hopping, which I abhor. I like one book to immerse myself in, and if it doesn’t absorb me enough to be devoted to it until I have finished it, then I regard it as a disappointing read, and often give up. I do have one other book on the bedside table for when I can’t sleep, and it’s either a well-loved novel, or a book of short pieces, e.g. by Garrison Keillor, or Alice Thomas Ellis’s columns, or a poetry anthology such as Lifesaving Poems, ed by Anthony Wilson.
Christine Poulson
July 15, 2016I guessed that might be the case, Sue! I do tend to have at least two on the go: something ‘serious’ and something not so serious, though if I am enjoying something I will often drop everything and read that.