Readers have different methods, just like writers do. They choose their books differently. They read their books differently. As a reader, I used to be a die-hard one-at-a-time reader. I simply could not start reading one book if I was in the middle of another. It just didn’t happen. As I got older and had children, I had to learn to multitask. Eventually that spilled over to my reading, too. I would have two or three books going—one in my purse, one on my nightstand, one in the living room. I could put down one and pick up another without batting an eye. Usually they were wildly different books, too. A piece of classic literature, a more recently published novel and maybe, just maybe a non-fiction book sprinkled in.
But in the nine months since I’ve signed my book contract, my reading time has constricted. And in that shrinking, I find I can’t divide my attention between multiple books. I’m back to being a one-at-a-time reader. (The only exception to this is reading on the fly from the kindle app on my phone!)
How about you? Do you keep multiple books going at one time or do you finish one and start another? Do you read all in the same genre or, like me, do you have to have to intersperse contemporary and historical and mystery and classics (and, okay, non-fiction if you must!)?