How I Manage to Read Several Books at One Time

Recently, a friend on Facebook was talking about her reading routine, noting that she was reading more than one book at a time and wanted to know if other people did that too. Even though I have talked about this with other people on Facebook, it’s definitely a topic that I love to keep going! I love talking about reading books just as much as I love talking about writing books. (Eventually, I’ll jump into the conversation about publishing books too.) I let her know that I was currently reading 6 books at a time. (I later actually counted them and saw that it was actually 7. Oops! Crazy I couldn’t keep count. LOL) She wanted to know how I managed to read so many books at a time. I gave her the short answer, but the more I thought about it, the more a longer answer developed.

 

Yes, I am currently reading 7 books at one time. Here is how I do it:

 

First of all, I don’t read all 7 books in one day. I separate the books depending on what I am doing on that particular day.

 

I have started using my weekends as an opportunity to learn about things. Since I am unable to afford online courses (and even the free courses are saying I need to pay eventually or they charge extra fees for things), I read books. I know this is not the same benefit as actually taking a course, but it’s what I’ve got for now. Besides, a book is written by someone who is supposedly an expert on a topic, so I trust what the author is telling me to be good information. I just have to make sure that information is current! (I’m looking at you, you 1972 copy of human anatomy.) So, yes, I am trying to learn about things, even if I come to realize that it’s not a topic for me to pursue further. For example, one book I was reading was about songwriting. I have written over a hundred song lyrics, but I never actually learned the specifics of songwriting. But learning about those specifics pretty much rained on my parade because I couldn’t understand the technical details and I also realized that it will actually be hard to write songs if I can’t hear music. So, lyric writing will pretty much remain a hobby for me. Now I’ve taken on reading books on finance, since I am interested in it. I am also learning about another subject I am interested in pursuing, but I want to learn as much as I can about it before making that decision. Also, since I do research for a book I’m writing, I read that topic book as well. So, that’s three books I read on the weekends.

 

During the week, I read two other books. I keep a record of a process of working my way through the hundreds of books that I own. I have several different kinds of books (I could have my own personal library, seriously). Since I want to work my way through them all, I put together a list of categories based on the books I have, as well as throwing in the occasional library book, because I LOVE getting books to read from the library. I call it my “reading routine.” I choose two books under different categories and read those. I used to stop at that particular category when I finished reading both books on the same day, but now I finish off other books in that category.

 

These are my categories:

 

First:

Novel

Poetry

 

Second:

President book (or related to a current president I am reading about)

Nonfiction book

 

Third:

History

Series book

 

Fourth:

Book on a topic of study (any topic I am interested in studying)

Biography or autobiography or memoir

 

Fifth:

Current project book (anything related to a current project)

The supernatural & occult

 

Sixth:

Writing

Anthology

 

Seventh:

Textbook

The classics

 

Eighth:

Fellow author book

Travel book

 

Ninth:

How-to

Health

 

Tenth:

Quotes

Art

 

Eleventh:

True crime

Graphic novel

 

Twelfth:

Library book

Coffee table book

 

 

Right now, I am on the third category: Series book and history book. (I have two shelves of history books. Gee, can you guess what my favorite subject is??) So I am currently reading a Harry Potter book as well as a book about the history of the Native Americans. Before Harry Potter, I finished off the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series (LOVED it!!). And after I finish Harry Potter, I’ll tackle the Warriors series (I have read the first two) then the Maze Runner series (I have only read the first one!).

 

And, finally, I keep ebooks on my phone as well, through both the Kindle app and iBooks. The best part about this is that I can take these ebooks with me anywhere and therefore read them anytime the opportunity comes up. With ebooks, it can be any kind of book to read. Whatever grabs my interest. I read in each one of them on the daily. Right now, it’s Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie and Gothic Blue Book VI: A Krampus Carol. (That second one is an anthology and I read a story a day.)

 

So, that’s it. That’s how I manage to read all of the books I am currently reading. It might be a little strange that I don’t read a certain book Every Single Day, but this method works pretty well for my purposes. It’s more books that I get to read and enjoy, and that’s the best part.