Juggling Novels by Andy Scheer
How many novels
do you read at one time?
Whether because
of timing, temperament, or a short attention span, I seldom have a bookmark in
only one novel.
This week's
reasonably typical. I'm currently reading three novels. Two are new releases,
both from the library. One's an old favorite I felt like rereading. Two are
hardcovers, one a mass paperback. Two are by big-name authors, one by a
relative unknown. Two are about baseball, one about a lost treasure hidden by
Christopher Columbus.
A magazine
excerpt got things started. A few issues back, Sports Illustrated
adapted the opening chapters of Calico Joe by John Grisham. I
immediately went to our library website and put a copy on hold.
Or maybe the
seeds for my current reading were planted a few months earlier. A received an
email blast (I'm on his mailing list) from thriller writer Steve Berry about
his upcoming release The Columbus Affair.
Meanwhile, as I
packed for the Colorado Christian Writers conference, I tracked down a mass
paperback, something I could read to help unwind at the end of the day. Perhaps
because of its bright red spine, I was drawn to Baseball Cat by Garrison
Allen, a 1977 Kensington release featuring a mystery bookstore owner as the
amateur detective.
When I got the
email notice that my copy of Calico Joe was available, I didn't go
straight to the reserve pickup room. My eyes roamed the shelves of new
acquisitions and the seven-day checkout “rapid reads.” And there was Steve
Berry's The Columbus Affair. Just 419 pages, sure I can read that in
seven days.
Along with Calico
Joe and Baseball Cat. Good thing they're all different genres. And
styles.
How about you? Do
you take 'em one at a time—or are you a juggler?
6 comments:
I have a HARD time reading more than one or two at once, to be honest. Of course, if you count the two different books I'm reading to my kids at night, the editing of someone else's novel I'm doing, and the Bible, maybe I'm wrong.
I'm a total juggler. We have the book we are reading as a family at night, I usually have an old favorite in the bathroom (I pick one to reread so that I can leave it in there...) then I have the book I'm reading before bed, which sometimes becomes the book I read during breakfast, lunch, vaccuuming, etc. Then there's my book, my CPs' books, genre comparison books, my Bible study book not to mention the Bible, my blogs... sheesh I spend a lot of time reading.
I do often read more than one book at a time but, typically, one is a novel & the other is nonfiction.
The only reasons I would read two novels at once are: if I started one but it wasn't very good so I moved on to something better with the possibility of returning to the "bad" book later. Or if I was reading a novel I bought then the library called saying something I requested was in. I'd want to read the library book first, of course.
I prefer one novel at a time. But Joanne brought up a good point. I'm also reading the Bible, editing my second novel, and pre-reading YA novels for my children.
I'm reading four novels (plus the Bible) right now, but I've gotten as high as ten books at once before. I like to mix it up. :-)
Wow! All these multi-readers, I am impressed. I can juggle two books at most - same with children.
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