The magical number?

In January, I wrote a post about how I like to read my books. By that I don't mean where I read or if I like background noise (maybe that will be another post at some time), but the medium I prefer.
At the end of the post I said that I usually read three books at a time these days, a print book, an ebook and a book that I read out loud - mostly digital ones now because it's hard to read to a cat who's lying on your chest and also holding a book with one hand as the other one is obviously needed to pet said cat.

Then I heard a British writer and presenter saying that she reads about seven to eight books at a time. To each their own, but it made me wonder if I would be able to do that - or rather if I would even want that.

Let's first get out of the way that I'm talking about reading for relaxation.
If you study something or research for something, it's not unusual to work with several books at a time, but that kind of reading can mean jumping between chapters, skipping chapters, re-reading parts, etc. I mean reading or listening to a book from the first word to the last (including the prologue or epilogue 😉).

I'm not the first person to write or talk about that, there are a lot of posts and articles on the topic - which is also the reason why I didn't talk about benefits or drawbacks - but I'm sure you will want to know my personal take on it.
Nah, I'm kidding, it was just a topic that came to mind last weekend when I had finished a book and thought about what I should be reading next.
Then I mentioned the three books at once to a friend and she sounded very surprised. I didn't think to ask if she thought that's too few or too many or if she was surprised how stubborn I undoubtedly sounded about the number of three (I asked now, it was the last one).

Yes, I have a folder called "NOW" and no, there are never
more than two books in there.

That's not a number I actively chose, by the way. It just kind of happened because I noticed getting distracted if I tried to read more than three at once (again, not counting something I might use for research). Also they really have to be from different genres. Two vintage crime books, two children's books, two movie-related books ... absolutely a no go for me.
It used to be different when I still commuted because one book would be for the commute, another one for home, and they could be the same genre.

I'm glad that I have found the right routine for myself which doesn't leave me overwhelmed or confused, and I think everyone has to do what works for them.
I'm not a fan of "why you should read two books at once".
If people prefer reading one book after the other, for example because they think they owe the writer their undivided attention, let them do that.
If people need eight books for their happiness, fine by me.
If people like to read a fiction and a non-fiction book on the same topic or set in the same time period to have them bounce off each other, good for them (I rather start with a fiction book and then read a non-fiction if I want to know more). If people thrive on book piles around the house (I don't anymore), great!
If you like to choose between books depending on your mood (very much something I do), enjoy being able to do that.
It was interesting to read that some people felt they had to apologize for reading just one book and others for reading more than one at once. Why is that?

Public domain via pxhere

One benefit mentioned in several articles or posts was that you get through your TBR list more quickly.
I admit that I didn't understand that one completely. Granted, taking a break from one book you are struggling with and reading something easier may give you fresh energy for the first one.
All in all, I need a certain time for a book, though, and how is jumping between books going to change that? Just theoretically speaking, if one books takes me a day and another takes me a day, how do I get through my list more quickly if I alternate between them? Are there people who magically need just one and a half days for both then?
Serious question, maybe you can explain it to me.

I'd love to hear about your own routines and why you chose to read just one book at a time or several at once.


By the way, if you write book reviews or blog posts about other book-related matters - even movies based on books - please check out "A Good Book and a Cup of Tea", a monthly bookish blog link party that I host together with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and Lisa from Boondock Ramblings. You can find out more about it here.

How do you read your books?

It seems to be an endless discussion.
What does "reading a book" mean? Is listening to an audiobook even reading? Can an ebook give you the same feeling as reading a "real" book? Why do people who like print books mention the smell so often? And so on ...

First of all, this post is just about my own experience. You do your thing, I do mine, we can talk about it without judging one another, right?

The inspiration for the post was "The Case of the Silken Petticoat" by Christopher Bush.

Trying out a pen? Or was it a kid
(I have been guilty of drawing
into two books as a small kid, and I
wasn't a prodigy which could
excuse that, I can tell you.)

You may or may not know that I'm a librarian at the circulation department of a university library. I have seen books with as many marginalia as original text, books full of color (thanks to highlighting and underlining), loads of dog ears, coffee and other stains, ripped pages, but the worst was probably the acid victim (we have a chemistry faculty).
While I will never understand why people do that with books that don't belong to them, I get if people want to work with their books, add notes or highlight passages important to them - I made notes in my own copies of books we worked on in school - and I don't get grossed out by stains or foxing easily anymore unless they are really yucky or smelly.

I love print books. I love feeling the different kinds of paper. I love old books and if I had had a better experience at it during my first year of library training - which was neither my teacher's nor my own fault - I might have liked to try my hand at bookbinding.
I love marbled paper, gilt edgings and embossed book covers, sometimes with beautiful patterns. I love the uniqueness of a book and I can get excited over old journals even if they were about physics or chemistry.
And yes, I'm one of those who loves the slightly musty smell of old books, but I'm not a fan of active mold, that would be weird.
I still miss our old second-hand bookstore. The store still exists, but in a bigger space. The old one would probably be considered a fire hazard today with its narrow aisles, but for me it was like a beautiful book maze.

Over the years people have often tried to convince me to  listen to audiobooks or to read digitally. One of them was the ex who loved his audiobooks, but I got distracted way too easily (or even fell asleep, but I don't count that as a con because I have hit myself with printed books or my tablet more than once falling asleep) and he finally gave up.
A friend kept telling me that she could take hundreds of books on her vacation bringing her book reader, but I never understood why that is an advantage when I could just take one or two books along and have the perfect excuse to go to a bookstore during my vacation.

So why do I read a lot more books in electronic form now? There are several reasons.
I have sold books (not really worth the hassle for me), donated books to reading projects, and now I take books to our public book cabinet, but there are still so many in my library.
It may be an age thing that I don't really want to add that many to them anymore on a whim, but only those that I'm pretty sure I'll want to keep for some reason or other.

My solution was of course to get myself a library card which I didn't have for years because I preferred to own my books. As mentioned before, I don't get much out of the house anymore, though, and although it's embarrassing to admit, I haven't always been good at returning books on time, anyway.
So instead of borrowing print books, I'm mostly hanging out on OverDrive.

And then there's The Internet Archive where I have read quite a few books last year, among them the book by Bush.

My former boss would have
freaked out about this.
I can still hear him
"NEVER use ordinary tape
on a ripped page!!" As if
we would have dared.

I had noticed before that it felt differently to me if I read a book on The Internet Archive or on OverDrive, but I didn't try to analyze why.
This book has been the one looking the worst so far, and strangely enough that was what made me realize that if I have to read books digitally, I prefer reading digitized books over real ebooks.
It probably has to do with my being so old-fashioned in some regards. I said above that I love the uniqueness of books. Maybe you remember the post about the rose between the pages of a book? Sometimes I find myself wondering about the story of the specific copy. Why the rose? Why the scribbles in the Bush book?
Real ebooks don't give me such a feeling even if I change the font or the spacing or whatever. Accessibility, quick and easy word definitions, visual adjustments, I understand the advantages. Maybe one day, I can't do without them anymore and will be happy to have them, but that day hasn't come yet.

A friend of mine said: "I do all my reading digitally. It really started when I found it easier to focus on the words than in a  book." For me, it's the other way round. Digitized books give me at least a bit of that print book feeling which makes it easier for me to concentrate. And again - both is fine and it's great if we both get what we need to enjoy our reading!

Sometimes I miss not
having to stamp books
at work anymore 🙃

By the way, it even makes a difference for me which device I read on. I only got myself a tablet some months ago and I don't use it that often (yet?).
Having my laptop when I'm lying on my bed - where I do most of my reading these days, I don't have a couch - is often easier for me than having to hold the tablet because of my wonky thumb. Of course, I'm careful that it's not too hot.
The tablet obviously makes more sense if I already have a non-see through cat sitting or lying on my chest for some time (Gundel does it almost every day now and she doesn't care how comfortable or not it is for me which is okay because I'm here to serve my cats, their looks tell me 😂).

These days, I usually read three books at a time, by the way, a print book (still the best for me), an ebook, and a book I read to the cats which can be in print or electronic form.
That way I can pick what works best for me at that moment.

So - what's your personal reading experience and why?