How I Read Multiple Books at the Same Time

The first few months of 2018 I have been reading an insane amount of books per month, even for me, hitting my reading challenge already in April. As a result I often get the question how I can read so much. Now I have already touched upon this subject before here.

I am now of course also a stay at home mom of a 20 month old boy. That situation is of course different from other people. Even so I think one of the reasons I have been reading so much is that I have been reading so many books at the same time.

Different Kind of Books

One of the reasons I often hear people say that they find it hard to read multiple books at the same time is that they are scared to mix up story lines. A good fix for this is to read various genres.Non-Fiction with Fiction. Fantasy and contemporary. The chances of mixing up story lines is less probably with these kind of combinations.

Personally I read mostly fantasy, even when I read multiple books at the same time. This doesn’t bother me as there are so many different kind of subgenres out there. A high fantasy and a paranormal romance will often not have that much overlapse. I also like to mix up Middle Grade, Classics, Adult and Young Adult. Just a differing writing style with classic fantasy like Tad Williams versus more current fantasy can be enough for me to keep two high fantasies straight from another.

But I also mix up normal classics and sci-fi and bits of contemporary among it all when I feel like it.

Different Kind of Lengths

Another thing that I have noticed that helps is to read books with different amount of lengths. It helps to combine a big 800+ fantasy tome with a fast-paced 300 page young adult book or even a 100 page classic book. Reading two big tomes at the same time just makes it feel like you aren’t making any progress. This tactic has really worked for me. While I have been reading more books below 200 pages I have also been reading more books over 800 pages. Switching them up works great for me.

Different Mediums

Using different kind of mediums is a great way to keep books seperate in your head. This of course touches on the normal two big mediums which are physical books and ebooks. But I have noticed that for me it also works with graphic novels, library books and ebooks that I read on my phone.

Different Places

What also helps is when I asign certain mediums and books to a certain place. I usually read during Merijn’s naps in the afternoon. These are often my own books and ebooks.

Since this year I’ve also started reading more before bed time, in bed. I try to read an hour to and hour and a half before sleeping three to four times a week.  I often read my library books there, and a small selection I have moved to my bedroom from my physical tbr.

Now that the weather is getting better I have also been reading on my phone when Merijn is playing in our backyard. He is still too small to really leave out there too long without supervision. There isn’t that much for me to do outside so I try and read 30 minutes of that time on my phone.

Mood

While I usually keep pretty well to my tbr I do often have mood cravings. When I read multiple books at the same time it is easy to give in to these cravings and not feel guilty towards my library books or my own book tbr I set up. I am still working on both of those and also giving my mood space.

Do you like to read multiple books at the same time?