Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Juggling Novels by Andy Scheer

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:

Joanne Sher said...

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.

Kristi Ann Hunter said...

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.

~sharyn said...

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.

Meghan Carver said...

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.

Sapphire said...

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. :-)

Kathryn Elliott said...

Wow! All these multi-readers, I am impressed. I can juggle two books at most - same with children.