Are You Faithful or Promiscious (when reading books)?
I always find myself cheating on the one I’m with. I can’t help it, there’s always another one which looks more attractive, offering more excitement and the allure of the unknown. I then end up with two on the go, switching from one to the other as the mood takes me.
I read at least two books at the same time, not being able to stick faithfully to one title until it’s finished before going to the next in the pile. I mean I read them concurrently, not simultaneously, that would be weird and pretty confusing. I have various reasons for this, but it’s mostly down to the fact that I am a bit of a flibidijibit when it comes to attention spans. Oh look – a spoon!
Sometimes it’s because I don’t like to read a similar type of book back-to-back with another. If I’ve just read some historical fiction, I won’t touch one of the similar books I know are lurking on the ‘to read’ pile. The same goes for crime fiction or fantasy/horror. I at least like to mix it up if I’m going to cheat on them. I also won’t read the same author back-to-back or side by side, despite how much I love their work. I would never read a Cormac McCarthy novel followed by a Cormac McCarthy novel. I’d end up thinking of them as one and the same book. I need a clean break between narratives. Plus writers can get samey in terms of subject matter and style, which isn’t a bad thing, but it would be if you read two or more of their books at once.
Right now I’m reading Chuck Wendig’s Blackbirds, as well as The Real Mad Men: The Remarkable True Story of Madison Avenue’s Golden Age by Andrew Cracknell. So that’s a chunk of fantasy thriller fiction, served up alongside a helping of non-fiction about the Madison Avenue advertising firms of the 1960s. Wendig’s Blackbirds is a dark, sweary fantasy about a woman who can foresee peoples deaths simply by touching them. I bought The Real Mad Men because I am a massive fan of the TV show and was intrigued about how close it was to the real thing. Both are equally entertaining in totally different ways.
Surely I’m not the only person who is unfaithful with literature? I bet lots of people read many more than two books at once. C’mon, own up!
