1 at a time?

[Joe]

Do you read one book at a time, or split? "The Impostor's Handbook" is technically next on my list...but I just got "Procedural Generation in Game Design" that I think will be a lot of fun.

[John]

I'm a "concurrent" reader :P
I read more than 1 books at the same period. I think that this content switch can actually help in sinking in the knowledge. And if I notice that due to the content switch I tend to forget what I read from one book, I rewind and re-read it again (since it obviously hasn't sank too well). I can do this for at most 3 literature books (I usually read 2, especially if there are a lot of characters to remember). But for programming/software engineering related books the count can raise significantly..

[Sean]

I try to limit myself to one at a time, but in all honesty I never do. I usually end up reading one paperback and 1 kindle book at a time. The paperback is the one I prefer to read, but I read a couple chapters on my phone when I was waiting in line at the barber shop this weekend.

[sung kim]

I sometimes have 4 books going on at the same time.
Usually I read 2, 1 fiction and 1 non-fiction.
And whenever I rent a book from a local library, I tend to stop reading books I am reading and try to finish the library book first to meet the return date.

When it comes to learning, I read multiple books hands down. I got the idea from John Sonmez. I come up with what I need to learn, find resources, filter what I do NOT need and read only the parts I need to reach my defined goal of what I "learned" is.

And this is not all.
There is a Korean novel website, where authors put out 5000+ words daily. I am subscribed to 20 authors and read daily as well during commute.

I started with one book in the beginning but I got used to context switching then I increased one book at a time.

[Ryan]

I am terrible at reading 1 book at a time. The only time I do this is if it's a novel that is really sucking me in. Otherwise, I start several and rarely finish a book (I'm working on getting better at this!).

I like to employ sung's method of 1 fiction and 1 non, but it turns into 1 technical book and 1 non, because there are some technical books that are novels, some non-fiction that read like novels (memoirs), etc.

[Ronald]

As of right now, I'm reading 2 books, both non-fiction and self-help -ish, sort of. It's "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck" and "Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance." I want to add one fiction book just so I don't get sick from these other two, and to give my mind a different perspective.