Since I have so many that I want to read, I had to develop a system for getting through them all. (I have 82 books right now. I started buying last Aug from Half.com. My wish list is still 8 pages long!!) Of course, I started the traditional way, by reading one, then reading anther. Makes sense, right? But I got impatient. There were so many that I wanted to read NOW and the 'one at a time' thing just wasn't doing it for me.
So I flitted around aimlessly through several of them before I finally settled on a system that works for me.
I decided that the top shelf of my new book case would be my 'in progress' shelf. I chose several books (19 right now) that fit on the shelf and I read them all. I put them in a box next to my pillow and read one chapter of each at a time. Then put it on the shelf and randomly grab another one from the box. Once I get finished with one rotation- with my box empty and the shelf full- I fill the box up again with all of the 'in-progress' books from the top shelf and start over. When a book gets finished, it goes on the bottom shelf. I find another to fill it's spot on the top shelf and continue on.
Sound crazy? It may be, but I enjoy the variety. And since they are non-fiction books, each chapter is a different subject, so there are no continuity problems. (I would never try this with fiction.)
Now for Fiction, I only read one at a time. If there is a certain book that many of my writing books uses examples out of, then I like to read it. Right now I'm reading: The Lovely Bones
What books are you reading right now??
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When I first read this, I thought how crazy! How can you keep up with so many books! But them I thought...I do that too! When I am reading what I call "teaching" books by Joyce Meyers, Charles Stanley, or Joel Osteen, I can read about 10 at a time. I'll just pick up one and read a chapter or two. Next time I'll browse my stack and pick up one and read from where I left off the last time. They are not like a novel where you need to keep up with the action. You can read and re-read these types of books and always get something out of them. I suppose your writing "teaching" books are the same.
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