Writing is like being able to put life into a snow globe. It takes the things that are too big and scary and reduces them into a form that I can put away when I want and look at from a distance. It also takes all that’s good in life and captures it into something I can take out when I want and look at close up and keep forever. It makes the bad things into something I can hold…and the good things into something I can hold onto. Both help so much that I need that little souvenir of life.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Improper Poll: The Writing is…Everywhere

Anytime you get writers together, conversation inevitably turns to reading. Writers always seem to read more than one book at once. Usually there’s a short, light read for travel purposes, another light book that’s kept at home, the not-so-light read, the one they’ll talk about for a while, and the next one in line. Sometimes there is even a bathroom book, á la that-one-Seinfeld-episode, which is usually an anthology.

I can’t read that many at once. Three is my absolute upper limit, and that’s counting the inspirational book I still have in my car leftover from the days when I had to drive my children everywhere.

How many books do you read at once? What are you reading right now?

13 comments:

  1. I have been neglecting my books in favor of paging through my backlog of periodicals. But the ones I have bookmarks in at this time are, in the order I started them: Heidi Durrow-The Girl Who Fell From the Sky; Jen Lancaster-Such a Pretty Fat; Wade Rouse-It's All Relative. I was chugging right along on the ol' reading train until school started again.

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  2. I'm having eye problems right now, so I'm not reading a lot. I absolutely have to read at bedtime, however, so I'm enjoying stories a fellow blogger's husband wrote about their life as Californians transplanted to a float-cabin on a rather remote (as opposed to completely remote) lake in my home province of British Columbia.
    Of course, I read fellow bloggers and write my own blog on the computer, but it isn't as easy as it used to be. I'm seeing the ophthalmologist on Dec. 8.
    Oh, and I read Reader's Digest in the bathroom, and my husband's McLean's Magazine at breakfast and lunch. When I leave next week to go out to BC, I'll take my Sony eBook Reader and my netbook computer. (My eye problems are not due to eye strain.)

    Kay, Alberta, Canada
    An Unfittie’s Guide to Adventurous Travel

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  3. I just finished "Whistling in the Dark" - a GREAT book that came highly recommended by Linda O'Connell (Thanks Linda!). Am hoping to start on the sequel this week ; )
    But, I can not read more than one book at once. That's not to say that I'm not reading many things simultaneously...my latest Writer's Digest, my coveted Wall Street Journal Magazine, any section of the WSJ paper, articles and essays I'm writing, my kids' school papers, assignments, notes from the teacher, blogs, cereal boxes... BUT, only one novel at a time.

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  4. I'm with Beth. I read only one novel at a time. If it's great, it gets read quickly. If it's only mediocre, it might take a while.

    I just got a copy of the anthology "Storm Country" and will be reading some of that tonight.

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  5. I can never get away from reading 3 or 4 at a time with each one at a different location so that I have something to read with any downtime I get. ;D (just not enough down time.....)

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  6. This is sad but 1! I'm so easily confused so I must read and complete things in order. :)
    Jules @ Trying To Get Over The Rainbow

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  7. Okay, like I have time to repost - I have reading to do! Ha. I am currently reading two, but they are so different, I can't get confused. Oh wait, maybe I can. Then there's always the self-help, inspirational things I read too!

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  8. I posted first and it wouldn't take it.

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  9. I'm in between books right now, having just finished some silly romance (it was an author new to me, and I won't put her stuff on my Kindle again). Next up is "Cleopatra's Moon" by Vicky Alvear Shecter. And there are always magazines waiting for me to pick them up. I have read 2-3 at a time before, but I usually stick with just one.

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  10. I generally have two books going at one time unless one is so good I can't put it down. Reading Loose Lips, and also Storm Country.

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  11. I guess I qualify as the weirdo of the group. I always have a collection of books that I'm reading. Technical, sci fi, historical, current events, you name it. Some of them I read through quickly. Others take months or even years. A few I even keep re-reading because I like them so much. Usually that means around 15-20 books overall. Just think of the incomes writers could draw if everyone were like me (ha)!

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  12. I tend to eat one item at a time on my plate before moving to the next one. Ditto with books. With all the books on my reading list, don't ask me why I'm reading "The Help" for the second time. Go figure!

    Pat
    Critter Alley

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  13. Great--more to add to The List!

    Kay, sending good wishes for your eyesight!!

    Tom, that's 15-20 *at the same time??!* Whoa. I'm like Jules. I would never remember any of them.

    Good to know, Pat. That one's been on The List for ages.

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