I’ve always wanted to be a promiscuous reader and not let myself get “stuck” with a book I feel obligated to finish, but I seem prone to falling into that trap. I’ve never quite been able to have multiple books going at a time, quite books I’m not into, and start new ones whenever I feel the urge. Now that I’m actually spending a decent chunk of my (limited) free time reading, I can honestly say I’m doing it.

I have four books I’m reading at the moment: Path Lit by Lightning, Norwegian Wood, Building a Second Brain, and Is this anything? I started the year with Wintering and then started Path Lit by Lightning and the list has slowly expanded. I don’t think I’ve ever had more than two going at once before.

I recently came across some thoughts related to this in Letting books talk to each other and Reading many books at once. I can see the benefit of letting books cross pollinate although that hasn’t happened yet for me. Or has it?

You might think that having multiple books going would be distracting and feel shallow. It’s having just the opposite effect. Now I always have something interesting to dip into whenever I’m sitting down during my morning or evening reading time. Some fiction, a biography, a little personal knowledge management, and comedy…whatever I’m feeling like I’ve got it covered. I might add in a history of sauna soon. Who knows? It’s a great feeling.