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I signed up for Remix. Everybody else better sign up too so I don't regret it. (I ended up qualifying in five fandoms, which kind of stunned me. And that doesn't even include drabbles, under which I could probably make it in a couple more, but I've been too lazy to collate my drabbles. I guess if you hang around fandom long enough you just accumulate fic one way or another. On the other hand those fandoms are kind of a wall of regrets: Harry Potter, SGA, MCU, Dresden Files, and Les Miserables.)
In other news, a couple days ago at work we were discussing a much-sought-after-book, and I said someone else could have it first, because I was literally reading thirty-seven books right now.
This got me thinking about how many books I am actually currently reading. By my goodreads "Currently reading" shelf, the number is thirty-two. That's a little bit misleading though. It doesn't include the waist-high pile of books by my bed which were pulled from my LT "in-progress" tag that I decided not to add to GR all at once because the number scared me. It also doesn't include my pending-very-soon library books. On the other hand, most of those are books I haven't touched in over a month (sometimes years) - the list of "books with progess made since mid-April" is somewhere between five and eleven, depending on what you count.
I have found in my tracking over the past 18 or so months that I tend to be actively reading a fairly steady number of books, one each in certain stable roles. Right in "books I have touched in the past month" I have:
1. Book to read on walks at lunch - this is a small book I can slip in my shoulder bag, happily read in 10-20 min intervals, and leave at work. It's usually a comic trade, a J novel, or an adult book with lots of pictures. I just finished my current one; the next will be either "The Strange Library" by Haruki Murakami or "Anna & Elsa: A Warm Welcome" which is the Disney tie-in where I am told Queen Elsa gets a girlfriend.
2. Book to read on breaks at work/on bad-weather days - this is usually a large shiny book with pretty pictures. Currently it's a picture book about the Precambrian that I saved from the discards cart. I am using both 1 and 2 to work through my library to-read list, mostly.
3. Audiobook for workout: to be listened to during weapons practice. This is only a half hour or so, three or four days a week, so it takes a long time to get through one. Currently "Chomp" by Carl Hiaasen, because someone was waiting for "Raising Steam", and "Chomp" sounded fun.
4. Hate-Read - for reading when I'm in a bad mood and don't want to contaminate an actual good book with my mood. Currently "The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya" (so horribly awful omg.)
5. Sleep-read - something pointless for when I just want something to stare at before sleeping and it doesn't matter if I absorb any information and I don't want to risk staying up later than intended. Currently "The Secret Life of Plants". I keep having a problem with these where they turn into books I want to actually pay attention to, which is part of how I ended up with a huge in-progress list, but luckily I don't see that happening with this one, which is just entertainingly bad. I used to mostly re-read well-worn favorite novels here but then I got in a pattern where I felt like I should be working on to-reads instead.
6. Actual Good Nonfiction Book - For when I get some real free time to read as slowly as I want and think about what I'm reading?? Someday I will read all of these. Currently "The New Wild". Most of the in-progress pile is this but I keep coming up with excuses to put library books first.
7. Token Fiction Book - Role currently being filled by the Silmarillion. Gets read in large chunks maybe once or twice a week as a treat.
8. Emergency Book To Carry At All Times In Case You Are Stuck Somewhere - Currently being filled by several Gutenberg e-books on my phone and a mini wildflower guide. Having Emergency Books on my phone has been great I have to say, the paperbacks used to get really beat up before I finished them, although someday in an emergency I will run my phone down reading and not be able to call 911.
9. Ebook to read on the desk at work - this has to be a PDF or online, since we don't have ebook readers on the work computers. Currently "Leather Spinsters and their Degrees of Asexuality" which I'm reading on googlebooks.
10. Workbooks - How-to/learning books which I'm going through very slowly and doing all the exercises properly. Currently this is a couple of Alfred's Adult Piano Course books. (I'm also playing with the Les Mis piano book but I haven't officially added it to the list because I'm bribing myself to get through the coursebooks first.)
That's ten. I don't really ever see it getting much below ten, either. It's usually more like eleven or twelve because I might have a couple going in the same category, left in different places around the house. (I'm probably going to start Ancillary Justice before I finish the Silm because I'm enjoying drawing the Silm out, for example.)
Anyway now I am curious. Counting by whatever rules you feel like counting by, how many books are you reading right now?
In other news, a couple days ago at work we were discussing a much-sought-after-book, and I said someone else could have it first, because I was literally reading thirty-seven books right now.
This got me thinking about how many books I am actually currently reading. By my goodreads "Currently reading" shelf, the number is thirty-two. That's a little bit misleading though. It doesn't include the waist-high pile of books by my bed which were pulled from my LT "in-progress" tag that I decided not to add to GR all at once because the number scared me. It also doesn't include my pending-very-soon library books. On the other hand, most of those are books I haven't touched in over a month (sometimes years) - the list of "books with progess made since mid-April" is somewhere between five and eleven, depending on what you count.
I have found in my tracking over the past 18 or so months that I tend to be actively reading a fairly steady number of books, one each in certain stable roles. Right in "books I have touched in the past month" I have:
1. Book to read on walks at lunch - this is a small book I can slip in my shoulder bag, happily read in 10-20 min intervals, and leave at work. It's usually a comic trade, a J novel, or an adult book with lots of pictures. I just finished my current one; the next will be either "The Strange Library" by Haruki Murakami or "Anna & Elsa: A Warm Welcome" which is the Disney tie-in where I am told Queen Elsa gets a girlfriend.
2. Book to read on breaks at work/on bad-weather days - this is usually a large shiny book with pretty pictures. Currently it's a picture book about the Precambrian that I saved from the discards cart. I am using both 1 and 2 to work through my library to-read list, mostly.
3. Audiobook for workout: to be listened to during weapons practice. This is only a half hour or so, three or four days a week, so it takes a long time to get through one. Currently "Chomp" by Carl Hiaasen, because someone was waiting for "Raising Steam", and "Chomp" sounded fun.
4. Hate-Read - for reading when I'm in a bad mood and don't want to contaminate an actual good book with my mood. Currently "The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya" (so horribly awful omg.)
5. Sleep-read - something pointless for when I just want something to stare at before sleeping and it doesn't matter if I absorb any information and I don't want to risk staying up later than intended. Currently "The Secret Life of Plants". I keep having a problem with these where they turn into books I want to actually pay attention to, which is part of how I ended up with a huge in-progress list, but luckily I don't see that happening with this one, which is just entertainingly bad. I used to mostly re-read well-worn favorite novels here but then I got in a pattern where I felt like I should be working on to-reads instead.
6. Actual Good Nonfiction Book - For when I get some real free time to read as slowly as I want and think about what I'm reading?? Someday I will read all of these. Currently "The New Wild". Most of the in-progress pile is this but I keep coming up with excuses to put library books first.
7. Token Fiction Book - Role currently being filled by the Silmarillion. Gets read in large chunks maybe once or twice a week as a treat.
8. Emergency Book To Carry At All Times In Case You Are Stuck Somewhere - Currently being filled by several Gutenberg e-books on my phone and a mini wildflower guide. Having Emergency Books on my phone has been great I have to say, the paperbacks used to get really beat up before I finished them, although someday in an emergency I will run my phone down reading and not be able to call 911.
9. Ebook to read on the desk at work - this has to be a PDF or online, since we don't have ebook readers on the work computers. Currently "Leather Spinsters and their Degrees of Asexuality" which I'm reading on googlebooks.
10. Workbooks - How-to/learning books which I'm going through very slowly and doing all the exercises properly. Currently this is a couple of Alfred's Adult Piano Course books. (I'm also playing with the Les Mis piano book but I haven't officially added it to the list because I'm bribing myself to get through the coursebooks first.)
That's ten. I don't really ever see it getting much below ten, either. It's usually more like eleven or twelve because I might have a couple going in the same category, left in different places around the house. (I'm probably going to start Ancillary Justice before I finish the Silm because I'm enjoying drawing the Silm out, for example.)
Anyway now I am curious. Counting by whatever rules you feel like counting by, how many books are you reading right now?
Poll #16687 How many books are you currently reading?
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 50
How many books are you currently reading?
View Answers
1
2 (4.0%)
2
6 (12.0%)
3-5
23 (46.0%)
5-10
3 (6.0%)
10-20
4 (8.0%)
>20
1 (2.0%)
it's more complicated than that ok
11 (22.0%)
what are books?
0 (0.0%)
this is why you never get around to watching tv, mel
0 (0.0%)
no subject
And a lot of the books in my hate-read categories are ones where I don't want to concede the book has beaten me.