As we speak, I’m eyeing up my third book for Amazon’s 3 Paperbacks for £10 deal. I usually scroll through pages and pages of this deal, nothing ever catching my eye more than buying it just for the sake of buying it in the deal, so when two books I’m already interested in popped up I was hooked — now is my chance to fully utilise the deal.
But, my books are spiralling.
In a very modest sense, considering some of the Booktubers I watch who have TBR piles in the triple figures. I have about 20 in my room I haven’t read, another handful scattered around my house belonging to family members, and I’ve got my Goodreads Want to Read page down to a very manageable 25 books (I know, I know, that’s the place to willy nilly add anything you’re interested in. But I’ve got books on there from 2013 — if I add anymore, my interest is going to wane and I’m not going to read any at all).
But I’ve become a very different sort of reader over the past few months and I think my book buying habits are trying to keep up.
When I was younger I was constantly reading at least three books at once. I needed something to be constantly entertained and, not to go all, the 90s had it better on you (and what do I know, anyway, I turned 5 in 2000, I’m barely clinging onto that 90s kid moniker), but there were less distractions back then, I didn’t spend hours scrolling through Netflix trying to decide what to watch before settling on Arrested Development for the 1000th time. Back then I spent all my time reading. And it feels like now I’m desperately trying to get back to that, even when I account for all the time sitting on my laptop doing Buzzfeed quizzes about what Arrested Development character I am.
So over the years reading slipped to the side a bit and I happily raced through one book at a time. This felt quicker, better, as I could focus all my attention on one book and then hurtle onto the next. There’s been a handful of factors leading to my reading over 100 books over the last 3 years: getting Goodreads, commuting to uni, discovering new genres, but my ability to fly through books and marvel at the quickly growing pile of read books by my bed was another motivation.
At the start of the year I set myself two resolutions: to read at least two non-fiction books a month and to buy no more than four books a month. I’ve surpassed the first one almost every month and I’ve gone over the second one only a couple of times, which seems like some sort of achievement.
What it means, though, with all my non-fiction reading is that, to break up the sometimes dense texts, I’ve enjoyed reading a fiction book alongside of it. It meant I could switch easily between two very different styles of books whenever I needed a bit of a breather from either. It was all very manageable until last month when suddenly I was reading three books at once.
And, now, my currently reading has exploded to 5 books, none of which are non-fiction. People do this all the time, I can handle it, it’s fine, but three of those five are fantasy, not so separate as my fiction/non-fiction. They’re all very different, still, but there are blurred lines.
But, despite this anxious sounding confession, I’m really enjoying it. I like juggling so many books so I can pick up whatever I’m in the mood for. I was on a train yesterday and didn’t want to take a book I was very close to finishing so it was easy enough just grabbing another I’d barely started. It does mean that I feel I have to jump around them a bit to make sure none of them languish on my Goodreads shelf for too long, but so far I’ve been spending my time at night reading 40 or so pages of one, moving onto the next, to the next, depending on how absorbed I am in each, or how tired I am.
I’ve just felt like a much more desperate reader recently, so eager to read all the books on my shelf that I’m jumping about, picking up more and more, getting a taste of each of them. Before I would force myself to finish one book so I could get onto the eagerly awaited next one but now I just pick it up anyway, and it’s fine.
(I know so many people do this, this seems ridiculous, but it’s been a fast, unexpected switch for me, so I’m documenting my adjustment.)
I’m going to quickly run down the books I currently have stacked on a precarious pile above my bed.
The Book of Dust // Philip Pullman – I was a late arrival to His Dark Materials but I fell in love quickly and easily across 2013 and have been waiting like everyone else for the book that seemed like it was never coming. But it did! I held off for a couple of weeks, my expectations climbing higher and higher, until I gave in, and I’ve been working my way through it ever since. It’s been a slow start, but more characters from the trilogy have been appearing, and at page 240 it feels like the main plot might finally be beginning.
Call Me By Your Name // Andre Aciman – This has been circling Booktube for a few years but the upcoming film has launched it onto special bookshop displays everywhere and I couldn’t resist it any longer. I read the bulk of this on the train yesterday, wrapped up in a wool coat as I longed for Italian summers of books and ice cream. Again, it’s a slow one, very descriptive, but I’m hoping to finish this one tonight.
Blue Lily, Lily Blue // Maggie Stiefvater – Last week I started an impromptu reread of the The Raven Cycle, so these books have been running along the others, changing considerably quicker as I keep getting sucked in and remembering all the things I love about this series. This is the third one, one I remember very fondly, so I’m looking forward to flying through a chunk of this later as well.
The ABC Murders // Agatha Christie – I’ve read three Agatha Christie books so far and having gone to see Murder on the Orient Express at the weekend, I was very much in the mood for more. They’re easy, they’re quick, you can’t go wrong with a set of murders following the alphabet. I’ve really only read the first few pages but, again, I hope to read more later.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows // JK Rowling – One of my least favourites of the series this is probably the one I’ve reread least but I read 5 and 6 last month and I’m in the mood to finish the series for the millionth time. As what usually happens with rereads, I just got a really strong urge to start this one, and, by this point I had so many beside my bed I didn’t see any harm in dropping this one on the pile. I’m going to a Harry Potter exhibition in London next week so I should probably try and finish this before we go.
The thing is, I think all day about dedicating time to whizz through each of these and mark them off one after the other as read, but instead I sit and, like I said before, read articles, watch Youtube videos, do quizzes, apply for jobs (that is the main one, probably should have lead with that) that it’s not until 11 at night that I pick up my carousel of books and make a dent in at least three out of five.
But, despite my feelings going all over the place, I really have been enjoying juggling more books than I’m used to. Although I said earlier that three fantasy books feels a bit much, I have been loving racing through the magical worlds of my three favourite fantasies. It hasn’t made an obvious difference to my TBR shelf yet (maybe because I keep focussing on library books and rereads) but after I’ve finished up with half of these I’ll have a look at the growing pile of non-fiction and try and balance everything out again.
And I’ll see if my willpower can hold out for another day with that very tempting Amazon deal. I have plenty to read and reread at the moment.
Let me know your reading habits in the comments! Do you like focussing on just one book at a time or do you like having a choice, depending on your mood?
Until next time,
Sacha x
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