How Many Books Can You Read at Once?

Did you ever wish you could read at supersonic speed so you could read as many books as possible? Me too. Unfortunately, this is a rare skill that eludes many despite how in demand it may be. I would love to have this skill but I can only read so fast. I’ve gotten better lately as I’ve been reading much more and like anything else, it takes practice to be proficient at it.

I want to be able to read books at lightning speed but I must settle and will typically read them one at a time if I want to get through them quickly but will occasionally read one or two at a time as I’ll have one available to read on my kindle (or the app on my phone) and a paperback book at home. I’d like to power right through them but because I don’t read all that fast, I have to dedicate time to a good size book and sometimes it’s necessary to break up the reading of it with another book so I don’t get bored or stuck in a rut with the first.

Novels are the easiest for me to read because if you’re reading a good one or get to the juiciest parts of them, it flies by and you before you know it you’re at the end. Educational books are more difficult and require me to spend more time reading them because I want to retain the information and be able to apply it, so I read chapters slower and the material itself is dryer to read than a novel by default.

When I’m extracting information from a text, I tend to read slower in an attempt to retain more information. When I read a novel, the story plays like a movie in my head only I’m able to see the thoughts and feelings of the characters involved, adding more to the story than a movie could but it’s important for the book, I don’t need to carry it with me outside of the pages. Unless it’s really good writing in which case you carry it with you forever.

Are you able to read multiple books at once or do you only power through one at a time? Sometimes it’s difficult to keep focused when reading two books but sometimes you need the change of pace. Do you prefer one over the other or does it depend on how you’re feeling that day? Comment below and let me know!