How do you read two books at once?

So, I accidentally started reading two books at once. Accidentally you say? Well, sort of. My husband had left a book lying around for a few months and it looked interesting so I picked it up just to quickly look at it. It turned out it was pretty good so I carried on reading it even though I was in the middle of another book.

Before this I have actively tried to read two books at the same time just once and I gave up pretty quickly. In that case I wasn’t really enjoying the book I was in the middle of so I thought starting another one would be a nice break and allow me to go back and enjoy the first one more. In the end I gave up on the first one pretty quickly after starting the second one. So, this leads me to wonder, how do people read two books at once regularly?

The online book community shows that a lot of people read multiple books at the same time really frequently but how does it work out? If you pick up two books, any two books, the chances are you will like one more than the other, so what stops you just giving up on the one you like the least like I did? Do you try to pick two you think you will like equally? If so how do you go about that? There are a couple of Mitch Albom books I would say I like equally but then there are a couple I like less than those ones, so even with the same author it can be hard to find books of equal interest to you. 

If you do manage to keep going with more than one book at once do you get through them at the same rate? If you end up reading your favourite of the two faster what do you do when you finish it? Do you just continue with the other book or do you pick up another so you are reading two again? If you pick up a second book again and it is better than the one you are still reading does the same thing happen again? Does one book just end up technically still being read for ages and ages while you get through a load of others? If that is the case does it really count as reading two books at once?

If you do manage to successfully keep reading two books does it ever get confusing? I seem to be quite unusual in that I read a lot of different genres very frequently, but if you stick to one genre do you get the stories mixed up when reading multiple books at once? Within some genres there are a lot of similarities between a lot of books so I could certainly see it happening.

In my case I am reading both books at roughly the same speed and I think I am managing it because they are so different and both interesting. Also, I sort of feel like one is a “daytime only” book. I’m not really sure why by I just think it’s more appropriate to read it in the day. I am like that with TV too, there are a lot of shows that I think should only be watched at certain times of the day, Criminal Minds for example, I will only watch at night. Anyway, my “daytime only” thing means that if I want to read in the evening I have to read the other book. Also, if I am getting a little tired of one book in the day but still want to read I just switch to the other so it is actually working out really well. I don’t think I will try to read two books at once after finishing these though.

So if you read two books at once how do you manage it?

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