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. 

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Does age matter when reading?

Does your age matter when you are reading? Now by that I don’t mean should you only read at certain ages, I mean does how old you are have an impact on your enjoyment of reading particular books? Of course, adults aren’t going to love books meant for toddlers, but I’m talking about “proper” books.

Most books have a target audience, at least in terms of age, so if a book is aimed at people older or younger than you does that mean you wont enjoy it? Personally, I usually don’t like YA or “new adult” and of course I am not the target audience there. How about classics? They are forced on most kids at some point during school and “average” kids often don’t like them. Why? My guess would be the language. Usually it is more difficult than with modern books so can be an effort to get through to get to the actual story. When people go back to read classics as adults however, those same people often enjoy them. Why? By that stage they have been exposed to language a lot more so perhaps they just automatically find the language easier to understand and can focus on the story? So, that would suggest age really does matter.

Not (exactly) a book review! The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet

Title- The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet
Author- Becky Chambers
Published-  2015
Genre- sci-fi
Length- 519 pages
Rating- DNF
Synopsis (Amazon)- When Rosemary Harper joins the crew of the Wayfarer, she isn’t expecting much. The Wayfarer, a patched-up ship that’s seen better days, offers her everything she could possibly want: a small, quiet spot to call home for a while, adventure in far-off corners of the galaxy, and distance from her troubled past.

But Rosemary gets more than she bargained for with the Wayfarer. The crew is a mishmash of species and personalities, from Sissix, the friendly reptillian pilot, to Kizzy and Jenks, the constantly sparring engineers who keep the ship running. Life on board is chaotic, but more or less peaceful – exactly what Rosemary wants.

Until the crew are offered the job of a lifetime: the chance to build a hyperspace tunnel to a distant planet. They’ll earn enough money to live comfortably for years… if they survive the long trip through war-torn interstellar space without endangering any of the fragile alliances that keep the galaxy peaceful.

But Rosemary isn’t the only person on board with secrets to hide, and the crew will soon discover that space may be vast, but spaceships are very small indeed.

Not (exactly) a review- So, I am giving up and DNF-ing this book! It gets a lot of hype on BookTube and I am struggling to see why? I got about 100 pages in and it was just boring, so I kept putting off reading it. If I have lots of things I want to do then a bad book is not going to win, so not only do I not read that book, I don’t read at all which I don’t like. I even tried reading another book and going back to this but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.

As I didn’t finish it I’m not going to do a full review, but I will give a few comments….

Do you judge a book by its cover?

Everyone knows the old saying “don’t judge a book by its cover” but do you stick to it?

Surely bookstores rely on people judging books by their covers? When you walk into a bookstore, what else makes you pick up a book if not the cover? With some books you might have heard about them somewhere or recognise the author’s name, but that can’t be the case for most books, for most people. So if not the cover what else is there, at least in terms of picking up a book to find out what it’s about?

Does it count as reading if it’s an audiobook?

So, I recently did a post about whether or not it counts as reading with graphic novels but what about audiobooks?

Like with graphic novels, in their wrap-ups many people on BookTube say they have read a certain number of books that month but when it gets down to it a bunch of the books are audiobooks, so do they really count? Or rather is it really fair to say they read them?

Do you DNF books?

So, I find it really difficult to not finish a book. Why? I’m not really sure. I think it’s mostly because I keep hoping that it will get better and I don’t want to miss out.

With ARCs there is an added factor, the publisher is expecting a review, and I don’t want to let them down. I also want to get future ARCs. I am totally fine writing bad reviews for ARCs, which last month in particular shows, but I feel like I have to at least write a review. I know some people still write reviews if they DNF a book but I think it is better to be able to do a full review, which to me means finishing the book. What if the ending is amazing and changes how you feel about the whole book?

Book Unhaul!

So, on BookTube I love a good unhaul video! Obviously this isn’t a video but I am still doing an unhaul so I thought I would post about it. Most of my books are ebooks so it is unusual for me to have many physical books I want to get rid of but I have built up a little pile.

What am I going to do with the books you ask? Well there is a used bookshop in the hospital and a patient library so I am planning to donate the books to one of them.

My reasons for getting rid of these book vary, so I will give an explanation for each as we go along.

With this book I just couldn’t get through it. It was weird but also just not that interesting. I made it about halfway through before I gave up. Unfortunately it was quite expensive.

Does it count as reading if it’s a graphic novel?

When someone tells me they are reading a book, I imagine a 200+ page novel with writing taking up the whole page on every page. You?

Often with BookTube I will be watching a video and someone will say they  have read 15 books that month and I  will think “wow, that’s loads”, usually though it turns out that they have “read” a lot of graphic novels, and I’m disappointed.

From my point of view, a graphic novel is essentially a longer/bigger version of a comic. Most people would say they “read” a comic however, so is it fair to say the same with a graphic novel? Or is it fair in some contexts but not others? Fair in the general population but not on BookTube for example?

Are TBR Lists Good or Bad?

So, I don’t have a TBR list as such, I have a bunch of books on my shelf and Kindle that I want to read at some point, as well as a very long Amazon wish list, but I don’t plan my reading ahead of time. I am a mood reader, so a TBR list just wouldn’t work for me. The only thing I do stick to is reading my subscription service book right after I finish whatever book I am reading when it arrives.

I do however really enjoy watching TBR videos on BookTube, and I love it when people use an actual TBR jar, basically because I think they look cute. While watching these videos however it has become apparent that a lot of people find having a TBR list really stressful. So why do they do it?

Harry Potter Spells Book Tag

So, I have been reading a lot lately so have been posting a lot of book reviews but…. I love a good book tag, and I love Harry Potter, so a Harry Potter book tag seemed perfect!

I found this tag on Becoming Bookish but if you read that, it has been around blogs and BookTube a bit.

1. Expecto Patronum

A childhood book connected to good memories

I just loved this book when I was little, I don’t really know why but I remember reading it multiple times a day. It is aimed at very little kids so I’m not sure it really counts for this but it is the only book I can think of and see myself reading as a kid. I can name others I read repeatedly but can’t visualise actually doing it. My brother bought me a copy of this a few years ago, it’s on my bookshelf now, next to my medical school textbooks!