Let it Linger…
When I was on girls getaway vacation in Mexico two years ago I finished reading Water for Elephants on the beach one afternoon. I read the last line, closed the book, and immediately picked up the next book I had with me and started reading The Next Thing on My List. My girlfriend Michelle gave me a shocked look. How could I move on so quickly — with literally no time in between — from one book to the next?
It’s just what I do. I love reading so much that if I’m in a reading state of place or mind I want to keep doing that. So I move on to the next one. That doesn’t mean I didn’t love a book. That doesn’t mean it didn’t linger with me. It just means there’s a hell of a lot of books in the world and I want to get to more, more, more!
What do you do? Can you move seamlessly from finishing one book to starting another without skipping a beat? Do you need a day or two, an hour or two, or a second or to to let it linger?
Zack Luye posted: 28 Jan at 7:43 am
Great question. My answer is an odd one. I continuously read the HP series. Cyclical. Mainly audiobooking it now with all of my travel. I absolutely love reading new books. I definitely have no time between books. I usually buy and have a few on reserve ready to crack open when I’m finished with my current.
Leslie posted: 28 Jan at 7:57 am
I am awful at going right into the next book. I keep such a stack of “must reads” that I always feel a compulsion for the next book experience. Not really a bad thing! It would be if books were beers!
Alan Pritt posted: 28 Jan at 8:18 am
I don’t like that space between books. For fiction I’ll try to open up the next one straight away otherwise I end up missing the characters in the previous book and feel reluctant to acquaint myself with the new characters from the new book.
With non-fiction the situation is a little different, because I tend to always have about 10 books on the go at one time.
Brett Rounsaville posted: 28 Jan at 10:42 am
I go straight from one to another also but I try to alternate between fiction and non-fiction. If I happen to not have a new book ready then I usually just open another book I’ve already read to a random page and read that for awhile. (That’s why my copy of Travel’s with Charley is so beat up.
It’s my “goto” open-to-any-page book.)
Okay…wasting too much time. Gotta go finish Marley and Me so I can finish Twilight so I can jump into Into the Wild.
Mary posted: 28 Jan at 11:17 am
When I was able to do more reading, I’d be like you and jump from one book to the next. Now I just don’t have the time to read much, so there’s more space between books. But I’d love to go back to my old ways.
RuthDFW posted: 02 Feb at 3:41 am
Interesting comments. I like have a little time between the next book. Not even hours just a few minutes to sort of think about it in my head: did I enjoy it, what did I like, what did not work. If I loved a book why, what were my favorite moments, will i miss these characters, etc…
Rebecca posted: 12 Feb at 9:48 pm
I like to have a little space in between books to digest what I have just read, especially if it was a really good book. Sometimes when the book was less than pleasant, I will move on quicker in order to rid myself of the bad memory.