Some New Additions…..
To the ominously increasing antilibrary and the waning summer reading bookpiles:
Counterinsurgency
The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire
Spook Country
Hope to start a couple of these by the end of the month. A number of other books to be finished first.
I have a new decentralized reading strategy that seems to be helping me wad through books faster. Books that I am reading are distributed to be read in different places – one in my gym bag for the treadmill; one in my car in case there’s time to kill at an appointment or at a restaurant; one or two books downstairs to read on the couch or outside on the deck; one to take to the pool with the kids and four of five on my bedstand. There are also a store of books on my iPad, “just in case”.
The strategy allows me to concentrate on finishing several books – my “primary” reads – even as I steadily chip away at the rest and there are enough choices available to suit my mood on any given day so it doesn’t feel like I am doing a literary marathon. Books that I am focusing on, usually histories, strategic studies and social science works, I will mark up with marginalia and the others are just read without recourse to notation.
How do you handle your reading time?
August 3rd, 2010 at 6:35 am
I definitely read books in parallel, depending on my mood, although I only really have time in the evenings, or on weekends.
I need more bookmarks!
August 3rd, 2010 at 3:15 pm
For me there is no alternative to having several books in progress. I’ve tried a thematic approach, but find that reading disparate topics best. BTW, I’m about half-way through Luttwak—his sense of humor peaks in at the most unexpected times…happy reading!
August 3rd, 2010 at 3:39 pm
I tend to store books around my abode in similar fashion. Sometimes I feel like a Quartermaster establishing book depots ahead for an upcoming offensive for an army of readers. T
he trouble is that my hardcovers are always too heavy to lug around at public events, so I usually have a paperback thin enough that I can throw into my hip pocket.
August 3rd, 2010 at 4:28 pm
I used to do pretty much as you do. A car book, two house books (one downstairs on the table next to my “reading chair” and one on my bedside table) and a back pocket sized paperback “beach book” or two scattered around the house and car. For the past six months, though, the only actual books made with paper that I’ve purchased have been those that aren’t available on my Kindle, which I drag around with me everywhere I go. If I can’t carry the Kindle for some reason, I can still read my ebooks on my Droid. I still have four or five titles going at a time but I’ve really come to appreciate the electronic format.
August 3rd, 2010 at 5:38 pm
Read the Gibson and Luttwak books, and they are both great. Looking forward to your thoughts on Kilcullen’s. The Gibson book is ahead of the curve even now, but was written and released before the current AR explosion. It is shockingly on point.
August 3rd, 2010 at 11:05 pm
"Spook Country" is wonderful. I read it in a day as I was flying from Texas to Kentucky with a three hour layover in between; the mood of the book was perfection for the experience of being displaced and transient. I can’t wait to know what you think.
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The several hours before sleep are always reading time for me. If I take a computer to bed, I inevitably stay up later than I meant to; while putting aside a book just when its getting good is challenging, it’s not as hard as shutting down a laptop and thinking, "If I had just read that one article!" Then again, I accidentally stayed up until 1 in the morning the other night, re-reading a Guy Gavriel Kay book, so maybe that system is imperfect.
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The bus and light rail are also frequently devoted to reading, though I favor the New Yorker, Economist, etc. for such times.
August 5th, 2010 at 12:54 pm
I must be honest i read seveal books at a time, but had no Strategy for getting through them. I like this dispersion method. If i can kep my lovely wife of 26 years from putting them back on my shelve i should be all set. 🙂
August 11th, 2010 at 10:59 am
I tend to have "bedside" reading and "mobile" reading. Bedside is more likely to be the lighter stuff, fiction or overview non-fiction texts. Mobile is what lives in my bag, so it goes with me to work, or when I’m out and about. Since I travel a lot on public transport that can be a great opportunity to get my head down for an hour. The mobile books tend to be the more in depth stuff, as it gets read earlier in the day when I’m more likely to get my head around it.