How Many is TOO many?

    Reading friends - how many books do you usually have "going"  at one time?  Do you have a limit? 

How much can we reasonably process from our outrageously enormous To-Be-Read piles? Do you have a strategy, or just wing it? 

Thank you to Tim's public domain pictures for this gem. 

  I used to be a one book at a time person, and was pretty happy if I finished 12 -15 books a year.  I was also - at that time focusing on a certain type of reading material. Books that made me think, made me take action, or otherwise somehow make a change in life, gain a new perspective, or learn something. Not Self-Help,  but more along the lines of Isabel Wilkerson, or Min Jin Lee.  Then I discovered  books that are on the frivolous side like Ruby Dixon's Ice Planet Barbarians,  Viano Oniomoh  and Marilyn Barr  and I added those into the mix.  These books also make me think and see things from a different perspective, but they require a bit less mental energy from me. 

So... there is a lot of space between Spooning my Chuchunya (5 stars in that genre)  and   say, James Baldwin's  The Fire Next time (Also 5 stars)   and - YES - pretty much the only thing those two books have in common is that they are books.  But, I believe all reading is valid,  one just gets something different from every reading escapade. And YES if you're only going to read one book, I'd go with James Baldwin every time.   

But as I was reading around, I realized that I really did want to be reading more than one book at a time because there are ALOT of books to be read out there and there is only so much time.  I wanted reading experiences that made me think, expanded my horizons, but also ones that I could giggle with my friends about over brunch, and those that we could just loathe together. 

  And then!  Friends.....  I DISCOVERED AUDIO BOOKS! 

This opened a whole new avenue of reading to me, and I was suddenly able to read audio in the car, at the gym, you name it. It became my preferred way to read most material, and due to Libby and Cloud Library, I am constantly supplied with books of all sorts and genres. 

So currently, I have one book on my Kindle for my "Stabby and Smoochy"  bookclub at Fable .  One physical book I'm making my way through (The Demolished Man)  and about 4 different audiobooks going.

Is it too many?  Not really.  I don't know why but I rarely get confused, as long as I get a bit read each day, I can recall the plot lines.  I try to make sure they are all different genres-  but I do wonder if I'm just gorging too much.  I see some popular Influencers making jokes about how they forgot everything they read, and I find I don't generally have that problem. 

How many are you reading?  What's your strategy for getting through the massive TBR? Do you switch up the genres? Do you listen to audio at 2/25x? read a chapter of each book daily? Do you dedicate yourself to one book at time and just zip through each one and on to the next? Feel free to share this post around, and  Let me know your strategy in the comments!