Do you jump straight into another book or wait a bit??

[pleasejustgotosleep]

Just that really.

I finished Becoming by Michelle Obama at around 1pm and I've picked up another book to start reading and I can't get into it.

I was thinking if I should take a break or keep searching my bookshelf for a different book (I have over 530 so I have a lot of choice lol)

Just got me wondering if other readers jump straight into another book or wait a few days lol

Lmao @MajesticWhine - totally understand. Especially after a great book

I read one book at a time and wait until the day after finishing one before starting the next.

I usually start a new one straight away (within seconds of finishing the previous one), struggle to get into it for around a week reading a few pages here and there and thinking it isn't as good, I don't like the characters as much etc as the previous book. Then I suddenly get far enough in that I'm hooked and read last 2 thirds in a couple of days. And then the cycle starts again.

@bluesky45 that's how my DD reads!

I'm another who prefers to start my next book the next day. Although I often fill the time with poetry if I've not finished the book in the evening. I always have more than one book on the go though so I'm never not in the middle of something.

I usually wait until the next day.

I'm another who normally has a few on the boil at once, and since being on the 50 books thread I've alternated fiction and non-fiction, so I often juggle two current books and have another one (or two) on the go. I also tend to try and think ahead to what I want to read next, so I can go straight to a new book when I want.

Straight onto next one. I’m on the 26 books a year challenge and I’m a slow reader!

I usually wait until the next day as I like to think about the book I’ve just finished.

To the posters who read several books at once...how does that work? Do you read a few pages of each book per day or more attention to one than the others?

@BaconAndAvocado

I've tried several times to do book challenges and read a certain amount each year but weirdly enough I found it gave me anxiety and I wasn't really focusing on the actual book but more how quickly I could get through it to meet my target lol

Yes,this.

I usually have at least two books on the go at anyone time one next to the bed and another in my work bag for on the train) and when I finish one I immediately start another. In fact if I see I am getting close to the end I get the next book out ready and often have two in my bag for that very reason

If I've just finished a really good novel then I can't read another one for a while. I like being totally immersed in a world, and if I've enjoyed it I want to spend some more time there in my head and don't want to leave too soon to go to another world. I also have to have a book on the go though, so I get around it by alternating fiction with non-fiction.

If Ive really enjoyed the book I've just finished I often spend time trying to guess which of my next possible choices will be as good, fidgeting about, weighing them up in my mind. Then I sometimes even use a decision app to choose from a short list 🙄. Often I start a new one and realise it's not what I'm after at that time and wonder if I'll ever get into a good book again 🙄🙄.

If I've quite enjoyed a book but it's not that great I can already be deciding what to read next when I'm still reading the last 100 pages or so, slightly ruining it in the process 🙄🙄🙄

I try to be chill about the whole thing but who am I kidding?

Yesterday I read a book in the morning and started a new one in the afternoon. I also have an audiobook on the go. They are all quite different books so it's easy not to become muddled.

Jump straight in. I am a chain reader. Give me those kindle books.

It depends. If it is a really good book that I enjoyed a lot I won’t start a new one until the next day. I feel like I need the time to ‘digest’ the book I really enjoyed, and absorb it fully. But if I didn’t enjoy it too much I’ll just jump into the next one. Right now I have a long reading list for uni so I always have something to jump into!

Usually I wait a while until the next book calls to me! In the meantime I read a short story or some of the many nonfiction books I read a bit at a time.

I'm reading Anna Karenina a chapter a day (thanks to the thread on here!) I read it before I get up along with two "year books" that have readings for each day.

pleasejustgotosleep Yes, it could easily turn out like that. I made one of my resolutions this year to read more, particularly in the day (with no associated guilt!) and so I’m not hurtling through them.

Usually wait till the next day. When I was younger it was a few days, think I used feel more emotionally invested in books!
Occasionally I will read more than one at a time , but different types of books, eg a non fiction and a fiction book.

Philip Larkin used to read three books at once: a toilet book, a downstairs book and bedroom book. I'm the same. I've always got at least two, sometimes four, on the go. Unfortunately, I've got a bad habit of not finishing them. So I never really have that experience. Right now I'm reading a biography of Charles Darwin (dry and too long), Peter Ackroyd's book on Blake (really good, though way too much detail on London), and Anthony Burgess' Enderby novels (masterpieces).

That said, I do think you should devote yourself when you read a classic. I mean read only that, and then spend a few days meditating on it after you finish. I planned to have that experience when I read Hawking's Brief History of Time. I imagined myself going for long walks and chewing over the nature of the universe. Then I found I could hardly understand a word!!

I did put away every other book last summer when I read Pride and Prejudice for the first time (better than I expected). I also focused just on Great Expectations, To the Lighthouse, Brave New World and Dorian Gray. Books like that deserve respect. But when I'm reading P G Wodehouse or Tolkien or Patrick Leigh Fermor, I feel less guilty about dipping in and out and not finishing.

After a really good book I feel bereft. Sometimes I need a day to grieve the end of the story. I find it hard to jump into another.

If it's just trashy novels (most common if I'm stressed with no brain space) I can go back to back (and confuse all the stories usually!)

I read several at once so there rarely is a gap.

I jump straight into my next one unless my last read was so good that I have a “book hangover” I tend to switch my genre so if I’ve just finished a thriller I’ll go to a romance!