Just Read One Book at a Time
My Most Controversial Reading Rule that Just Might Help You Out of Your Reading Slump
I love sharing the reading rules that have shaped this reading project. I have a list of 10 rules and it’s quite an entertaining experience to present them publicly. Nine of the rules are met with hearty approval but that 10th rule usually evokes disdain.
That rule is to:
Just Read One Book at a Time
I’ve found that most people have a religious devotion to reading multiple books at the same time. They have a non-fiction book for breakfast, a novel at night, a book for the bathroom, a book for the car, a book to swat flies, and a book for the office all going at the same time.
I used to be the same way. I felt something was wrong if I wasn’t in the midst of at least 5 books at a time. But I began to realize something. I was muddying the waters. I was finding it hard to remember the books I was reading because multiple books meant multiple storylines with too much time between each reading. I was also getting demoralized because I was never finishing books. I just needed the small win of a finished book to keep my reading momentum going.
In 2017, I made a list of 52 books I wanted to read in one year and decided to just start reading one book at a time. Here are some immediate benefits I realized with that approach:
I was able to get through a larger number of books in a year.
I could better remember what I read.
Those small wins of finished books kept the reading momentum going.
My overall reading pace was faster because even if I didn’t like a book, I simply had to finish it to get to the next one.
If you’re open to making the jump, you have two ways to shift from multiple books to one book at a time:
The Book Snowball - Are you familiar with Dave Ramsey? He has a famous suggestion for paying off debt called the Debt Snowball. You list your debts from smallest to largest and start paying off the smallest one. You pay off one debt at a time (while meeting minimum payments on the others), focusing all money towards that one debt. The reason for this is that you need small wins. It may make more financial sense to pay off the higher interest rate loan first, but we crave momentum and completion. If you are stuck with multiple books that you really want to finish, rank them in order of remaining pages from least to most and start reading the ones you can finish most quickly. That will get you the small win of finishing a book to get your momentum going.
Abandon Ship - if you have no desire to finish the 5+ books you’re currently working on, drop them all and start fresh with just one book.
I do break this one book at a time rule on occasion. I currently lead a monthly reading group as I continue with this reading project. I usually sneak those in while I’m reading my other books, but I try to keep that one book rule as much as possible. I’ve come to love the rule.
My guess is that your brain works much better than mine and that you can keep 5 storylines going at a time. If so, Godspeed. But if you’re like many people I talk to, the multi-book approach is leading to a reading slump and you’re not reading as many books as you’d like to. Give the one book at a time rule a try. And feel free to abandon the book you’re reading if it’s not the right book so that you can continue to the next one.
I naturally follow this rule, but lately had been thinking “maybe one fiction and one non-fiction.” Nah. I think you’re right, plus I like to read non-fiction as obsessively as fiction (meaning I like to get consumed by both). If my thinking process isn’t so different, why muddy the waters, as you say?
Ah, thank you for this! I mostly read one book at a time, but recently wondered if that's the best thing to do. You're right, one at a time helps me to focus, remember later, and enjoy. I also break up book series so that I can better remember the plot to each book. I will sometimes read at most 2 books at one time, but they have to be very different from each other, so maybe one a fiction novel, and the other a resource book on a topic I'm interested in. Though, I find that I tend to lag in one of them until I've finished the other. Having read this post, I don't have to wonder any longer and just continue how I best want to read, which is still mostly one at a time.