At the moment I am 141 pages into a 374 page book, which doesn't seem long until I tell you the book is a 6"x9" hardcover written by a British scientist with lots of footnotes. It's taking me a long time to finish, and I find that frustrating. I like to finish a book within two weeks, but that's not going to happen with this one.
My frustration got my thinking about reading in general. I read mostly nonfiction because I like to learn, and I'm making up for twenty-something years of not liking to learn. But I'm always interested in what other people are reading, because I think what you read (in public anyway) says a lot about who you are.
Jen, my dear ADD partner, is reading five books right now. Yes, five. There is one next to the jacuzzi, one on the coffee table, one in her car, one on her nightstand, and one on the kitchen table. One is fiction, two are business, one is social theory, and one is about lowering your taxes. I don't know how she does it. It's like channel surfing.
And this is how it plays out:
"While you're up, would you please get me my book?"
"Which book?"
"You know, the one I'm reading."
"You're reading five."
"The red one. I forget the name." *
"The red one with the picture of a duck or the red one with the picture of a leaf?"
"Duck, please." **
How many books does your partner read at one time? I just don't have the brain capacity for all that information at once!
Update:
*Jen has informed me that this is a total misrepresentation. She never forgets the names of the books she's reading.
**Nor does she read any books with pictures of ducks on the cover.
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