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Book Juggling: It’s Fun When You Catch Them All
Are you reading several books at the same time? I’ve discovered that it is a surprisingly common habit, and it may even be a good one.
For me, it’s ingrained. Working as an academic, I had an unending list of books to read. My work pile was sometimes specific to the point of obsession, but at other times seemed encyclopedic in scope. If anything came out about Martin Luther King, for instance, I felt compelled to read it. Equally, I tried to keep abreast of the wider sociological and historical literature on social movements and styles of leadership. This never-diminishing stack commuted with me selectively from my university office to my home office. Mostly, it was a chore. The main positive thoughts I recall are: “That’s interesting” and “I wish I’d written that.”
Yet even in retirement I find myself with too many books open at the same time. My current total is eight:
Virgil, The Aeneid [translated Sarah Ruden] (2019)
Pat Barker, The Silence of the Girls (2019)
Stephen Fry, Troy (2021)
Dennis Duncan, A History of the Index (2022)
Don Winslow, City of Dreams (2023)
Katie Rogers, American Woman: The Transformation of the Modern First Lady from Hillary Clinton to Jill Biden (2024)
Sally Bedell Smith, For Love of Politics…
