“There’s no way you’re going to read all those; put some back!”
“You can’t just stop reading a book because you lost interest!”
“If all you read is that one genre you will never be well rounded!”
“Listening to books or reading them online is cheating!”
Do any of these sentiments sound familiar to you? If so, then welcome to the “Wrong Way” Club! Society handed me my membership card to this club the same time I got my first library card and proceeded to check out twenty books. And, despite my mother’s concerns, I read them all at the same time without “mixing up the characters” or “misplacing the books.” (Well, technically Clifford The Big Red Dog was damaged when I returned it but that’s only because my little brother ate most of the pages.)
To this day the number of books I’m currently reading is always in the double digits. It did take me a while to get over the idea that I’m only “supposed” to read one book at a time, but once I did, my love of reading increased significantly. I embrace my easily distracted mind and switch, for example, from a biography to a sci-if novel the second I get bored. It may take me longer to finish books in the long run, but I truly enjoy every minute of my reading time this way.
Since books act as portals to personal adventures, it only makes sense to embark on such journeys however one sees fit. So whether you read one book a year or ten at a time, read a book cover to cover or just the parts that interest you, read for pure entertainment or serious enlightenment, read a physical book or prefer e-books and audiobooks—just remember that there really is no wrong way to read a book!
~Rax F., Library Assistant