I have a very bad reading habit. I have the tendency of reading multiple books in parallel. After I started a book, reading it half way, sometimes even just the first few chapters, I may get distracted by a new book. Then I will put down the old book and start the new one. I just count the number of books that are reading in progress, I have 8 books pending to finish. I am not abandoning the unfinished books, I will still read a few chapters from time to time, until I got distracted by another book again. I just finished a book that I started 2 years ago. Here are the books pending in my reading list:
1. Asimov’s Guide to the Bible
2. Dimensions of Moral Theory
3. Free Culture
4. A History of Christian Thought
5. Philosophy of Bullshit
6. A Good Book, In Theory
7. Philosophy of Law
8. Contemporary Political Philosophy.
The oldest book stuck in the queue started almost 7 years ago. My reading pipeline is so full that I really should refrain myself from the temptation of new books. I should focus on the books in hand and just be content with what I reading. Interesting though, I only have this problem with non-fictions. It is easier to concentrate when reading a fiction. It has the element of a story to keep my attention until I flip to the last page or it’s so boring that I give up.
Belive it or not, I just read an article lately about people with this reading behaviour : )
The writers said it is a good method to develop the habit of reading for those who don’t like it. People don’t like reading because they easily get bored. By rotating different books to read, it can maintain the sense of freshness in each book.
I don’t feel bored though, I just want to read different stuff.