How to read multiple books at once (a not so pro tip)

Somehow I've found myself reading 4 books at the same time...aaaaannnnd I may have also started an audiobook in the midst of this. This is not my normal practice. I'm a one book at a time kinda person because I'm sure I'd get the stories mixed up at some points. However, here I am. So I thought I'd share some tips on juggling reading so many stories and keeping up!

1. Read books from different genres. My biggest worry with reading multiple books at once is confusing the stories. Right now I'm reading 1 non-fiction graphic novel and 3 fiction novels. The fiction books are all different. There's a book the was turned in a tv show, a book that I'd consider chick-lit, and the third fiction book is set in Korea during wartime. The settings for each book is so different that it would be difficult to confuse them, thus making context switching relatively easy.


2. Don't read more than 1 book in a day! I know I know, you're reading multiple books and you're probably putting one down and picking another up all in the same day. I've been trying to not do this as that specific act of picking up a new book sends a message that it's time to "go to a new place" and I might not be done with the "place" I was in before. Stories are like destinations in my mind and a lot of times the best reflection happens hours after I've read something, so I try to stick to 1 story a day.


3. Put some time aside to read every day, whether it be 5 minutes or 1 hour. This sounds like common sense, right? If these 4 books are sitting on my nightstand unfinished in a week it's going to start to bother me and I might stop reading altogether. By telling myself "just read for 5 mins today" I make sure I'm always making progress on something and I always end up reading for more than 5 minutes.