Currently Reading–Too Many Things At Once

I really should know better.  For the last few weeks I have been reading five million books at once, give or take a million.  My usual method is to have two books going at once, one fiction and one nonfiction, but somehow I just kept starting books until it got completely out of hand.

I spent quite a while binge reading a science fiction series that belongs to my son.  I am not sure why, other than Lois McMaster Bujold I am not really a huge science fiction reader.  However, a world of aliens, spacecraft, new worlds, and the occasional battle seems to have been just what I was in the mood for.  Pure escapism.

At the same time, I am reading The Victorians by A. N. Wilson.  I know, could I possibly have picked anything more different?  I read Victoria–A Life by the same author earlier this year and was fascinated by it.  I am finding this one a bit heavier going since it is about a time period instead of an individual but it is still very interesting.  I just read about the Irish potato famine.  Absolutely horrifying.

When I was raiding my son’s bookshelves for science fiction I came across Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brian.  He enjoyed it and wants me to pick up the rest of the series as I come across them.  I also believe Hamlette from The Edge of the Precipice recommended them to me.  I am about halfway through and my son says I am just reaching the good part.  I must admit all the sailing jargon put me off a bit but I am persevering since the series is so beloved by many.

These are the only two books I have bought recently and I am reading one of them.  Lory at The Emerald City Book Review is co-hosting a read-along of Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick.  She already posted the discussion questions for the week but since I am reading five million books at once I am a bit behind with this one.  I am finding it absolutely fascinating though and keep inflicting interesting pieces of information on my family.  Always a sign of a good book.  I read a review of The Perfect Summer on a blog somewhere and promptly bought it.  Now I can’t remember which blog it was.  I need to start writing these things down.  I am not letting myself start it until I finish a few other books.

I also picked up Me Before You by JoJo Moyes at the library when I took my daughter on Saturday but I abandoned it half read because I was finding it so irritating.  It seems to be a popular book and I know a movie was made of it but it seemed predictable and I just had no desire to continue.  Now maybe if aliens had shown up and abducted the two main characters and there had been a huge space battle and the heroine had saved the day…

Do you read five million books at once?  What have you been reading lately?