You could say I’ve always been a double-booked reader, even before I came to MPR, where reading one book at a time for the show simply won’t work. Too many books, too little time. But I’ve long loved juggling multiple novels — a classic here, a contemporary thriller there — with a memoir or a non-fiction book thrown in. And now I’ve added audiobooks to the juggling act.
But here’s something important: the pairings often aren’t accidental. I’m looking for balance, a palate cleanser of a romance if I’m neck deep in a book about foreign policy or health care legislation; a spy thriller if I’m also reading a Booker Prize winner. Sarah Rahman recently wrote about reading multiple books for BookRiot.com. She punctuates her day with different flavors of books, saving a long classic novel for the morning when she’s fresh and can concentrate, and “reserve the night for indulgences, when I can spend hours before bed losing myself in a story.”
Now, if you’ve never done the double Dutch reading thing, you’re wondering how you keep the plot lines and the characters straight. I’ll often end a chapter of one book and clear my mind with a walk or some kind of exercise and then dive into the next one, fresh and eager to pick up the story where I left off. Moving my body is the “sherbet” before the next course. So, if you pair your books the way you pair your wine and food, I’d like to hear about one of your favorite pairings. And if you’ve never tried this, here are a couple of pairings to get you going: Read Margo Jefferson’s terrific memoir, “Negroland” with Delia Owens’ “Where the Crawdads Sing”; experiment with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “We Should All Be Feminists” with Jane Austen’s “Emma”; and try N. Scott Momaday’s poetry collection, “The Death of Sitting Bear” with Paulette Jiles’ “News of the World.” Find all these recommendations here.
Send me your favorite book pairings on Twitter @kerrimpr and I’ll write about them on a future Thread. — Kerri Miller | MPR News | 
