Yesterday, I wrote about Interleaved Reading (reading multiple books at once) and how it gives me a chance to reflect and retain a book’s contents. I try to pick very different books so that I have one to pick back up to match my energy.

I started Hypermedia Systems [affiliate] to give me a foundation on HTMX for a new project. A couple of chapters in, I decided to just try it. Now that I have something working, I went back to read the more advanced chapters. I like learning new tech this way rather than just reading because the building reinforces what I read. I also don’t want to just build because books like this are also about mindset, architectural patterns, and theory. Now that I have something working, I’ll just read the book through and should be done soon.

Earlier this year, I went to Germany and I wanted to be able to speak a little German while I was there. I had three months, so I crammed with DuoLingo and picked up Fluent Forever [affiliate] (here’s my review of it and the Fluent Forever app). There was no way I could implement that whole book in three months, but it did really help.

When I got back from my trip, I decided to switch to Spanish. I’ve been doing that for about six months and I’m ready to resume the book for more tips. This is a book I am reading just enough to implement the technique and then putting down. It might take months to finish.

I decided to pick up The Inferno [affiliate] by Dante (Cialdi translation) because I heard that there were references to it in Severance. I technically started it by reading the front matter and the first chapter (Canto), but I haven’t been able to get it into my routine. I have a small trip soon with flights back and forth. I should be able to finish it then.

I got Thinking in Systems [affliliate] by Donella Meadows as research for Swimming in Tech Debt, but stuck to the chapters on feedback loops (which is why I was reading it). It was hard to put it down, but I had to, and now I’m finishing it.

Even though some books take a while to finish, I sometimes find a book that I just want to read and finish immediately. Mostly this is because there is some information in the book I need. For example, when I went to LA recently, I bought and read Radically Simple Strength [affiliate] by Paul Horn after hearing him on a podcast. I have been wanting to lift weights more seriously, but I always overdo it and then stop. Horn’s method sounded like what I needed, and I finished it on the flight. It’s been working so far.

Before I interleaved books, I might have not bought a new book or waited until I was finished with my current one. Now, it’s more natural for me to be juggling a few for different time periods, so I can always put them all down if I just want to finish one.

I don’t know why it took me so long to interleave my reading. I consume other media this way naturally (e.g. TV series, podcasts, blogs, music). It might have made more sense when I needed to physically have the book on me, but they are mostly in Kindle now (and so on every device I own), so I have them all with me and can switch whenever I want.

If you don’t do this, it might sound confusing, but since I am usually working to retain the knowledge in between reading, it’s actually easy to pick the book up again.