Book juggling aficionado tells all

Many people are serial readers — they pick up one book and read it cover-to-cover before putting it down.

And then there are poly-readers like Julia Keller. The Chicago Tribune cultural critic juggles four, five, or even six books at any given time, never able — or willing — to choose just one. Some have frowned when Keller mentions how many books she's reading, she writes in a recent column. But she's nurtured her habit not because she's flighty or easily bored — or even because it's her job to read many books at a time. It's just because she finds life is simply better when lived among multiple books.

There's nothing like the joy of accidentally stumbling on synergy between two books, says Keller, when a plotline or location in one is enriched by a scene in another. And in an age of rampant multi-tasking, Keller asks, why not? Read an interview with her at NPR online.