Reading 50 books at once

I came across this interview yesterday on Twitter and found it weird to say the least. Mr Self claims he reads 50 books at once (not 49 lightweight ones accompanying a serious read either) and chides Harry Potter for being lowly. While I agree readily as to Harry Potter’s lack of literary and storytelling brilliance, I have no idea who Mr Self is. He is, apparently, a well-known author—but this morning (as The Telegraph noted) a lot of others openly disagreed with him and with good reason too.

For what it is worth, I cannot read more than two books simultaneously: one of them is usually fiction, while the other is non-fiction.