I always state that I am the type of reader that read whatever I am in the mood for (I even worded it like that in my Review Policy). So my mood mostly decides what book to read. Ofcourse this sounds really easy, but it often isn’t. Often I know what book I am in the mood for, often I don’t know it excatly and just end up starting something and sometimes (like now) I want to read, but have no idea what to read. And I also have Review books to consider, I try to regulary read a review book. So if I am wondering what to read I always try to consider all my review books and wonder am I in the mood for this book. And if the answer is yes then I start that review book and if not then it just stays there contributing to my every growing to-read pile.
How to balance review books and normal book
For the sake of making this part readable I use the word Review books for those books I got a copy from the author for review and I use the word Normal books for those books I buy myself because I want to read them. When I read too much Normal Books I usually start to feel quilty, because I still have Review Books to read. So I try to balance how much Normal and Review books I read, my current method is trying to read a Review book and then a Normal book and so on and so on. I assume that this method won’t work for long and I end up just reading whatever I want and trying to make sure I read enough Review books to not feel quilty.
Deciding my next read in advance
Sometimes I already have an idea in mind which book I want to read next. Maybe because I recently got a enw book or a review book and decided that would be my next read and usually if I already have firmly decided what to read next I usually stcik to that and indeed read that book.I am actually happy when I am able to decide what to read in advance, because then after I finished a book I can just pick up my next read immediately without any thinking.
Minpoints of my current method of choosing
Letting my mood decide what to read has two major minpoint. The first is that sometimes there are books that I own for quite some time that I end up not reading for a long period of time, because I am not in the mood for them. Well when this happend with Normal book this isn’t such a big problem, well only for the fact that I paid for those books and actually want to read them and not only use them to fill up my bookshelves. In the case this happens with Review books there actually is a problem. Most authors prefer if you read their books fast (which is really normal I think), but with my method of choosing it can happen that I read a Review book instantly after I got it or it can happen that I get a book for review and a year later I realise I still haven’t read it (and yes I actually have 2 or 3 Review books that I almost have for a year already). I actually feel really quilty for this, but well if I am not in the mood for a book and pick it up I can end up not liking it (or liking it less) only because I wasn’t in the right mood for that book. Really I consider this one of the big minpoints of my method of choosing what to read next and I am still trying to figure out a good solution to this problem.
The second minpoint of my method is when I am not in the mood for anything or don’t know what to read. You know they kind of mood that you want to do something fun and don’t know what to do? When I am in this kind of mood I usually have trouble deciding what to read next. So what do I do in such a situation?
What do I do when I don’t know what to read?
Well this is my current problem. After finishing my latest read Deamon Whisperer (The Liminals #1) By Candice Bundy I have no idea what to read. I want to read, but I don’t know what. It seems my mood decider isn’t working, because I simple don’t know what I am in the mood for. I already have decided a few times to pick up a certain book and then only a few minutes later to decide to not read this book. According to my Goodreads Bookshelf there are 120 books that I own and haven’t read yet. So that brings me to another problem if I have so many books to read how can I decide what to read?
So here is my problem. I still haven’t started a new book and I really want to read. What do you do in such a situation? How do you decide what to read? Please give me some great ideas because apparently there are situations in which my usual mode of choosing doesn’t work.
You’re probably burned out on fiction. The plot arc of a story is universal. Each genre has certain “rules” that a story needs to follow. A romance, for example, must have some force keeping apart the couple who falls in love and they have to overcome that force for the happy ending. It’s same old, same old as far as the arc is concerned. When I’m wiped out, I switch genre. You read a lot of fantasy/distopia. Perhaps you read a non-fiction? Perhaps a memoir? Perhaps a psych book? I’ve found that distopia can be completely wrong about how real humans respond to a traumatic event – it bugs me too much to read the genre. Perhaps you’re there. That doesn’t mean its a bad genre, but you might need a little dip in the reality pool. Read “Society of Mind” psych book. Just a thought…
I actually don’t read many non-fiction books, except for study/ information books. Like how I am currently reading a book about twitter marketing, but even though it is interesting it isn’t really a book to read when you want to relax. I will check out that psych book you mentioned, maybe it works :).
I finally ended up starting the 4th book in a series that I wanted to read for quite some time, but mostly forgot about for a while. yay! For finally reading again!
I’m not really sure what kind of reader I am.. I think I’m a obsessed reader, actually. Haha. I don’t really have moods, but I do have feelings about books. When I look at my bookshelves to pick up a new book, I sometimes have a strong ‘PICK ME, YOU WANT TO READ ME’ feeling with a book. So that’s the one. When I don’t have such a feeling, I just take the first one that catches my eyes :p
I always read several books at the same time. So I make sure that I read at least my own book + a review book.
Mel@thedailyprophecy.
That sounds much like the method I use. Although I never read more than one book at the same time, that just doesn’t work for me.