Lola’s Ramblings is a feature on my blog Lola’s Reviews where I ramble on about a book related or a non-book related topic. These are discussion type of posts where I talk about a topic and readers can weigh in on the topic in the comments. Usually these posts are everything that doesn’t fall under any standard header, like tours, cover reveals, memes, challenges, recaps or reviews. Lola’s Ramblings posts are discussions of a certain topic and my point of view on them. The banner for this feature is designed by Michelle from Limabean Designs.
I want to talk about my recent reading mood. I am a self proclaimed moodreader, which means I read whatever book I am in the mood for. Forcing myself to read a certain book doesn’t always work well, so I usually just go along with moodreading ways. Being a moodreader can be difficult as it can be hard to figure out for what book you’re in the mood for exactly. But lately I seem to have the opposite problem, I am in the mood for everything and have a hard time narrowing down what to read as everything sounds good.
Being a moodreader who is in the mood for everything
I am not quite sure when this started, but it has been going on for few months now. Sometimes it seems to switch on and off a bit. But for most of the past few months I’ve been in this weird state where I want to read everything. Every time I have to decide what to read next I have more than 10 books or multiple genres I want to read right now. Instead of not knowing what my mood is, I know exactly what my mood is, but it’s so broad I can’t narrow it down. My thought process often goes like this:
“hmm what shall I read next. Maybe a contemporary romance? Yes sounds good! Or a cozy mystery! Oh yes let’s pick up a cozie. But I also want to read this book I recently bought. Oh fantasy or paranormal sounds good too. Or this Christmas novella I got recently? Hmm but I also have to read these review books? Yes those sound good too!”
It’s brilliantly exciting and frustrating at the same time. Because on the one hand I feel like I can’t get enough of books and can’t read them fast enough and every book sounds good and I enjoy almost every book I read and I have a bunch of books I want to read next or right now. But on the other hand it’s so frustrating because I want to read at least 10 or 20 different books right now! And that makes it so hard to decide what to read. Review books and deadlines almost become my savior nowadays as at least that way I can make a decision. Or I decide to get down my netgalley percentage and read a bunch of netgalley books in a row without trouble. It’s great and frustrating and I am still not quite sure how to handle it.
How I pick my next read nowadays
I use a few techniques to pick my next read nowadays, it’s not foolproof and half of the time it doesn’t work, but here are some techniques I use.
- Do I have books with deadlines? Often when I really can’t decide I just pick up my next read that has a deadline and I am in the mood for. I’ve been doing well getting a few deadline books read or preparing for reading a deadline book by reading the previous books in a series.
- Pick a genre first. Sometimes it helps to pick a genre first and narrow it down that way. Pick a genre and then pick a review book within that genre or a book I am most excited about in that genre. But narrowing it down to genre is hard too. I often can’t decide or end up picking one of the genres I am in the mood for that I haven’t read the longest.
- Read a review book or netgalley book. This is a great way to narrow down my options and as I am in the mood for almost everything anyway why not read a review book or narrow it down even more to a netgalley review book.
- Try to figure out what I am not in the mood for. Sadly this rarely narrows things down, because It’s usually pretty vague or I end up with a genre I don’t read a lot anyway. But sometimes focusing on what I don’t want to read can bring me closer to deciding what I want to read the most at this moment.
- Recently acquired reads. Even in normal reading moods I often use this technique and have become quite good at keeping up with books, especially review books, that I recently required. Don’t know what to read? Pick one of the books I got for free, for review or bought recently. Still pretty broad, but it narrows things down a bit and sometimes once I narrowed things down a bit, a book jumps out at me and I pick that one up. I actually use this technique a lot as the recently acquired books are often books my excitement is still fresh for.
- See if there’s a book that jumps out at me. Sometimes I just scroll past the books that I own and see if I get extra excited about one of them and then just go with what looks good or jumps out at me.
- Just pick something. This happens quite often. I just pick a book and start reading as I am in the mood for it anyway and I will probably enjoy it too. I just decide to read something and it often works out. Not really a technique, but it does work sometimes.
I go through the same thing as you do, so I know exactly how you feel! It can be really overwhelming at times, and I get a bit sad that I won’t be able to read every single thing I want to (at least not in a lifetime!). I agree that review dates save me too!
It’s a bit overwhelming indeed as I just want to read everything. But those review books really are a blessing when you’re in this mood.
Ahahaha, that is definitely one of the problems of being a mood reader. Sometimes you’re not in the mood for anything, but other times you’re in the mood for everything, and neither one is really a good scenario because they both make it hard to choose a book, and I’m already indecisive enough as it is. It’s oddly frustrating, that feeling of wanting to read every book RIGHT NOW.
I do try to consider deadlines, so sometimes I will just grab the next book I have a deadline for. It is helpful having deadlines sometimes, keeps me from agonizing over decisions. Other than that, I have no good method. Sometimes I just try to see if one jumps out at me too. Fun post π
Exactly, both options aren’t a good scenario. I seem to keep begin stuck in this mood where I want to read everything and want to read everything now.
And deadline sure can be handy in those moods as it helps me decide. I actually just made a list for books I want to read next/ have to read next as they have deadlines. Which works with deciding a bit. Picking what jumps out at me is a frequently used method as well.
I have this major problem too – Sometimes it’s just what I grab. It’s why I like My TBR List so much – I need help picking π
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That’s what I like about the My TBR meme too, sometimes it’s hard to pick just one book and having others help me decide can be very helpful.
I am going through that right now. I have three books on my nightstand I want to read and a bunch on my e-reader. I read a few at a time in these instances, and I simply read what my mood is for that day.
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Glad to hear I am not the only one who has this. I always read two books at the same time, but never more than that and they are strictly separated. one is my evening only book on either my Kobo or a paperback and the other is on my ipad. It is kinda nice as it feels like I am racing through books and then ready and excited for the next read.
Oh this is how I have been!! I have been reading review books only for now because of it since they need to be read anyways. Honestly, I want to read everything and it is super hard to decide. I feel your pain!
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I also try and read a lot of review books as I am in the mood for almost anything anyway, so why not read a review book while I am at it. But deciding what to read is so hard when everything sounds good.
Deciding on the next read used to be a total nightmare. I’d waste two hours trying to decide what I felt like reading and then give up! Now at the start of the month I select the whole months books and each time I read one, I have less to decide between. I always ensure I have three or four genres there to account for mood. It’s working really well for me!
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That sounds kinda neat to just decide for the month ahead as then you have less books to pick from. I was actually thinking of doing something similar next month.
Yes, this does happen to me. I have a few things I do to help including what is already on your list.
First, I split my reading by ‘books I got for myself on my reading pile’ and ‘books that are for review’. I make sure I read a bit of both.
Secondly, do to a need not to miss any review books and to be fair about getting them read in a timely fashion, I created two lists with one listing in order of when I received the book and the other list tracks when the book released/releases. Then I broke this list up by weekly deadlines to read so many per week/month making sure to vary the genre so there is a mix. This has helped, but then the mood kicks in.
Thirdly, when I get in the mood of nothing or everything looks good, I then have a further method to help. I take the weekly stack and do a ‘first impressions’ read. I read about twenty pages from each book. The first one to catch and grab my attention is the one I stick with. Because I do this, at times I have three or four books started at once, but that is alright. If this first twenty pages of that stack of books doesn’t really grab me, then I do another round with the next twenty pages of those books. Eventually a book will grab my interest or sadly, it will also point out when a book left me with no interest at all and is likely never going to grab my interest. I need to decide to set it aside indefinitely or DNF it and then continue with the one that most grabbed me.
But that is what I do when I get in an ‘everything’ mood.
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That’s a good idea too to make two piles and make sure to read something of both. I used to read one review book and then one book that wasn’t a review book, but nowadays I reads multiple reviews books in a row sometimes as well.
I do write down deadlines or when I sign-up for a blog tour or something, but for the other review books I simply go with what I am in the mood for, which sadly means there are books I have gotten very long ago and still haven’t read yet.
I don’t think the first impression thing works for me, I always feel like if I start a book i either have to finish it or DNF and if a book doesn’t grab me immediately and I go on with another book I am afraid I would never get back to that one. But it is very interesting to hear how others deal with an everything mood π
I am in a very similar mood lately! The last few months of 2016 or so, I had a difficult time deciding what to read because nothing really felt like something I was REALLY interested in. So far in January though, I’m on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. There are so many things high on my TBR that I just don’t know where to start! I’ve actually started to prioritize books that are early on in series that have new releases coming soon. They’re mostly series that I’ve heard phenomenal things about and just haven’t gotten to, and now the sequels are getting hyped so I’m reminded about them again. >.> Will that be how I prioritize next time I’m in a mood like this? Probably not. But we’ll see!
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I feel like I’ve been in this mood for months now and it’s great on the one hand, but it can also be frustrating as I want to read everything right now. That’s also a good strategy to read books that have sequels coming out soon. I actually had a few books I got reminded off for that reason recently :).
Yeah, sometimes I really want to read a bunch of different things. I tend to just focus on the next review book that I need to read/review and go with that. haha
-Lauren
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I often do that as well, but even with review copies I still have a lot of options usually.
I sadly realized I can’t force myself to read certain books either! HUGE READING SLUMP! The deadlines were the worse that’s why I stopped participating in tours and requesting ARCS. So I’ve embrace the mood readiness why of life. I actually go with what my blogger friends and reading and recommending and then I read the first pages, what I like to call “first impressions” π Great Post!
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Being a moodreader sure is difficult at times. I still sign-up for some tours and arc’s lists, but most don’t have too strict deadlines and with tours I can usually gauge in time if I can fit the book in or not. In this case being in the mood for everything works pretty well for getting some deadline and review books read π
I think I’ve had this problem although I have it a little less than some since I don’t do ARC’s or review copes that much. So I’m pretty much buying what I like or whatever- but still it happens. π Ha ha I love the part about trying to figure out what you’re NOT in the mood for! That can be tough too! I think for me picking a genre or going with a newly acquired book (ooh! the shiny) works sometimes when I get this.
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Sometimes starting somewhere and deciding what I don’t want to read helps me decide what to read. Picking up a new book or a review book often seems to be my technique lately, although I actually picked up an older review book just now as I suddenly was in the mood for it.
I try hard to make sure the review copies get priority as I’ve been given them in return for a review, so I try to make sure it gets read and reviewed in a timely fashion – after that, it really is what I’m in the mood for. And if there are two of them, I open one up and if I continue feeling that tingle of joy by the end of the first page that I’ve more of this ahead of me – then that’s it – I’m sold!
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I do try and get to review copies as soon as possible, but it always feels as if a flew slip through the cracks and then I won’t read them for months or years. Although this everything type of mood really is good for getting some review books read as I am in the mood for almost all of them.
I’m a mood reader too and I’m quite sure when it started. Normally, when that happens, I just do book raffle and read them, if I don’t love them, I just do book raffle again. But these tips are really helpful Lola π
A raffle also sounds like a fun way to decide. Deciding what to read next can be tricky sometimes.
I have too many books and never know what to read! This happens to me alllll the time. π
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It’s so difficult sometimes to decide what to read next, my two current reads were easy picks, so that was nice.
I have trouble picking my next read all the time. Sometimes it’s because I have too many choices of new-to-me books to choose from. Sometimes, I’m in the mood for a relisten. I’ve been in a relisten mood a lot the last few months. It isn’t that I’m not enjoying my new-to-me stories. It is just that I want a guarantee that I will enjoy the story. I need a pick-me-up and I know that a certain book will give me that. I’ve got about 20 new-to-me audios waiting to be listened to. Luckily, only one is a review book, so I’m not behind there. LOL Great topic.
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I had some good reads this year so far, but when you hit a streak of meh reads sometimes you just need a book you’re sure of that you will enjoy. I rarely re-read a book, but will often pick up a book by an author I already know in those cases. I don’t even want to admit how many unread review books I have, but I am always behind ;).
ooh this is such a great topic to talk about. And boy yeah I really struggle with this sometimes. When I first started reading I honestly could read just about anything. But I am so much more picky now. I definitely need to be in the mood for what I am reading. There are days where I really struggle. Usually I will make a list of Netgalley books, library books and books I haven’t read and see which one appeals to me the most. It doesn’t always work that way, sometimes I just have to pick a book even if I am not in the mood for it. And most of the time it works out pretty well.
Picking what to read next can be really difficult. Sometimes it’s easy and other times not as much. I make different shelves for my books on Goodreads and sometimes use that, although at the moment I have a short list of books I want to read soon.