Open Discussion:
We all own a ton of books. And then we buy some more books. And then we borrow from the library or from friends. and then there is netgalley. you might have a few of ARCs sitting on the coffee table.
How do you decide what to read next? How do you prioritize?31 Responses to "How do you decide what to read next?"
I used to have this regular dilemma, but I’ve now figured out quite a simple solution: I read them in order I received them, oldest to newest, that way nothing gets cast aside or lost.Hope this helps.
It depends a lot; right now I’ve got a new book list for school and have therefore been deprived of choice. When I don’t have assigned reading, I do draw lists of what to read next – and then read something completely different. (Yeah, lists don’t really work for me…) It’s mostly based on mood. Sometimes I want to read fantasy, sometimes romance, sometimes a classic, and I try to go with that. Usually I have a book in mind by the time I’m finishing the previous one, which is good, because if I don’t, I’m going to spend a day or in a bad case two trying to figure out what it is I want to read! And frankly, that’s time spent not reading and therefore bad.
Tl;dr – mood. Whatever I feel like by the time I finish the previous book.
Library return date is the first decision point with a close second of what I am not able to renew.
After that, I try to read something that’s different from what I just read. If I just finished a fantasy novel, I’ll swing over for some sci-fi. FInish a mystery and move onto urban fantasy.
Sometimes I’m on a review deadline or tell a publisher I’ll read the book if they send it to me, those get priority. Otherwise, if I can’t decide to read from a small stack of books (3-6 usually), I’ll place those in front of my wife and she will pick for me. She claims to have a system, but the only element of that system she’s admitted is if she thinks the figure on the figure violates Myke Cole’s trigger discipline rule, she will not select it.
I’m probably horrible for saying this, but the cover is a pretty huge factor for me xD
I go from author I like > Friend told me it’s good > cool, evil-looking cover.
I’ll pick up a book from an author I’ve never heard of if it has a good cover.
There are so many amazing books I never would’ve read if not for the awesome designer that made the cover xD
I always try to read books from publishers first. And I have so many that I end up reading ONLY books from publishers. I only buy books I really really really want to read, so when I deviate from my review pile, it doesn’t really matter which book I pick up next, because they all are books I’m dying to read. I NEVER go to the library, so that isn’t a factor for me.
I use a variety of methods. I’ve done polls on my blog asking people to recommend which to read next. Another time, I looked through my unread and owned list in Goodreads and alternated between best rated and worst rated. Last time, I just looked through series I’ve started and chose books that continued the series.
My reading order can depend on if I own the book or it’s checked out of the library. If I own it, I may feel I have more time to get to it while a library book has a due date. A due date looms larger if it’s an e-book checked out to my card number because there is little I can do if the book expires and I have not read it yet (besides either checking it out again or buying it, of course). There are times I’ve kept a library book an extra day or two to finish it since the fine for keeping it is less than the purchase price of the book and I tell myself that I am funding the library to buy more books I might want to read someday.
The pressure of a deadline can also be extended to group reads or ARC copies that have asked for a review within a certain time frame, of course.
And sometimes it can be a mood will strike me. For example, if I feel in the mood for a certain type of genre novel or author based on a recent TV show or movie viewing. I recently watched the pilot for Bosch on Amazon and after seeing it, I pulled out the copy of City of Bones from the to be read pile and enjoyed it. (The series will follow the story of City of Bones as the central arc for season one, I’m told). Other times I may have the best of intentions to read a certain series of books but will sometimes throw in something to break up the pattern a bit and hopefully help me enjoy both the addition and the series a bit more by avoiding burnout.
Of course, there are certain books and authors that are “must read” as soon as I get my grubby paws on a copy of their latest works — Stephen King, Laura Lippman are just two examples of this for me.
The only books I try to schedule are my ARCs, but even then I tend to pick and choose based on what I’m in the mood for. Sometimes my regular TBR suffers for it, but it works far better than trying to force myself to read, say, an epic fantasy when I’m in the mood for sci-fi, and so on.
Sometimes, it’s my mood. Other times, the cover. There are days I’ll just pick randomly from the pile. The random picking doesn’t always work out though but every once in a while there’s a huge reward. When I’m really stuck, I go to my favorite bloggers and see what they’re recommending.
I stare at my 300 unread novels nicely packed on a shelf and go with whatever appeals at the moment. Perhaps based on a recent review I’ve read of an author I’m frequently thrilled with. If I don’t feel “in the moon in the first 40 pages of that book” I move to another one.
*or an author I’m frequently thrilled with
Though feeling “in the moon” is seemingly not an error
(“In the mood”? “Over the moon”? Let’s have both!)
Childish pedantry aside, yes, this. I was going to say with the exception that I’ve not got quite as many as 300 waiting to go, but once I’ve factored in the kindle it might not be that far off.
Ehh, typing too fast — happens. But yes, I have too many… And no kindle for me.
I usually have a reading list which I fill with way more titles than I can handle, so I can choose from a wide variety to suit whatever mood strikes me. I would say I choose my next read based on a lot of factors, but it mostly comes down to when the book is released (if it’s an ARC I have) and what I’m in the mood for at the time!
I choose mostly based on mood, and partly according to if I’ve signed up for some challenge or other. I will never be in the mood to read Candide, but I’m signed up for a readalong this month and it turns out to be not as scary as I thought. Oh, plus March is Diana Wynne Jones month, so everybody should be reading her.
With 30 hard copy books and over 150 on my Kindle, I tend to go for something different from the one I have just finished. It’s handy to have Good Reads where I list the hard copies so I can attempt to read them in a chronological order (i.e. in the order that I acquired them).
With the Kindle it is far less planned. I just skim through and see what catches my eye
If I’m in a reading challenge, I’ll generally choose from that first. I try to not over-commit to challenges, so I usually have some leeway. If it’s not something from a challenge, it’s usually the next book in one of the twenty-ish series I’ve started but not finished. After that, it’s probably one of the books in the the 100-ish long TBR list.
Or maybe something completely new that struck my fancy. I probably don’t spend more than 30 minutes or so deciding.
I read whatever I am feeling at the moment. I have refused to run a schedule of any kind, just not my way. IF I am down to two books I may go by release date, but even then I can be distracted by a trip to the library. Or a book deal. Until I am 5% into a book my reading is open to change.
I usually try to mix it up a bit. If I’ve read a big literary novel, I might turn to a mystery or thriller as a good change of pace. Then I’ll thread in some SF or fantasy and by that time I’ll come back to the literary novel.
Sometimes I curl up with a big pile of books in bed and i read the first few pages of each until something grabs me and won’t let me go. And sometimes I know exactly what I want – like comfort food for the brain. And Netgalley and Eidelweiss add to the pile of choices. Hmm….staring longingly at pile of library books.
I am a mess with this now! I used to be all so excited to read the next/last book in a series that I would nearly burst something waiting for it to appear. Now, I have so many unfinished series that I should be slapped! I’m like a big kid in a sweet shop. An old fashioned sweet shop with all your favourite sweets that you haven’t seen for donkeys. I’m all like ‘yay, sherbert fountain, oh look, fruit salad, no way there’s pear drops – omg you won’t believe this they’ve got Caramac!!’. Now, you probably haven’t heard of any of those things – but you get the gist! I think I should make a list – but like others say I’m more a read for the mood type of person. I do think I should put my ARCs in order because sometimes I’m on the last minute with them. The only time I really stick to anything is where I have something set. Any sort of blog hop, readalong or event – if I have a schedule I stick to it (it might be within two minutes of the deadline but come hell or high water I stick to it!)
Lynn
I dread finishing a book. I agonize for an hour or so, pacing in front of the bookshelves, before I finally pick one at random and worry for the first 20 pages or so that I might have chosen a better one.
Library books always get top priority since I have to give them back, while the books I own can wait indefinitely. Other than that, I choose based on how I feel. If I just read a long fantasy epic, I might go for some science fiction to change things up. Or if I just finished a long book, I’ll go for a short one. And if I’ve been reading a lot of fantasy and science fiction, I’ll read historical fiction or a thriller. I rarely read the same genre back to back and somehow this method has a way of balancing itself out.
Since I seem to like a lot of variety in my reading, and I’m always finding more books to read, I keep a list in a lovely mini journal. It’s not alphabetical or anything, I just add authors as I find them and list all the books in each series I’m interested in, and cross off the ones I’ve read, so I can keep track as I go. I also draw a little symbol next to each author or series so I know what genre it is at a glance, that way I can find whatever kind of book I’m in the mood for (scifi, fantasy, steampunk, vampires, etc). I call it my book book.
It completely depends on my mood. Whatever I’m in the mood for, that’s what I’ll read. Any attempt by me to schedule my reading in advance, or set rules for myself to meet, falls apart because I always just end up reading whatever book in my library bag appeals to me the most.
Mostly mood. I have this thing when I start thinking about the next book as soon as I get down to the last 30 pages or so in the current one.
Mood means I sometimes start three or so books at the same time, and then I switch them depending on what I feel like reading.
I read ‘for work’, I suppose. This means I need to review something, or somebody gave me a galley that has a bunch of other people waiting for it.
If it’s due at the library.
Hmm. This has changed a lot as I have gotten more serious about the blog. Now I have something of a flow chart: Review copy and/or project -> Library -> Something from my bookshelf, with a parallel line of TBR book (off any of several TBR lists) -> series I should finish -> new release -> whatever. On the z-axis are questions of gender and ethnicity, since I have been making a point to monitor my consumption of straight, white, Anglo-Saxon males. My mood is the wild card that generally helps whittle down multiple options.
Needless to say, this is a complicated assessment process and takes a fair amount of time. It’s also a reason I have not started actively seeking review copies.
** groan ** It’s pretty much been said by someone or other already, but I’ll chime in.
the SETUP:
I have three or four thousand books around here, about half of them read. I don’t get ARCs, don’t read e-books. I usually have three or four books on hold at the library. I read SF-F, non-fiction, mystery, pulp fiction reprints, art books, poetry.
the PROCESS:
If I have a review due, that comes first. Then library books get read. Then books in a series, say a trilogy, which I will read straight through. (I have a lot of trilogies sitting here not completed by the author, and I’m waiting. Do you hear me, Patrick Rothfuss??
Like many others I like to switch genres, mostly between SF, F and mystery. I usually have a couple of books going at once and a short TBR to go to next, but sometimes I just go browse the shelves or look at the catalog (I have all my books cataloged) to see what is missing the “R” next to it. And yes, as others say, mood.
At the moment I use a monthly reading challenge from a Goodreads bookclub. The challenge involves reading 3-8 books to spell out a South African word (either slang, or something from one of the 11 official languages). First, I try to fit in whatever review copies I have for books being published that month. If I need more books, I choose some from my ARC backlog (it’s my goal to reduce that this year!). I might also pick a buzz book, group read, or something I need for a different reading challenge.
I actually didn’t think this system would work for me, but having a plan and the goal of completing the monthly challenge has been fantastic. Before, I used to just try to get to all the review copies for that month, but sometimes that wasn’t structured enough or didn’t give me enough motivation to read what I’d planned.
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