Tell Me Something Tuesday was hosted by Rainy Day Ramblings, but she has (temporarily?) stopped blogging. So a group of us that had been doing posts (Linda from Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell, Karen from For What It’s Worth, Roberta from Offbeat YA, Jen from That’s What I’m Talking About and me) decided to get together, come up with some more topics and keep the meme going.Michelle made us a logo and we’re off and running. For more details, check out this post where I reintroduced the meme.
I can be sporadic, but when I do join in I will always share next week’s topic at the end of the post. So, today is about…
How do you choose what to read next?
This has changed a lot over the years. I used to have a very busy review calendar, with books that were due for review or blog tours. Now, I RARELY sign up for anything time sensitive. So I have a lot more freedom to choose what I want to read and when.
These days, COYER tends to be behind a lot of my reading choices. For one, I do a ton of buddy reading now. I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t buddy reading at least 1 book. Right now, I’m buddy reading both an audiobook and a physical book, for example. So who I’m planning to read with and what we’re reading has a lot to do with what I’m reading.
Alongside that, I am participating in Anne’s Night Huntress Readalong this year. So I do have to plan my reading schedule around that (especially since I read slow). And I do buddy read these books, so that overlaps a bit.
And then there’s challenges like Can You Read a Series in a Month? that I like to do. This month I’m actually doing two series – one audio (with Anne) and one print (with Brandee) – so that’s dictating a lot of my reading.
Finally, I do the My TBR List Meme, where people vote for 1 book out of 3 that I’ve picked from my gigantic list and I read and review it by the end of the month.
All that tends to fill a lot of my reading for the month, particularly print reads. I read audiobooks pretty quickly and I do have a ton of them for review. So in between all my scheduled reads, I grab audiobooks that I’m in the mood for. At the start of the month I make a tentative reading schedule for the month so that I have a general plan. But it varies and is pretty flexible.
I schedule out my review picks, but leave a lot of wiggle room for books from my shelf and the library, too. Like you, I put in buddy reads and I do the Series in a month as well as the readalong (though I won’t start this year until Vlad’s books). I’ve also put in two series challenges for the year so I’m reading through a historical and a sci-fi from each series monthly to work on my tbr pile since I don’t do the TBR pile vote anymore.
I would be lost without my spreadsheet. But I allow myself flexibility. I pick books I either plan to buy or preorder, or want to read, so overall I enjoy the books. I rarely find that I didn’t enjoy a book I was reading because it didn’t fit my mood. If that is the case, I’ll put a pause on it. But being a scheduled reader means that I really don’t participate in buddy reads or book clubs. So there is a downside.
I’m a very orderly/planned person in every other part of my life, but where reading is concerned, I’m only semi-planned. Probably because I do a lot of spontaneous mood reading. I also really don’t commit myself to review books that need to be read on schedule.
I mostly go with whatever is my mood or if I need to review anything.
Yeah I’m a mood reader to an extent as well.
I have a detailed spreadsheet and I find it pretty easy to stay with my plans since I pick review books I REALLY want to read and a bunch of genres. I can juggle if I get too moody. With all the buddy reading, I am reading 2 audiobooks and 2 ebooks at the same time more as I read faster than some. But it works. Then I fit in library books or books I own for fun where I don’t review other than a few sentences on Goodreads.
Oh goodness 4 books at one time? I don’t know that I could do that. Although I guess I have gone between audiobooks when I’m reading faster than someone else (that’s rare though lol). I can’t handle the pressure of too many review books that have a schedule attached to them, at least right now.