Discussion: How We Choose the Next Book



We readers can be very ritualistic. We all have little things that get us excited and make us want to read a book. I know that some of us also have some weird habits when it comes to choosing books. These are our habits.

Mari

To be honest, I've become less ritualistic now but I used to have one that you may find interesting.

  1. Go to the library and pick up all the books.
  2. Spread all the books cover first.
  3. Rank in order of most intriguing / favourite cover.
  4. Turn the books over and read their synopsis'.
  5. Rank in order of interest.
  6. Read the first one.
In case of a series, then I usually read the sequel before I read a new book. I didn't always stick to the list and I sure as heck didn't always finish all the books I had. 

Now, it simply scouring the internet until I find a book that really interests me. Stalk some reviews and then hunt the book down. This methods has severely cut down on my reading as I've become a really moody reader and the book has to be exactly what I want at that specific time. Hence, I often find myself on google searching up "books about----".


P.E.

I have two different rituals.

Library Ebooks

  1. Go to teen fiction section and order books based on date published. 
  2. Goodreads a book. If it's below an average 3.7 rating, I probably won't read the book. I usually like books to have a 3.8 rating or higher. Maybe I'll also briefly skim the first few reviews. 
  3. Download books to Kobo. 
  4. With ebooks, Kobo will show a few of them on the main screen. I'll just read the biggest one, and go on from that. 
Books
  1. Acquire them (through the library, borrow them, buy, anything). 
  2. I rank them in order of interest. 
  3. I read in reverse order from least interesting to most interesting. This motivates me to get through slow books so I can read that one amazing book at the end. 
When I was younger, I used to put all my books on the ground and do eenie meenie miney mo and make a large pile that I would leave near my bed. When I finished a book, it would go on the "finished pile" and I would just pick the next book from my large tower of books to read. I don't read as much as I used to, so I don't do that anymore. 

Mari & P.E.

How Do You Choose Your Next Read?


12 comments:

  1. Very sporadically, I'm afraid. In a perfect world, I should be reading the books I get sent for reviews, but I'm like a four-year-old child: my attention span has a reset time of fifty seconds, tops.

    Nowadays, I keep to reading feedbacks of fellow readers before I pick up something to read.

    Great post, ladies. :)

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    1. I here you. I don't understand how people are able to follow lists. Lists are the devils spawn to me since my mind tries everything it can to avoid following them.

      -Mari

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  2. Haha, I actually wrote a post on this EXACT post too! Although it's posting in like, June. But basically, reviews, covers, and hype actually!

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    1. Hype is a big factor though most of us try to act like it's not. I pretty much agree with all.

      -Mari

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  3. Interesting post ladies, thanks for sharing your process! I used to read Amazon reviews on teen fiction to see which one was the best ranking and buy/borrow/order them. These days I just read whatever I feel like or has been raved about recently :)

    Jeann @ Happy Indulgence

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    1. That's so cool. I've never been very good with amazon as I like to stick with physical book stores. I do really love the little recommendation part which shows other books that people bought along with it. I often look at the 'recommended' window on a books profile in goodreads. It's a great way to find books that one may enjoy.

      -Mari

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  4. I tend to just look at my list of ebooks or at my physical shelf and start reading any one that looks interesting to me at the time. So, I kind of just read a random one, I guess haha.

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    1. I like that. However, I seem to enjoy hoarding books onto my bookshelf but never reading them. It's like I want to own them but once I have the books in my possession my goal has been accomplished and I leave them to sit... So bad!

      -Mari

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  5. Hmmm, if I'm feeling like reading anything I will stick to my list of books to read and motivate myself to read my review books or whatever else is on my list in order.

    If I'm a bit wishy washy, I usually look around my GR lists, then check the physical books I have around and then browse my Kindle library... then grab whatever seems like I'd want to read and start it, if it works for me I stick to that, if not... I'll try something else.

    Great post, this is something I've also wondered about, cause I'm sure I'm not the only one that tries to stick to a list but half the time ends up needed to read something that's not on the list!

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    1. Honestly, I read 2 to 3 books from the list and that's it. So no worries. I think it's important to read what ever one wants to read because sometimes putting things in lists makes our minds take it as a task instead of a hobby which is what reading is.

      -Mari

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  6. What interesting "algorithms" you both have!

    We're not sure we have anything so consistent... It's like whatever leaps to our attention in that moment tends to win. :P

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    1. Haha, my reading has slowly evolved to something similar to yours but every now and then when I get a stack of epic books I can't help but fall back to the old ways.

      -Mari

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What do you think?