(Hosted by Karen at For What It’s Worth and Tiger at All Consuming Media, the purpose of this twice-monthly meme is to discuss the nuances of being a book blogger. Join in anytime!)
June 4th: Choosing your next book. How do you decide which book to read next? How do you balance “review” reading with “fun” reading?
Let me answer the second question first, since it’s a bit easier. For me, there’s not really much difference between “review” reading and “fun” reading — if I read it, I review it.
The only exception is some of the psychology texts I read. About a year ago I wrote a post about reading “sex books” and how I don’t review them often — mainly because it’s a polarizing topic and I’m a bit embarrassed and afraid of what people will think of me, but also because they’re tough books to review in the context of a blog post; such books require conversation, and I don’t often find people as enthused about the topic as I am. If you’re dying of curiosity, though, you can check out my reviews of Sex at Dawn and The Mistress Contract to see what kind of stuff I read (slightly NSFW text).
When deciding what to read and review next, like most bloggers, I have a process:
When I first hear about a book I’d like to read, it goes onto my TBR list. At the beginning of the year I pull anywhere between 50 and 60 books from that list into a separate, private list, and then try to select only books from that second list. It may seem kind of clunky, but it’s the only way I can focus and actually do some reading, instead of staring at my full TBR until my eyes glaze over. I’m always adding books to my TBR, but I can only read so much, so it’s likely the books I add this year won’t be read until 2013.
Beyond that, though, I graze. I go to the library with a list of books I want, and check out what I can. I tend to glut myself on certain genres or series before getting bored and moving onto something else; the only time I’m very specific in what I’ll be reading is during Non-Fiction November, or when I’m participating in any reading challenges (check out my 2012 reading challenges).
Your turn to confess. How do you choose what book(s) to read next?
So that’s how it’s done! I just sit in front of my bookshelves till my eyes glaze over. 😉
I’d be doing that too, if I had the money and the space to hold more new books. 🙂
I’m also incredibly OCD and organized, so not having a process was making me crazy. I envy you, because it seems like you fly more by the seat of your pants. Wish I could do that.