Continuing the meme, here's Day 10...
Day 10: How do you choose what book to read next?
Every December I start to lay out my next year's reads. I find reading challenges that look interesting, or just pull from previous challenges. I make lists of potential books for those challenges out of my overflowing TBR stacks. I might also throw in a few new releases I know I want to read. Once I have my master list fairly complete, it goes into the new year's reading challenge page on my blog. I also keep a paper spreadsheet in my reading folder. This is my master list of books to read during the year.
Then, I try to break my master list down into monthly lists. I usually try and space out my genres throughout the year. Sometimes I have reading challenges that are month specific (like this year's Monthly Key Word Reading Challenge). Usually I just try and divide my reads across the month. Once I get these monthly lists set, I then grab January's stack and put it into my ottoman in the living room. These are my go to reads. The upcoming months are taken from the boxes and put into my short bookcase.
When I need a new read, I dig into the ottoman and find something that strikes my fancy. On the crazy off chance that none of those books sounds good, I go to the short bookcase and grab something off there.
This sounds like a very methodical process to approach my next read. And in most cases, I follow it. Of course, there is always the chance that I stop by the library for some unexpected read, or grab one at a book sale, or snag one from an Amazon free deal. But for the most part, I go into the year knowing what I want to read in the coming year. To help keep me on track, I have also started doing a Monthly TBR post.
Looking at changes in my life this year (work and baby), I am thinking about scrapping this entire process for 2014 and just reading whatever I feel like. No challenges, no monthly TBR pile, no big plans. But there's a little part of me that loves the structure of my big plans. We'll see how I feel come December.
I'm sure I'm not the only one that has a huge reading choice process...