Friday, July 24, 2015

My current book selection process

I recently started reading The Engagements (which so far is excellent!) and I started thinking about my recent reading selection process. Which has been:

  • Read a review about a book
  • Think "Hey, that sounds swell" and put it on my Goodreads list
  • Forget about book
  • Sporadically remember the awesomeness of Booksliced and set up some alerts
  • Forget about alerts
  • 6 months go by and I get an alert for this book that I don't remember at all but, hey!, at some point I decided it would be good and it's super cheap now so I should probably buy it
Most of the time I just have to trust that past-me makes good choices. 

Lately I'd been reading more and more on my Kindle because of the whole moving thing and the whole trying-not-to-acquire-more-books-I'll-have-to-move thing. But now we're all moved in and I already got my next Just The Right Book so perhaps I'll be switching over to physical books soon. I'm also pretty sure have some other unread books sitting around, but I might have to wait for that whole book organization thing to happen before I figure out where those ended up.

I've never been good about planning my reading out. I always just go with whatever I feel like reading at the moment, but lately I've been doing far more reading-trust-falls, where I can't hardly remember what the book is about but I just sort of dive in. Sometimes it works (as I said, The Engagements is thus far a success)... 

and sometimes not so much (Men Explain Things To Me you were...not quite what I expected). 

More often than not things work out. I add books to that Goodreads list only if I think they're actually ones I'll read and that a trusted reviewer recommended. But really, how else do you select what book to read next?

Comments (10)

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Why is your GIF-age always so flippin' perfect? Huh? TELL ME YOUR SEKRITS, ALLEY!
1 reply · active 509 weeks ago
Thank you, thank you. I spend far too much time on tumblr looking up stupid gifs so I'm usually prepared :)
Library availability is honestly like 65% of my book selection process. I have a TBR spreadsheet where I keep track of the books I want to read, and I always include a little note describing the book so I won't forget what made it sound good, but honestly, it's mostly what's in at the library when I go that Saturday. I'm a simple woman.
1 reply · active 509 weeks ago
I really need to start using the library. But also I like your idea of writing down why you decided a book was worth putting on a to read list. Because yeah, I usually have no idea.
I've never really wanted to read Men Explain Things to Me because I assuuuumed it would not be what I thought. And now I have been VALIDATED. Somehow.
1 reply · active 509 weeks ago
Yeah...

I thought it would be funny things and it was...not.
I'm with you -- I just go with whatever book sounds good at the time. Planning what to read next has never worked well for me.

Susan www.blogginboutbooks.com
1 reply · active 508 weeks ago
Planning doesn't work. This non-planning works...sometimes. I think I need to do a better job remembering why at some point I said I wanted to read something...
Same here - I read reviews, go "ooooh!", mark as "want to read" on Goodreads, and then months later...

Then again, I'm currently reading 1Q84, so I don't have to worry about finding my next book for the next couple of weeks, hahaha!
1 reply · active 508 weeks ago
I really need to keep track of the "whys" when I add a book to goodreads. Or maybe a link to the original review I read. That would be smart. *continues to add books to GR without any further information*

1Q84 looks like such a beast, I am afraid to tackle it. Can't wait to see what you think!

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