Today I'm supposed to let y'all into my head, but I'm not sure that's such a great idea. My mind might scare you off. It's kind of a crazy place at the best of times, and when books are involved, it gets a bit crazier. I am definitely, legitimately obsessed with books. Most everyone that I know in real life knows that I love books. The ladies at my thrift store call me "The Book Lady," and I imagine the people that staff my mail room refer to me the same way (just not to my face.) I have books in almost every room of my house (except the bathrooms because this houses bathrooms do not have handy book storage spaces, which is really quite disappointing for me.) So because I tend to ramble (I've already started), I'm going to focus this post on what goes through my mind when I'm deciding what book to read.
Sometimes deciding what book to read at any given time is easy because it's either on loan and about to expire or I have a deadline to meet for either proofreading or review. I don't get much choice in the matter there, and reading the book actually starts to fill me with a sense of dread almost. I start to drag my feet and not want to read so much anymore. Interestingly enough, reading was my least favorite subject in school because I hate being told what to read and when. If I have to read a book, I will not like it as much simply for being forced to read it.
When deadlines aren't a factor, book titles tend to play the biggest role in my decision, but it helps the books case if the design on the spine draws my attention as well. It's not altogether uncommon for me to go stand in my library and just look at my shelves and then decide to start reading a book right there because the spine/title called to me. Covers can play a big role too though. Just a week ago I got a book in the mail that the second I saw the cover I wanted to start reading it. Covers can be very powerful stuff, when used correctly. Covers also play a bigger role in my decision when I'm choosing a book to read on my Kindle, because that's what I see while scanning my books. So if any authors are reading this, have interesting covers! It helps.
I have talked previously about having a massive currently reading list (because I start reading books on whims simply because I like their title, or I needed to read for book club, etc.) This list enters my mind about a hundred times a day. I tell myself I need to focus on those books and not start a new book until I get the list down to like 6 (which is basically an impossible feat.) When I start thinking about starting a new book I remind myself of my massive list, and sometimes that reminder does stop me from starting the new book (and then I add it to my physical pile of TBR books by my desk in the office.) Other times, I say to heck with the currently reading list because I want to read this book right now, and by golly I'm going to do it because I do what I want. Then I regret the decision, but it's too late to change it.
Lately I've been thinking about how I'm going to fail the Popsugar reading challenge that I was attempting this year. I'm just over halfway done with it now, and while reading a book every day and a half is certainly possible, it would put a lot of stress on me when factoring in writing the reviews too, so I'm just going to accept that I won't finish the challenge. I think if I went back through and marked off some of the categories where books fulfilled more than one, I would certainly be closer to finishing, but I would rather fail and have a different book for each category completed than succeed and have some books fulfilling several categories (that just wouldn't feel like success to me.) I'll definitely give it a go again next year though, and maybe see better results.
And since I've started rambling again, I'm going to go ahead and wrap this up. What goes through your mind when deciding on a book to read? - Katie
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