#BookBlogWriMo - Day 16 - Blog Tours or Independent Reviewing

I used to take part in blog tours, and I'm not opposed to doing so now, but only for books that I received an ARC for as a beta reader or just because I'm in the authors street team, so I was going to have it read before release day anyway. I don't do well when expected to read to a schedule, and actually read less when I'm facing deadlines because I'm anti-being-told-to-read (seriously, reading was my least favorite subject in school because I hated being told what and when to read.) I mostly just don't feel like it's worth it to put myself under that kind of pressure for the blog.

So what makes me choose which books to read? There are so many factors that are different at any given time. I've already talked about how I'm easily swayed by covers in a previous post, so that's a big one. An intriguing synopsis is also a good way to get a book on my kindle.

Now, since I read in basically every genre, the steps I take to decide which review requests to accept and which books to read from them are probably a little bit different than other bloggers. I have a system where I sort review requests into their respective category (if they fit more than one, I put the book in the folder it seems to fit most based on synopsis and excerpt). Then when it's time to pick a new book to read, I decide what kind of book I want to read, and then check that folder. Some things that would make books stand out would include an interesting subject line, a pitch that makes me laugh, and following my review request guidelines. (Honestly, if you submit a request and you didn't follow my review request guidelines, you are automatically removed from future consideration, although I'm an email hoarder so I still keep the email. I'm sure if I tried I could come up with justification for that.) I don't really have any hard and fast rules as to how I decide what to read next though (aside from following my review request guidelines) because I'm a mood reader, and my moods can be mighty fickle, so I mostly just go with whatever sounds good at the time.

How do you decide what to read? - Katie