Bookish Thoughts

Let’s Talk Bookish: On Being An Indecisive Reader

Dini @ dinipandareads19 Comments

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme created by Rukky @Eternity Books and hosted by Aria @Book Nook Bits, and it’s where we get to discuss certain topics, share our opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts! Check out the February 2024 Topics if you want to join in the bookish discussion fun.

This week’s topic asks us:

Are You an Indecisive Reader?

Prompts: Do you always know exactly what to read next? Or do you struggle to pick your next read? Are you constantly jumping between books and genres? How do you pick the books you read?

Do you always know exactly what to read next or do you struggle to pick up your next read?

As a mood reader, I feel like I’m the most indecisive reader! It’s commonly known that I’m all for the “possibility piles” because I can’t follow a TBR to save my life! The only times I’m ever certain about my next book is if I’m doing a buddy read or am part of a blog tour. I’m embarrassed to admit that I still tend to let my mood rule even with ARCs and that is why I have an (un)healthy stack of backlist ARCs to get through! I think what makes me even more indecisive is that sometimes I overthink my decisions because my brain is almost always pulled in fifty billion directions at once. If you could see a reel of the thoughts that often run through my brain when deciding what book to pick up, it usually goes something like this:

I want to read a backlist ARC but I also want to read a backlist book but I also want to read more BIPOC authors because I’ve been reading too many white authors lately, but I’m also in a romance mood and they’re so easy to devour, but I also thought that now would be the best time to read that fantasy that I’ve been putting off but really maybe I should be less predictable and read that thriller that’s been sat there for years. Hmmm, what about we take out all the books from my shelf that I want to try and randomly pick from one of them?

Spoiler: I often end up picking a different book from my shelf and let the 5-book stacks I just pulled out linger in piles across my bedroom floor until it’s time for another cycle of “what will we read next”.

We’re a hot mess, my mind and I! 😂 

This doesn’t really change much even if I already have some kind of idea about what I want to read in a month. For example, this month being Black History Month, I wanted to try and read as many of the Black authors on my list as possible but then I spiralled a bit thinking about how it’s already almost halfway through Feb and I haven’t… made a dent in my reading list at all! I then spent the last two days reading bits of six literary fiction/fantasy/mystery books by Black authors before finally landing on… a romance that I wasn’t even planning to pick up this month. 🫣 I do wonder why I’m like this, haha.

Are you constantly jumping between books and genres?

I wouldn’t say I’m constantly jumping between books and genres. I used to enjoy reading several books at a time but these days, my brain fog already makes it hard to concentrate, so at most, I’ll read two books at the same time but of different genres and formats. I’m putting more effort into reading my backlist books this year, which means that the genres are going to be more diverse because I used to read a lot more historical and literary fiction. Over the years I’ve become a steady romance and fantasy reader but it’s nice to change things up now and again and I’m slowly rediscovering my love for historical, contemporary and literary fiction.

How do you pick the books you read?

As the previous paragraphs have illustrated, I can be a bit of a hot mess when deciding what to read! But this can vary depending on what’s in store for any given month. This is usually guided by whether I’m participating in a blog tour, doing a buddy read, or have an ARC that needs to get read. It can also depend on how hectic work is and how much brain space I have left to read at the end of the day. But again, mostly, I just wing it and go with what my mood feels is right at the time!

Can anyone else relate to this? Are you a hardcore mood reader or a hot mess like me? Or do you stick to your preferred reading schedules and TBRs?

19 thoughts on “Let’s Talk Bookish: On Being An Indecisive Reader”

    • Mood readers, unite! Haha, I’ve tried to limit my currently reading shelf over the past couple of years because I used to have *so many* on there at one time and for very extended periods of time it was stressing me out! 😂 I hope you’ve had some luck wrangling your moods and picking the books you’ll be reading so far

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  3. A hot mess is still hot 😂🔥 I can relate to the struggle of deciding what to read, so much so when I am happily reading a book, I will be thinking about the options for my next read in the back of my mind!
    There are so many options and I want to pick the best book for my current mood, but it is hard at times.
    I’m glad you’ve be enjoying literary fiction again. It is a genre I go back to from time to time and I am always pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoy it. Powerful stuff!
    Happy reading and good luck deciding on the next read 😁🍀

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    • HAHA, love that optimism, Sophie! 😂 I also do the same as you, especially when I’m reaching the end of a book, and my brain starts scrambling in indecision over what to pick up next! There are times when I wish that I knew less about what books are out there because part of me thinks that’d make it much easier to choose, lol. Happy reading to you as well! I hope you’ve been having an easier time choosing what to read next so far this year!

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  4. Are you indecisive or particular about what you read? We only have so much time to dedicate to reading. I think we want to feed our mood while also trying to meet some of those bigger reading goals. I spend quite a bit of time on my weekly TBR. There is nothing worse than wasting time on a book I didn’t enjoy.

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    • Y’know, that question stopped me in my tracks for a minute… But no, I don’t think I’m particular about what I read 😂 I mean, there are times when I want something a bit more substantive and less fluffy than a romance or I want something more grounded in real life, which is when I seek out certain books that I think will give me those feels. It is different when I’m trying to find a read for a specific challenge but for the most part, I just kinda wing it with the mood 😂 DNFing books is something that I’m working on bettering myself with and so far, I’m actually doing okay with that!

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  9. I’m not entirely as bad a mood reader as you are (thankfully, it would drive me crazy 😅), but i love the term of “possibility piles”! I have so much stuff on my TBR i need to narrow it down a bit, but i’m always upset when i don’t read them all. Possibility pile is a way better word to reduce the stress of it all!!

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    • Haha, it does drive me crazy especially when my mood is really indecisive! Most of the time I end up gravitating towards reading romance because it doesn’t require much mental lifting and it’s easy to DNF or move forward from one that I’m not feeling. Possibility piles are great ways of having a loose TBR stack without the added pressure of *having to read it* when you say you will. I like the term too 😃

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  11. Oof, I definitely relate to this!

    I especially jump from book to book, I’m currently reading four and thinking of starting another… to be fair they are all different genres and formats but hehe. I’m such a mood reader, I absolutely cannot set TBRs! So I end up setting tentative TBRs for challenges or just keeping a lot of options on hand for each prompt, haha. Nobody can tell what I’m going to pick, me included XD

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