Life: Ask Me Anything - Choosing Books

[escritoireazul]

Ask Me Anything post here.

slashmarks asked: How do you find and choose the books you read?

So many ways. Earlier this year, I finally started a spreadsheet that tracks what book was recommended, where it was recommended, who recommended it, and what they said about it. Outside of that, I have GoodReads books marked want to read, multiple wishlists on bookstore sites, scraps of paper shoved into planners, notebooks with lists, note files on my phone, private posts on Livejournal and Dreamwidth with lists, and so many other ways. The spreadsheet is helping me keep them in one place, sort of.

(I do this with other media, too.)

These books mostly come from:

+ friends telling me directly to read something
+ people on my reading lists posting about what they're reading and me being interested
+ books appearing on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books sales lists
+ seeing a book on social media somewhere (including anon memes)
+ themed reading lists
+ books people read in school that I never read
+ YouTube
+ wandering a bookstore or library (including online)
+ freebies

I also have certain books that come from other places: authors I love, my friends' books, books for projects (e.g., 80s and 90s nostalgic fiction), books given to me for review, things like that.

How do I choose what to read next? I wish I had a process! There's always so much to read and so little time.

(Things What I Read While Traveling Last Week: Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, The Game You Played by Anni Taylor, Winter Study by Nevada Barr, Rolling in the Deep and Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant, Dark Alchemy by Laura Bickle, and The Lost Sun by Tessa Gratton.)

Comments

[rachelmanija]

Of the books you read last week, which did you like best and which least?

[umadoshi]

Murdery mermaids! *^^*

[merit]

I do mostly use Goodreads as my #1 way of keeping track of books, finding new reads etc. Through Libby (Overdrive library app) I tag books if I want to read them so I can find them easily later.

[musesfool]

Six of Crows! I loved it so much!

[slashmarks]

I also have a spreadsheet, although I don't track the sources - in addition to title/author, I use it for library availability and keywords. Your method sounds interesting!