What Do You WANT To Read?

Mood reader dilemmas, getting over reading FOMO, and some of my favorite ways to figure out what to read next

Hi Friends,

Today’s question is one I ask myself every. single. time I finish a book- what do I want to read next? For those who keep a weekly or monthly TBR (to be read) this may seem like a silly question because you likely just pick up the next book in your stack or on your list. But for better or worse I’m a mood reader - someone who never quite knows what type of story I’m in the mood to read next. My process for figuring out what I’m going to read next can be time consuming, yet it’s one that, 90% of the time, is fun and leads me to finding a book that I end up enjoying.

My Mood Reading Process

Some of you may be wondering what I mean by mood reading and I think this Book Riot article explains it much better than I could, essentially they say

A mood reader is a person who reads according to their mood. This means that their feelings and emotions often dictate what they’ll read… a mood reader selects and reads books based on how they are feeling at any given moment…a mood reader is steadfast in their (mood) inconsistency…They consistently switch books until they find a book, author, series, or genre that fits their mood

I completely agree with this and would add that I often decide I’m in the mood for a particular setting as well (lately that’s been books with settings outside of the US). Once I know what I’m in the mood to read the search begins to find the book that’s going to pull me in quickly enough to be “the one.” Most of the time, this means I end up sampling the first few pages or listening to the first couple chapters (if it’s an audiobook) of several books I’ve deemed possibilities. I’ll share with you below some of my additional favorite methods of finding what to sample (plus a few books waiting on my to maybe read list, but first I want to share a bit about how I’ve FINALLY gotten over my FOMO when it comes to buzzy books and what everyone else seems to be reading.

I’m Over Book FOMO

I say this from a place of confidence today, but I’m sure there will be a book that comes along at some point (often in the summer) that everyone on Bookstagram and/or Goodreads is raving about and the dreaded FOMO will grab hold of me. In the past, I’ve been caught up in the excitement of seeing photos or reading reviews of people buzzing about certain books (cough cough The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager- yep I read it and also I regretted it😅). Lately though I find myself pausing when I see the same books being promoted or raved about and what I’m doing instead of immediately jumping in to read it is taking some time to do a bit of research. I’m looking at the synopsis to see if there are any of my buzzwords - a few that catch my eye are literary thriller, set over decades, sad- will need tissues, love triangle, surprises/twists you won’t see coming- but I’m also looking for my anti-buzzwords- a few of those are cult, several alternating perspectives, technological thrills, woman with a drinking problem/amnesia/memory loss. I also like to see if any of my trusted book sources have reviewed it, and if so I want to know what they had to say before I decide if I want to try it. And finally, how I know that I’m pretty much over book FOMO is that I’m feeling excited about finding books to read that are NOT currently buzzy and that no one I follow is talking about (I’ll share a couple I’ve enjoyed below).

How I Figure Out What To Read Next

• Google- I’m an enneagram 5 and I LOVE to research anything, esp books. Depending on my mood, I’ll google things like- fast paced books to read in a day, the best thriller books that you can’t put down (this is how I found my top read of 2022, An Untamed State by Roxane Gay), rich people behaving badly books set in NYC- be as specific as you can and keep playing around with the wording but this usually always gives me some great options

• Check out a variety of books in my Libby library app so I always have possibilities. I love reading on my Kindle Oasis and I’ll check out as many books as I can that sound good, so that when I'm ready to try one it’s already waiting to be sampled on my Kindle

• When I come across a book I think sounds good or if someone recommends one to me I’ll go to Amazon, find the Kindle format of the book and immediately send a sample to my Kindle so that the next time I open my Kindle it’s already there for me to start reading

• I’m on Netgalley & Edelweiss and am fortunate that I am able to not only see what new releases are coming soon and in the far future, but I also often get advanced reader copies so I can try books before they’re published

These are a few of my main strategies for how I find books, I’ll share more (including my trusted book sources) in a future post. I would love to know, how to you feel about book FOMO and what methods do you find helpful for figuring out what book you want to read next?

A Few Books On My To Maybe Read List

The Fake by Zoe Wittall

Dr No by Percival Everett

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

The Glass Hotel by Emily St John Mandel

Two Under the Radar Books I Loved

Before He Finds Her by Michael Kardos (I reviewed this on Episode 93 of Book Talk, Etc Podcast - Books That Hooked Us From the Start)

Bluff by Michael Kardos (I reviewed this on Episode 64 of BTE Podcast- Talking Book Influencing w/ Dennis from Scared Straight Reads on Instagram)

Thank for reading! If you enjoyed this post I’d love for you to forward it to your book loving friends!

Have a great week!

-Renee