I am undecided on how this makes me feel but exactly like dad, I have come to love window shopping. One of my self-care routines is to put a bunch of makeup in my Nykaa cart before removing it a week later. If it’s not Nykaa, then I’m window shopping a phone, or a dress or shoes – even if they’re several sizes too small.
My most favourite form of window shopping is of course opening Goodreads, right after I have bought 2 books and I’m in the middle of a third. Even during a busy day, I love opening Goodreads, just to see how I’m progressing on my reading goal, or I open my Google sheet to see where I am with all the reading challenges I’m participating in, in 2024.
While I have been trying to follow a reading list, which gets heavily edited because of FOMO, there is very little method to the madness that is picking your next read. So, here I am, telling you 10 foolish ways you can pick what you’re going to read next (because variety is the spice of life):
Fair warning, I am a devout Kindle reader so some of these methods may not apply to you. I apologize to people who like Audiobooks. I have tried them but I only seem to like ones where Neil Gaiman is the narrator. Oh well.
1: Buy a Kindle Unlimited subscription
This is the best way of saving money. Also, of adding 10 books to your TBR at a stretch. It’s a good thing I can borrow only limited books from the KU Library. Otherwise, my library would be uncontrollable. Here, the only thing to save you is impulse control so learn to tell yourself to stop before you get so overwhelmed that you can’t read.
2: Join Bookish League blog hop
Some of the books and reviews I have come across thanks to this blog hop are amazing. There are many in my TBR and I look at them oh so lovingly before picking up a book that has nothing to do with any of them.
3: Participate in reading challenges
They will at least limit your reading scope to a finite number of books. Good luck trying to actually read any of them.
4: Follow bookstagram accounts
Unless every other book is Iron Flame or an Ali Hazelwood or Sarah Jane Mass or Colleen Hoover, chances are, you will have so many books to choose from, you will end up re-reading a book you have read several times already.
5: Curate your Google News to have only bookish content
Every day, I check my Google News which has latest book news, lists of books I should definitely read and books that are being converted into shows or movies. I have never been this interested in news before now.
6: Ask people to recommend books to you
Every time I interact with anyone and they utter the key phrase “I have a library” my immediate impulse is to ask them to recommend books to me. Because how else are you supposed to make someone feel seen? It’s a social service, really!
7: Check Kindle recommendations
Sometimes Kindle gets its recommendations so accurate, I fear for my and its sanity. I often go through them when I’m in the middle of a book as if to remind myself I won’t run out of books to read, ever.
8: Join bookish communities
I am a part of one on WhatsApp and any time there are 80 unread messages in the group, I know they have discussed a book or a genre. I forward all those recommendations to my personal WA so I can look them up and add them to my TBR.
9: Read a difficult book
This will force you to start reading a second book, what we call a pallet cleanser, and before you know it, you’re in the middle of 5 books and already dreaming about 5 more books you want to read.
10: Become a writer
Sigh. This is the most foolish way especially since any writer worth their salt will have to read books. You’re trapped now. Sorry. There is no escape.
What’s your favourite method to pick your next read?
This post is part of Bookish League blog hop hosted by Bohemian Bibliophile.
tales of Suchita 
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