Thank you to Olivia Grace at bibliomad for tagging me, and make sure you check out her answers!
1. You have 20,000 books on your TBR. How in the world do you decide what to read next?
My TBR list is actually full of books I don’t want to read right now – a lot I selected long before they were released, and now they’ve been released and the reviews – not that great. I select what i’m going to read based on a range of factors. First, there’s price. So many new books are overly expensive, and I’d rather buy a cheaper book first. Then I look at GoodReads scores – I don’t tend to read anything under a score of 4, unless it’s been gifted to me. Then I look at the actual reviews. There are tons of books which have high GoodReads scores, but all the top reviews are 1-star, complaining about how terrible the book actually is. Another factor which plays into what I read next is the book’s current popularity – whether it’s being made into a film or TV show, whether it’s got a buzz in the reviewing community, whether my friends are reading it too. I think my TBR list would be narrowed down pretty quickly!
2. You’re halfway through a book and you’re just not loving it. Do you quit or are you committed?
If I really don’t like a book, I probably don’t make it halfway. I might leave it for a few months before picking it up again, but I really do like finishing every book I start.
3. The end of the year is coming and you’re so close but so far away on your Goodreads challenge. Do you try to catch up and how?
At the end of the day, it’s an arbitrary measure – if I have work to do, reading has to come second. I may choose to read some shorter books to catch up, but it’s really not that important.
4. The covers of a series you love do. not. match. How do you cope?
Ok, so this is a problem that has afflicted nearly all of my favourite series. There’s been series that started with the US editions, then changed to the UK ones. There’s series where they’ve scrapped the UK covers for the last book so they match the US editions. There’s books I’ve preordered in a matching cover, then the cover changes at the last minute, and there series doesn’t match anymore. It is so annoying to have a near full set of one style of cover, then the last book is completely different.
5. Everyone and their mother loves a book you really don’t like. Who do you bond with over shared feelings?
There are always negative reviews on GoodReads – and there’s always a review out there which I agree with. Sometimes a book has so much hype upon release, but a few months later the reviews really are different.
6. You’re reading a book and you’re about to start crying in public. How do you deal?
Stop reading. Read something else for the time being.
7. A sequel of a book you loved just came out, but you’ve forgotten a lot from the prior novel. Will you reread the book? Skip the sequel? Try to find a synopsis on Goodreads?
If a sequel is well written, it’ll cleverly recap the events of a prior novel (J.K. Rowling does this expertly). I don’t tend to reread books, but I would read a good synopsis on the internet before diving in.
8. You do not want anyone, ANYONE, borrowing your books. How do you politely tell people no when they ask?
My friends don’t tend to read the same books that I do, so that’s not usually a problem. Saying they’re on kindle is also a great way of getting out of lending books.
9. You’ve picked up and put down 5 books in the last month. How do you get over your reading slump?
Easy – pick a short but sweet read, something that’s got brilliant reviews and is guaranteed to be good.
10. There are so many new books coming out that you’re dying to read. How many do you actually buy?
It really depends on the book. If it’s something I’m absolutely dying to read, I might buy it. Otherwise, I’d let the hype die down a bit, read some honest reviews and wait for the price to drop.
11. After you’ve bought the new books you can’t wait to get to, how long do they sit on your shelf before you get to them?
I might get stuck in if they’re something I really want to read, but I also have a huge backlog of books that I bought during finals, so it might take up to a year to actually get read. I also have a TBR shelf from a couple of years ago – books I started to read but just couldn’t get into, so it could literally be never (but that’s unlikely).
I tag…
Nichola (Always Rambling & Reading)
Mara (Across The Books)
Macy (Macy loves Stories)
and YOU! If you fancy participating, please do – just tag me in the post 🙂
Annalise x
AnnaliseBooks 