Can’t Decide What To Read Next? Don’t Worry, I’ve Got You Covered

Posted on by Ashleigh

decide what to read

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m a very indecisive person when it comes to choosing what book to read next.

I finish one book, and get that wonderful feeling of being able to choose my next book.

…And then I look at my shelves and get a bit overwhelmed by just how many books I have to choose from – purely because I feel like reading them ALL right this very second.

So how do you choose which book to read next?

Shut your eyes and pick at random

Not going to lie, this is probably the least effective of the methods.

But basically, grab all the books you feel like reading, bundle them all up into your arms and cradle them like the precious treasures they are. Walk over to your bed, shut your eyes, then drop them all.  And if they didn’t sound like they jumbled up that much, move some around at random – with your eyes still shut, of course. 

Then pick one up at random (still with your eyes shut) and TA DAAAA. That’s the book you read.

Get a friend or family member to choose for you

How do you decide? Well, you don’t. You make someone else decide.

As simple as this sounds, I would actually find this quite interesting to do. All you have to do is take the books you can’t decide from, and get them to choose.

But what I’d find interesting is why the person chose that book.

Maybe they just chose at random to make you stop pestering. Maybe they were drawn to one cover much more than the rest, and literally judged from the cover. Maybe they take the time to read the synopsis’ of them and choose based on which sounds most interesting to them. Or maybe they’ve read at least one of them before and want you to read it too. Whatever the reason, I’d think it’d be interesting to see what they choose.

Read the 1st paragraph of each one

This one I’ve done a fair few times, and it can work.

I’m sure you’ve done it before, where you been in a bookstore, or maybe looking through someone else’s books, or even your own books, where you’ve just picked one up at random and read the first paragraph or so, to try and get a feel of the book and it’s writing style.

Well, doing this when you can’t decide what to read…maybe one of the paragraphs will draw you in a lot more than the others. Sometimes it’s hard to judge what you’re in the mood to read, but you’ll know it as soon as you start reading the right thing.

Twitter poll

This one is hands down my favourite way to choose.

Although again, it’s not really you deciding, it’s other people.

But basically all you have to do is write down four books (or less) you can’t decide from, and set them up in a poll on twitter asking which you should read next. Then it’s left to your wonderful followers to vote.

Most of the time I finish books at night and intend to start a new book the next day, so I usually leave my polls up for about 12 hours. But you can change the length of the poll depending on when you want to start the next book.

And in the end, you’ll have the results, and the most popular one will be the one you read next. It also means that more people will want you to read that one, so it’s likely you’ll enjoy it.

TBR jar

Back to the choosing at random.

I don’t use this method myself, but I know a lot of people love having TBR jars.

All you have to do is have a jar of some sort (I know glass jars are popular), and write the titles of the books on your TBR on small slips of paper, fold them up, and add the to the jar. Then when you can’t decide what to read next, just shake the jar and choose a slip of paper at random. Simple, right?

The jar itself can become a mini DIY project too if you like that sort of thing, since you can have a browse on the internet and find a fun way to decorate it 🙂

So there we have it!

Those are my top few ways of deciding what book to read next, if there’s a particularly tough decision to be made.

What do you do if you can’t decide what to read next?

Do you do any of the things on this list?

Are there any tips you’d like to share when it comes to deciding what to read?

Maybe you’re going through this now? Which books are you trying to choose between?

Let me know in the comments!

Until next time…

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24 thoughts on “Can’t Decide What To Read Next? Don’t Worry, I’ve Got You Covered”

  1. I don’t usually have much trouble choosing my next book. Sometimes, when I’m still reading one book, I’m already thinking about my next read. But great post! I’m sure that I’ll try some of this methods as soon as I need. 😀

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      1. The only thing that gets annoying is if there’s a book I really want to read, I have to go through and find the little slip in my jar. 😛

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  6. Haha this is such a great post! I personally don’t put a lot of thought into what I’m going to read next, but this would definitely help when there are a lot of books you want to read and you’re not sure which one to go for.

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  7. What a great discussion topic! It seems everyone has a different picking style. 🙂 Personally I try to balance my reading, so if I just finished a few novels I’ll go with a non-fiction almost as a palate cleanser… so that makes choosing the next book to read somewhat easier. But I love the idea of a TBR jar, it seems it might add a touch of whimsy and surprise to the process of choosing.

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    1. I’m glad you enjoyed it! I think for me the Twitter polls help the most, but I thought I’d add a few more in in case there needs to be a quicker solution haha! Hope it helps 😀

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  9. Ooohh I love the idea of have a TBR jar especially if I can make my own! Lol the only problem I might end up having is following through on what I pick! I cant wait to try it out

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    1. I had that problem when I tried it haha! It works really well for some people though, so I hope it works for you! There’s some great designs on the internet if you want to get inspiration for decorating your own 🙂

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  10. Oohh I love the idea of having a TBR jar especially if I can make my own! The only problem I can see myself having is following through on what I pick! I cant wait to try it!

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