Let's discuss... How do you decide which books to read?


I posted about my TBR list last week on social media with a question:

How do you decide which books to read?

I have a massive TBR. Really it's crazy. I had a friend tell me she went to pick a book from my list on Goodreads for my birthday and was so overwhelmed that she just got me a gift card instead. Lol!

When I first started blogging years ago, I used to have a spreadsheet that kept track of all my ARCs and when they were being released so that I knew when I needed to review them. This was when I didn't get a ton of approvals. Then I got so many approvals that I realized I was requesting too many books. Of course there are books I want to read that I don't get ARCs for.

My TBR seems to be a mix of books I come across that I want to read and the ARCs I've received. Then there are books that get added for tours I sign up for. Obviously I should read all my ARCs. 😏 My huge backlog tells how well I do that.

As I've gone through, I've realized that the books I end up reading are:

Books for Tours

Obviously these have a set spot on my calendar. Which, for me, means they're set in stone. My calendar is what I depend on the most to let me know what I need to post when, which also means what I need to read and when. I've tried adding ARCs and other books I want to read to my calendar, but I know they can be moved, so if a tour comes up and a tour host needs help or it's a book I'd like to read, the ARCs and other books I'd like to read get bumped.


You can see what I mean from my calendar last August. Wednesdays I try to reserve for Can't-Wait-Wednesdays, but I will add tours there or other posts if I need to. I also try not to post on Saturdays or Sundays - at least not reviews or for tours. It's what helps balance my life out so that blogging doesn't overtake everything else. You can see all these books that got pushed to Saturdays. I had too many books to read and these didn't get read and they're all books I REALLY want to read.

There is only so Much I Can Read

On average I read three books a week. I can do more depending on the type and length of the book and what else is going on in my life. It seems like my life is ever busy and I don't always get the reading in I think I will, which can push me back or make for late nights to make a deadline.

I have posted less than in previous years. It takes time to do each post and I've had stages where I was posting three times a day all the time and it was too much. Plus, it really limits how much I can read.

I recently put all my books from my April and May TBR up on my Amazon page here. This is still missing a few tour books and other books that I haven't added yet. That list alone has 42 books on it. FOURTY-TWO! There are 61 days in these two months and roughly nine weeks. If I read my usual three books per week that only gives me 27 books. (You didn't know you were going to be doing math when you stopped by, did you? 😉) 15 of these I have review copies for, 3 I've already read, and two will be read for upcoming tours.

I only have five more weeks to the end of May, which means only 15 books I can read if I read three per week. I have 12 books upcoming on my calendar that are for tours or have to be read. That leaves THREE books from my list to choose to read.

Seriously. Can you see how I get myself in this predicament?

I've tried setting up goals to sign up for less tours or to not move those other books, but obviously my commitment to do so has been fairly weak. I really need to set some better goals and stick to them.

There are Too Many Books


Yes. I said it. I mean it, but I don't. I love books, obviously. I love all the new releases. I'm excited about them all! I hate missing getting ARCs or not reading a book that I really want to read. It's so hard to know which books I will love. How do I decide what to spend my reading time on? It's starting to sound a little silly. I mean, there are more important issues in the world, right?

It's not that I don't want publishers publishing so many books. Maybe it's more that I want them to publish the books I want to read in a way that allows me to have time to read them all. Lol! Or maybe I just need the superpower of speed reading, but still being able to remember what I read and enjoy it as much as I do now. Is that possible? Or maybe to not need to sleep? That would give me time to read a lot more books. Except, I like sleep sometimes and I kind of need it.

So look at my list, what book or three books (I've only got room for THREE people), do you think I should pick? Have you read any of these? Any must-reads here? I know which are must reads for me, but what are they for you? I would ask if there's a book in April or May that you've read or is on your list that I must read, but since I'm not trying to add more books to my TBR, that would defeat the purpose.

And as I started this post off, how do you decide which books to read?

Please share as I'd love to know if you're like me or are much better organized and have it all together. 🙂

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