E.S. Raye

When I was a little kid, I was a massively avid reader. I would often read three books at a time, whatever I had been assigned for English, and two more for my own pleasure. I consumed books at an incredible rate, and was thus a frequent visitor of my local and school libraries. I even worked in my middle school library as the one and only library assistant for one class period everyday. I think it counted as an English class.

But as I got older, that ravenous need to read dropped off. A lot. Between new hobbies like video games, ice hockey (which took a lot of my time in high school), and TV and movies, as well as growing academic responsibilities throughout high school and university–not to mention relationships–I just found I wasn’t reading much at all.

Recently, I’ve been trying to turn that around. It’s been difficult for me because I’m often plagued by thoughts of what else I could be doing while I read. But those thoughts are diminishing, not least of all due to the fact that I have convinced myself that to be a good writer, I must read more.

And it’s working. Last year I read more books than I had in years. And this year I’ve set a modest goal (15 books, about twice as many as I read last year), and have been tracking it to keep me motivated. I’m right on pace to reach it, even taking into consideration that the books I’ve been reading lately are unusually long.

But I also now have an absolutely massive “to be read” pile. And what’s more, I’m currently reading a very long series and am considering a palate cleanser after I finish the one I’m on before continuing.

So, how to choose what to read next?

Here’s what I tend to do.

Another From the Same Author

I tend to do this a lot. Perhaps even too often–I’ll sometimes get stuck reading the same author to the exclusion of other things I want to read. I’m especially bad for this with Steven King.

But, that doesn’t make it bad advice, and it did help me get out of my reading slump.

Late last year, while experiencing said slump, I decided to re-read an old favorite to jumpstart my desire to read: Jurassic Park.

It worked. I read it in a week. I then decided to keep the momentum moving with anther Crichton book, The Lost World: Jurassic Park. The flow continued, and I read that one in another week. I wanted to keep my inertia through the holidays and give my goal for this year a head start, so I read one more Crichton book, Sphere.

Sphere ended up being my first book finished this year, and set me off towards my goal on the right foot.

Read Something From the Same Genre

Another of my go-to methods for choosing my next read is to stay in genre. The truth is, I don’t stray from my chosen genres very often. I tend to gravitate more towards horror, cosmic horror, sci-fi, and the occasional low fantasy.

I like the speculative natures of these genres, and when I read an example of them that strikes a chord with me, I need more.

Read Whatever the Hell You Want

Some people create a literal “to-read” list, adding new discoveries to it, often at the end. If that’s what you do, and it works for you, more power to you! But it definitely doesn’t work for me. I haven’t yet regained the speed with which I once inhaled books, and I rather doubt I ever will. So, if I tried to keep a list of things I wanted to read like that, I’d simply never get to some of the things I was really excited about.

So, with that in mind, I’ll often simply read my latest discovery next, to hell with any list I had previously created.

One such example just happened, and will be my “between series books palate cleanser.” When my wife and I went to Comic Con a few weeks ago, my mother-in-law came to dog- and house-sit for us. She is a prolific reader, and she brought something from her collection she knew I would enjoy: all three of the Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View books. I probably won’t read all three in a row (but maybe I will! See the previous two tips for my feelings on that!), but I’m very excited to start the first one!

Choosing what to read next can be hard with so many incredible options to choose from, especially if you want to support indie and self-published authors–something I am striving to do more of as well.

Right now, I’m focused on getting back into the habit of reading, and these three tactics seem to work for me. What works for you? How do you choose your next read?