Decisions, decisions ...

[Nikitta]

Yesterday I finished reading Lies, Inc. and found myself once again in front of my ever-growing to-read stack, trying to pick just one to read next.

That's the usual dilemma: I want to read all of them, since my to-read pile, almost by its very nature, consists entirely of books I have decided that I want to read because they have attracted my attention for one reason or another.

My pile is not nearly as big as what most of you seem to have and I have no doubt that I'll get around to reading all of the books in it, but the moment of deciding on which one to read next is almost always hard (except for when I've just gotten a book I've been waiting for - especially if it's a sequel. Then the choice is easy), as I can only pick one and I'm not a terribly fast reader.

I ended up picking Beyond Ragnarok by Mickey Zucker Reichert this time, deciding that reading about some fairly straight-forward battles might be just what I need after a book like Lies, Inc. and Beyond Ragnarok is quite different from what I normally read. So far, it seems good.

How do you deal with this dilemma? How do you pick which book from your to-read pile to pick up as the next one once you've finished a book?

[Lenny]

I've got a nice list of books to read... but that's about it.

If I can get a book on my list from the library, or if I see it in Waterstones or Borders for a nice price, then I'll get it and read it.

If I manage to get a series or a trilogy from either, then I'll read them in order.

[mosaix]

Well apart from the reading circles I belong to when I read in order to finish in time for the next meeting, I read books in the sequence that I bought them. That way there's no dilema.

[Allegra]

Oh tell me about dilema! My to-be-read pile is fast reaching 500. It almost takes more time for me to decide which one to read next than actually reading one! Every time when I finish one book I'd pick up several books in turn to read a few pages and finally settle down with one. Usually it depends on my mood. I keep about 20 books on my bedside which are the immediate to-be-read pile but subject to change at any time. Some others I can wait till not-so-near future but the majority are just shrieking at me from the shelves.

[HoopyFrood]

I just sit and stare at my large pile and then finally choose one! There's not really a method to my madness. It would probably be one I had bought recently (I can't stand books lying around un-read...I have quite a few of these now, and it's driving me mad!)

[Thadlerian]

I have a rule which at least is a little help: Never the same writer twice in a row, always someone else in between.

Now I've read The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks, and next up would be his Dead Air, but I have to read Salinger's Catcher in the Rye first

[littlemissattitude]

Originally Posted by Thadlerian

Now I've read The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks, and next up would be his Dead Air, but I have to read Salinger's Catcher in the Rye first

Oh, now that's just torturing yourself. Then again I'm a known detractor when it comes to Salinger's book. I've had to read it three times, each time for a class, and I don't like it any better now than I did the first time I read it.

Sorry. Had to say that.

When I can't decide what to read from a number of library books, the deciding factor is usually which book is due first. When I'm deciding from my own books and just can't make up my mind, I usually start two or three of the most likely candidates and then continue on with the one that I get most interested in.

[Saolta Oiche]

Ahhhh the dilemas.

A good question you ask.

How, welll I have to agree with Thadlerjan on this. Once I have read something of one author I like to switch to something different for a different flavour, but other than that I dunno, I just kind of pick.

[nixie]

When I have difficulty choosing, I take the first books from series I haven't started yet some stand a lones and lay them all out close my eyes and pick one at random.

[j. d. worthington]

Normally, I'd have stuck to finishing up all the work by a particular writer, or at least within a particular series (especially with someone like Asimov, who had something on the order of 400 books to his credit as either writer or editor!); but of late years, with so many reading/research projects plus gifts from people... I've had to rotate. So...

My "system" (if it can be called that) is to have something that's consistent with at least one of the research projects, which I read a little bit of each day... whether it be a poem, a letter by that writer, a story, an essay, what have you. Then there's another project (such as reading my way through the history of supernatural/horror fiction) where I'll stick with a particular writer, but as some of those are tremendously long books (and because I have so many other things I'm interested in at the same time, not to mention aforesaid gifts, where I want to get back to people with my thoughts on what they've given), I may take a break between books to dip into something else, rotating between that reading project, a gift book, a series I was already into (such as Cabell's Biography of the Life of Manuel -- 18 vols., which I'm reading about at the rate of roughly one a month), which series I choose depending on my current mood; plus having a story collection that I dip into when my other reading is something with tremendously long chapters, or where I know I won't want to break off, yet have not much time to read at the moment; and usually at least one or two non-fiction books going at the same time (if it's something extremely complex, then I'll usually go a chapter or two a day; if it's something less straining on the brain, I'll usually take it in the same way I would a novel).

Result: I end up with a wide variety of reading going on at any given moment, yet I continue to make progress on various fronts quite consistently.

In essence, though, just go with what lights your lights at that point -- especially if it's reading "just" for enjoyment. After all, they're not likely to be going anywhere, and you can always shift to something else if the mood takes you, and go back to that one later (if you so choose).

[jsgoddess]

If I have a book available and I'm excited about it, that's the one I read. If I'm just generally interested, I'll pick one pretty much at random--occasionally paying attention to facts like library due dates.

[chrispenycate]

When you say "to read pile" is this real, or virtual (books actually owned/borrowed/obtained, or books you'd like to read, on your "to find" list)?
This close to christmas, my real "to read" pile is, for me, enormous; four books. It will diminish rapidly over the next couple of months, as I read faster than I can buy, or order books, and the hope of finding something on my "virtual to read list" (all the books I've read about, or heard about, and would like to read, but haven't yet seen anywhere in mass-market paperback) in my local bookshop, without my having ordered it is vanishingly small.
So, for the next four or five books I have the luxury of choice; after that, there will be a fair amount of compulsory (and possibly compulsive) rereading.

[Nikitta]

Originally Posted by chrispenycate

When you say "to read pile" is this real, or virtual (books actually owned/borrowed/obtained, or books you'd like to read, on your "to find" list)?

It is real and is sitting on top of my computer. Not counting the one I just started and the one I put in my shoulder bag in case I have to wait somewhere (since the one I've started won't fit, I'll have to have another one for my shoulder bag), it currently contains 16 books. Technically, the books are divided into two piles to avoid falling over, but that's rather beside the point, which is that I have a pile of books and I want to read them all, so picking which one to read next when I'm done with a book is not easy. Sometimes, I roll a die to decide, if it's completely impossible.

Kind of a luxury "problem", really, but since I've heard several in here mentioning to-read piles much much bigger than mine, I wondered how they deal with that and if I was the only one who thinks it's a dilemma. It seems that I'm not.

The two books I've ordered and the two books I plan to order doesn't count in that pile, since I can't read them before I have them anyway.

[dsmith]

I keep a small number of books I am most interested in reading on a shelf in my bedroom, and randomly pick one from the pile. The rest I hide away downstairs so I don't have too many books to pick from. If I have library books at home, I usually read those first (but I don't have to worry about fines if I get them back late, since that is one of the perks of working at the library).

[Nesacat]

I used to pile the books in the order I'd planned to read them but discovered that the order had inevitably changed when the time came to pick up the next book. I'd stand there with the first book in my hand and end up putting it back and pulling something else out. So now I just pick at random unless something happens to be part of a series.

And I'm usually reading about four or five books at one time. There's the book to read at work. There's the book to read while travelling or waiting in places (this book lives in my bag). There's the book to read downstairs at home and there's the book to read upstairs in bed. And finally there's the book I read when I'm at my best friend's place which is at least once a week. She has a book in my house as well.