A huge part of my being a voracious reader is always having a book to read no matter what. This is complicated when I add in the details that I’m not a huge fan of ebooks and cannot stay focused through audiobooks. (I have no problem with either medium; ebooks sometimes hurt my eyes, and my mind wanders during audiobooks—I don’t process and retain things I only hear. I do try to have one ebook going at all times, though in case ofnemergencies.) As a result, I must always have books to read somewhere around the house. Since having physical books at home is something that helps me immensely, I always ask for Amazon gift cards for birthday and Christmas gifts. I also subscribe to Book of the Month, which you can do as well by clicking here. This service lets me pick one of five different books each month, which they send since I pay once a year to subscribe. (Also, they will let you skip a month for no charge if you don’t find a book you like, but I’ve never had to do that before.) This makes me feel like I’m getting free books each month even though I actually paid for them. These are my two primary methods of bringing books into my house. From there I use Goodreads to help me track my reading. Right now if I look at my Goodreads shelf, which I will talk about in just a moment, I show that I currently have 218 books at home that I have yet to read. This is a pretty decent number, and one that will take me some time to get through since it doesn’t stop me from buying more books. So, that explains a little about how I like to get my books, which leaves me to explain where I hear about books and how I pick which ones to read next. I usually hear about books from other book bloggers and reading Amazon information about new releases. I also hear about a lot of books from my students who know I will buy and read a book if they request it. Once I hear about a book, if it seems like something I would enjoy reading, I buy it from Amazon; this means it arrives at my door in two days—pure and simple magic. I then scan the book into my “Want to Read” list on Goodreads. From there I just read whatever book has been added most recently on Goodreads. I always felt so stumped when I would try to pick out a book, but setting this rule takes the indecision away and makes picking my next book easy and simple. The one exception to the rule is when I am doing a reading challenge like the one I am doing this year which I wrote about here. One difference I want to highlight here, too, is that I don’t use my Goodreads “Want to Read” shelf as books I want to buy; this shelf is exclusively for books I own and have yet to read. If there is a book I want to read but have not purchased yet, I put that book on a massive Amazon wishlist. That has made buying books super quick and easy, which is always a good thing. Once the books have been purchased and they arrive at my house the next step of picking what to read is easy thanks to Goodreads and their awesome service. If you’d like to hear more about my reading life like how I organize my reading to make sure I achieve my goals each year and how I make time for reading, check back later this week on Wednesday and Friday to read more. If you have any questions, feel free to email me or comment here; I’d love to answer any questions you may have. Here’s to finding a good book!
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