How Do You Choose What To Read Next?
Part One!
It's a problem, isn't it? You read a super good book, sigh, cry, hug it to your heart, kiss the cover (er, not that I'm admitting to that...), etc. etc., and put it on the keeper shelf. (Maybe stuff it somewhere on the keeper shelf might be a better description. Or make space where there is none and ruthlessly shove it in, aha...) Oh, the desolation at having finished! Will there ever be another book so wonderful, so moving, so thrilling, so romantic?
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| My gorgeous new mug, ooh ooh. |
The answer is, and I'm not making this up, of course there will. Take heart, mes amies, there is always a teetering tottering tower of romance to choose from. Thank you, romance writers, I love you all!
The very second, and even before (don't you love that pre-ordering function from Amazon?) one of the marvellous ladies from this blog - Marilyn Forsyth, Cassandra Samuels, Karen Davis I'm looking at you - publishes a newie, it's pre-ordered in a flash. Happy day when it arrives on my Kindle as Marilyn's book recently did; and I'm anticipating Karen's book eagerly. Sharon Burke and Enisa Haines, it won't be long now... 💕💕
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| Photo credit: http://marilynforsyth.com.au/ |
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| Photo Credit: http://www.karenmdavis.com/books.html |
And when I simply and utterly love a book to bits, I also love the function on Amazon that says: Customers who bought this item also bought - and there's your reading list for the next two months. Or two years. Scroll down and see it here, for Marilyn's first book. There's also the Top 100 Bestselling Romance feature on Amazon, which is fun to browse through. Total clickbait for me.
In my neck of the woods, Sydney, Australia, we have some fabulous bookstores which draw me in as shiny diamonds attract others. I'm talking Dymocks, Abbey's, Berkelouw Books, and Harry Hartog. If you're drawing a blank about what to read next, pay your fave local bookshop a visit, stay a while, drool a little, and you will come out with treasures.
Me? I just have to scroll through my Kindle (overstuffed, ridiculously so) or my shelves (ditto), and I'm spoilt for choice. I never seem to have a problem about what book to read next.
Funny thing, that.
What about you?
Love from Miranda xxx
Love to love: Easter eggs. I think I've just consumed my body weight in them plus hot cross buns. Love this time of year!
Love to laugh: At my TBR list. Psst, confession: I think even if I live to be 1,000 years old I'll never read all the books waiting for me. But I'll give it a jolly good shot.
Love to love: Knowing all those excellent reads will happen. I am ever the optimist.
Morning Miranda
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post and boy am I with you on it all I also will never read all of the books I have on my kindle and on the bookshelves here at home but by George I am doing my best LOL :)
I do have a word doc (that I started about 2 years ago) that has all of the books that have come into my possession recently with a release date in another colour next to and I do my level best to read and review them as close to release date as possible but truly there are so many awesome books out there and never enough hours in the day.
BTW I am reading Marilyn's newest now what a beauty :)
Have Fun
Helen
Hi Helen! You are such a wonderful asset to the Aussie Romance Reviewers' scene. I hope you love Gemma and Jamie's story as much as I enjoyed my time with them while I was writing the book.
DeleteThat is wonderfully organised of you, Helen! Golly, I am so impressed. I am often a year behind (shameful confession). You're right, there are not enough hours in the day to read everything you want to. But oh, that time when you do decide to delve into a new book and settle in...bliss. I keep track of my Kindle books with the feature on the Amazon website, but I confess I don't log my physical books. But they do go onto a particular shelf and sit there saying READ ME. #bookloversproblems So glad you're reading Marilyn's latest. A genuine gem (pun intended).
DeleteHi Miranda, great post and thanks for the mention. Sometimes - with all the great books out there - it can be overwhelming just thinking about what to read next. I know what you mean about loving a book and then starting a new one, thinking it couldn't be as good as the last. that's why I love series books (maybe that's why I'm writing one) because the characters you get attached to come back and grow in the next book. Harry Hartog's at Miranda is where my next book launch is going to be - what a great bookshop. And I love easter eggs too - way too much.
ReplyDeleteOoh, a new launch locally, Karen! Do make sure you tell us all when! Such excitement. And you're right - I do enjoy characters growing through a series of books. They are like old friends when you begin reading the next book, and I welcome that. Plenty of room on my lounge for 'old friends'.
DeleteHi Miranda! Like you, I have an overstuffed Kindle, but I'm slowly working my way through the several hundred books on there. :) I try to mix my genres; when I've just read a Ruro (Cathryn Hein's wonderful Wayward Heart was the last one), I might go for a women's fiction next (just finished Liane Moriarty's Three Wishes - love her!) or one of Michael Robotham's fab thrillers. As long as a book has a bit of romance in it, I'm a happy reader. And thanks so much for the plug for Falling in Love Again. :D
ReplyDeleteMarilyn, I had to read 'ruro' twice before, duh, I realised it's short for 'rural romance'. You learn something every day; what a great abbreviation! Where have I been to not know this? Just as well I have you to tell me. xx Like you, I also tend to mix my romantic sub-genres. I might go from a, heh, ruro, to a Historical to a romsus (I think that's short for romantic suspense?). Then add in a classic along the way to make me grateful for words and the way they're used, and also grateful for the next romance which might not be as hard to read. I do love the sass of chicklit and I also love the community women's fiction often creates. Win, win, win, win.
DeleteHi Miranda. I, too, have bookcases overflowing with books still to be read. And then there's my Kindle app. With so much to choose from it's hard to pick the next one to read. Often I just pick one at random. Unless of course a new book has come out by a fave author, then it's easy to choose that one!
ReplyDeleteYou know what, Enisa? Sometimes pulling a random book from the shelf is such fun. Eeny, meeny, miny, mo, and hey presto, a surprise book. But it's already on your shelf, so it's already on your TBR, so it's already appealed. Another win. I've seen your shelves and they are a triumph of envy and book lust in me. *I* want to read your books too! Everything to enjoy. But I do like the random surprise pick method. You'll have to let us know if any wonderful 5***** turn up.
DeleteHi Miranda. I love the pre-order function on Kindle. And the other's who liked this bought these - recommendations. What makes it hard it that we are spoilt for choice (Especially with romance). Feel like a suspense - Bronwyn Parry springs to mind, Want a sheik book for a little Arabian flavour - Annie West. Something to warm the cockles of the heart nothing beats an Anne Gracie. Ah, what a wonderful problem to have.
ReplyDeleteYes, yes, and yes! And away we go on our merry reading way. I truly do not understand reader's block. Writer's block, yes, I deeply understand. But having a plethora of books in front of your nose and nothing to read - it's like, whaaaaaaat? Then I get out the thermometer and call the ambulance. Reader's block is surely something that makes you so sick you need ICU. (Kidding.) I guess it does happen but happily I've never needed the thermometer/ambulance scenario yet. Phew. And you are so so right about fave authors delivering what you want. We are indeed spoilt for choice. How fabulous.
DeleteHi Miranda, I check the ARRA website to find books I might like to read - this approach has had a 100% success rate for me over the past few years. I also use the recommendations of friends and read all new publications by my favourite authors. Thanks so much for your blog. It gives me many more places to find great romance reads.
ReplyDeleteRegards, Sharon.
What a great idea, Sharon. ARRA reviews so many new books and authors in the vast array of romantic subgenres that we are spoilt for choice. I confess I have my fave authors too. If they write a new book I don't even care what it's about, I pre-order because I love the author and their previous books have given me great pleasure. All the fuzzies there. Some of them just seem to be writing faster than I can read! What a wonderful dilemma, having them build up on my TBR. Keep reading Sharon, I love hearing what you think about books.
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