A Sense of Doubt blog post #1657 - Choosing Books to Read

A Sense of Doubt blog post #1657 - Choosing Books to Read

Time to choose a new book.

I finished Arne Dahl's The Blinded Man (links to my GOOD READS), which is more aptly entitled Misterioso, and though I had already lined up Jamaica Kincaid's A Small Place and Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me, both are short, and so I will need a new book soon.

Now, these choices concern books I read in the traditional method, with my eyes, as opposed to the consumption of audio books, in which I have recently gobbled up Nnedi Okorafor's gut punch of a memoir Broken Places & Outer Spaces and off the grid, pen-named John Twelve Hawks' Spark, and I am now moving on to The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter.

Here's the factors affecting my selection process:

• Is there an audio book?
• Long or short? how's the length compared to my mood
• First few pages - do they grab me
• How long have I been trying to read this book?
• What did I last read? Am I in the mood?
• Other factors

AUDIO BOOK: If there is no audio version available for the book, then at some point I have to read it in the traditional sense. Beyond that restriction, if I own the audio book, I am more likely to shift it from this "to read" list to the audio book list. If I don't own the audio book, then, sometimes, I read it in the traditional way. Added to these issues, there are times that I stop traditional reading of a book that is slow or not gripping me enough to want to pick it up nightly or at least five times a week. In these cases, whether I own the audio book or not, I may switch to audio. One book I remember shifting this way, not too long ago, was John Irving's The Avenue of Mysteries, which is a fine novel but just did not grab me strongly enough via traditional reading methods.

LENGTH: Sometimes, I want to read some books quickly and so I want some short reads. If I have just finished a long book, then I am less inclined to start another long book. Beyond those factors, often a 300-page novel may move ahead in this selection process over a 400 or 500 pager. These decisions are all based on mood, which could change next week; however, I rarely (as in almost never, as in I cannot think of a time) fail to finish books I start.

FIRST FEW PAGES: I know some people have rules about this starter period, like giving the book 30 pages. I understand that, but in a selection process, I am not reading the first 30 pages of each book. In fact, I am often making this decision based on the first lines of each book and if one does not stand out, then I may read the first paragraph and skim through a page or two. The two previous categories probably carry more weight than this one, but if the way the book starts really grabs me, and I am waffling between two or three, this feature will tip me in that book's direction.

TIME ON THE SHELF: This criterion can go either way. Sometimes, a book I have not owned long but I am excited about will be more highly regarded, but other times, if I have been trying to read the book for years, such as The Postman or Schismatrix, then I may take this into account, again, especially if I m waffling. In this group, Skyward has that newness factor as it's the one I have owned the least amount of time of these.

LAST READ AND MOOD: If I just read a crime book, I may not be inclined to read another right away, unless I decide to work my way through a series. I like variety. This is a totally mood based criterion. It can go either way. It may help with waffling, but it does not carry  much weight in deciding compared to the others.

OTHER FACTORS: Any system should have a catch-all category for factors that are not weighted very heavily or are not factors for each book. For instance, cover art often motivates me. Here Skyward clearly has an edge. Recommendation has power here, too. The Circle cam highly recommended to me as did Skyward. Warren Ellis brought The Power of the Dog to my attention as well as reminding me of the importance of Schismatrix and why I should read it. I reading David Brin's blogs frequently, which motivates me to want to read The Postman as he references it a lot. Previous reads factor here, too. I LOVED Claire North's The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, which is why I bought Touch and plan to read it.

Other, so there's the criteria. But I don't have a decision yet.

Though I have named them all already, here's the picture again and the list with Good Reads links.

Even though there are probably at least a hundred books in my two bookcases of "books to read" not counting those books in the upstairs library that did not fit, I narrowed my choices to these six.


THE CURRENT LIST:

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson

Touch by Claire North

The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow

The Circle by Dave Eggers

The Postman by David Brin

Schismatrix by Bruce Sterling






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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1909.01 - 10:10

- Days ago = 1520 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.