Confessions of a Die Hard Reader

I consider myself a complete bookworm...but I don't like that term -- I prefer bookwhore!  I like that one much more!  Anyway, my favorite books are murder mystery books...however, every now and again I love me some chick lit. My idea when starting this challenge to read 100 books in a year did not include "fluff books", however I knew there would be some in there.  By no means am I saying that the authors ofchick lit are any less of an author than someone like Ayn Rand, but it usually does lack substance.  Many times, after I've read something "deep", I like to change it up with something light as the next book.

I am often riddled with what to read next.  It shouldn't be that hard, as my Kindle is full of books, as is my office...no joke, before I purged and got rid of most of the already read books, it looked a little like this...

Books, books everywhere, and never anything to read.

Like I said, usually when deciding what to read next, I take into account what I just finished reading.  I finished reading Julie and Julia by Julie Powell last night.

It wasn't a deep book, it wasn't a challenge, but I was ready for something different. I went over to the bookshelf, and browsed the titles that are in the "to be read" section of my bookshelf (which contains something like 60 books).  Usually, at first glance, I see if anything pops out and immediately grabs my attention, screaming "READ ME!!", but nothing did.  For me, that means it is time for a fluff book.  I think that the realization that I am behind by 15 books in my challenge is also part of the reason I wanted a quick, fun, easy read.  I grabbed Naughty Neighbor by Janet Evanovich.

Again, I am in no way saying that I dislike Janet Evanovich, nor am I saying that she in untalented.  These are just quick reads, to fill in the time between my more "serious" reads.  

How do you decide what you are going to read?  I've read a bunch of different opinions in some really great blogs over the last few hours, and it looks as though, more often than not, people really do judge a book by the cover.  In all reality, I think that covers are extremely important, almost as important as the titles.  If I'm digging through the books at Goodwill and a title pops out at me, I don't flip the book over to read the quick synopsis, I flip to the front to view the cover.  It really makes a difference.  I mean when I see a book cover that leaves me intrigued and curious, then, and only then will I flip that book over to see what it is all about.  It sounds awful, but I think a lot of authors make the mistake when doing the cover art.   I'm not saying that we need to be mislead by the covers, but the cover makes or breaks it for me (at least as far as if I am willing to give the book a shot or not).  

A couple of other bloggers mentioned that they have set up lists for themselves saying which books they will read next. While this does greatly appeal to my OCD, I think that planning out my books would ruin it for me.  I love the adventure that is associated with grabbing a new book off the shelf.  I do have all of my books organized on GoodReads, however, I have not set up any particular order.  

I also found that a lot of people that enjoy reading series (which I love love love!), like to read them back to back in order.  I guess the main problem that I have with that is that I love reading series, and often times I find myself falling in love with the characters and not wanting that "relationship" to end.  I will read the first book in the series and then read maybe two or three books in between.  I also feel like if I read the whole series back to back to back, then things will start meshing together, and I will get bored (so not only am I OCD, I'm clearly ADD as well...).  

It is quite interesting to me how people select the books that they are going to read, and how they choose what order to read them in.  I guess everyone is different, and reading styles are all different as well, but I'd love to hear how you do it -- Do you judge the book by the cover art?  Do you have a pre-planned order in which you are going to read the next books?  

Happy Reading!