Discussion Post: Am I Becoming a Mood Reader?

Hi Friends,

Welcome to another installment of My Thoughts Figuratively where I wax philisophically about things relating to reading and blogging. I used to do try and do discussion posts monthly and this is actually the second month in a row that I have posted one. Maybe I am actually going to be able to do that moving forward. But lately I have been thinking  a lot about my reading and I wanted to talk about here to get my thoughts out and see if you all have experienced it.

If you have been a longtime reader of the blog you know that I used to do monthly themes where I would read a bunch of books based on certain topic. It could have been a genre like historical fiction or high fantasy, or something more specific like pirates of "island adventures." I really liked the structure and being able to explore certain types of books in depth. But as time went on I wasn't able to think of ideas anymore and the themes stayed the same. Plus as I started to read more it became harder to predict what I was going to read each month and stick to a specific theme. Over time I slowly dropped the theme and just decided to read what I wanted every month.

But reading what I wanted in any given moment was easier then it looked. So instead of knowing exactly what I was going to read next I was faced with crippling indecision on what book to pick up after I finished one. I mean, I had a general idea of what I was hoping to read for the month based what new books were coming out and what books I had review copies of, but in general I didn't have a plan. And when I don't have a plan I tend to get overwhelmed and give up. Call it anxiety or whatever else but it made deciding what to read next a tough choice. So in those cases I have taken to Twitter and let my followers make the decision for me. It's sometimes easier when someone else tells you what to do.

So for a few months everything has been working out. I've been getting tons of reading done and there hasn't been much of a struggle deciding what to read next. Then suddenly, I feel like I've hit a wall. I feel like I have been getting burned out from fantasy, one of my favorite genres. When I do read fantasies, the ones that I have read haven't really been impressing me.And yes, that could just be the nature of the book but it felt like more than that. So I decided maybe I should take a break from fantasy, refresh myself a little bit before the winter when I know some highly anticipated books are coming out.

Then Wednesday night, as I'm deciding what to read next I asked myself what I was in the mood for. And that's when I realized that I have been asking myself what I am in the mood to read. A question I have never really thought about. I know that a lot of people are mood readers. It's a thing you hear all the time in the blogoshere "I'm a mood reader so I'm not interested in that right now." And I honestly never understood that. If a new book that you were really excited to read just came out, how are you not in the mood for it?

But now I think I get it. The type of book you are interested in reading can really shape your opinion of it. Often reading is just an expression of your feelings at the time of your reading it. How many times have you reread something that you loved only to be shocked at how not good it was? Don't lie to me, we all know you liked Twilight 10 years ago. I guess that's what mood reading is. Being in the mood for something can make you love it, and not being in the mood can make you not enjoy it. The fact that I am now in that boat completely changes the way I decide what to read next and honestly I am not sure how to proceed.

Are you a mood reader or can you set a TBR for the month? If you are a mood reader then let me know how you decide what to read next? HELP ME! Thanks for stopping by and HAPPY READING!