The Stuggles of Being a Mood Reader

Malka:

I am a self-proclaimed mood reader. This means that the books I pick up, and the books I enjoy, have a lot to do with what mood I’m in on a given day. In order for a book to get on my radar for me to buy or get from the library, a book has to first past the initial test of “Is this something I think I’d enjoy at some point?” If the answer to that question is yes, then that book reaches the second round: The Goodreads TBR. At this point I might even put the book on hold in the library, or pre-order the book, but that still is a relatively easy hurdle to get over (as long as my library is aware of this book’s existence). The real struggle occurs once I have the book in my possession.

Now, as a disclaimer I’ll mention that until recently this issue wasn’t so apparent when you looked at my shelves. Out of the 250+ books there, only about 10-15 of them were unread. This number has grown somewhat since I’ve been busier with school, but even so, I don’t tend to have piles of unread books glaring at me to read them. But that’s just because I’m sneaky.

My pile of  unread books

What I do is as follows. I get most of my books from the library. This works well for me because I don’t have to spend money on books I don’t know if I’ll enjoy. I usually on pre-order books from authors I’ve already read or synopses that are too adorable to pass up. This means that when I return a book to the library without reading it, no one has to know. And since I’m a mood reader, this is a very useful thing.

See, many times a book I’m super excited for comes into my life at the wrong time. And even though I still really want to read that book, I don’t have the desire to read it at that given moment. And so the book sits on my shelf. And it sits. And sits. Usually, at some point over the next year I get in the mood for that book and it gets read. Library books, as I mentioned, can only be taken out for a maximum of 3 months at a time, if I’m able to use all possible renewals. This means that I likely will return a book without reading it purely because I didn’t have enough time to get in the mood for it.

While this may sound ridiculous, the results of reading a book that I’m not in the mood for go one of two disastrous ways. The first option is that I just can’t get through the book. Said book can take me weeks to read, and sometimes, in extreme cases,months. It’s awful. I can even be enjoying the book, but if it isn’t what I’m craving that makes no difference.

But in my opinion the second option is even worse. Because in these cases I may get through the books, but I just hate them. I feel terrible when this happens because I know that it really doesn’t have that much to do with the book. I’m just reading it when I don’t want to be reading it. Which isn’t fair to me or the book. That’s why I tend to go with my mood reading ways, even when I’d love to be reading a book immediately after release day. But I’ve learned the hard way that the best way to read is to read what I’d like when I’d like.

So what about you guys? Do you experience similar things? Are you a mood reader at all? I’d love to compare notes with you.