Bookish Things I’ve Learned About Myself

This is a little random round-up of some bookish facts or habits I’ve learned about myself in the last few months. My preferences or habits have changed a lot since moving (and then moving back) in the past few years so I’m constantly learning new things about my bookish self.

1. I cannot and should NOT let myself request fantasy books on NetGalley

The reason? I am the biggest mood reader when it comes to fantasy books. THE BIGGEST. I rarely read them because I have to be in a specific headspace, time of year, and at a certain level of Goodreads challenge status. I take a long time to read them because I have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to complex world-building and often slow starts (because of said world-building), so I need a lot of time to read them. I don’t read them in the summer either because they’re just not light enough. The fact of the matter is, requesting fantasy books on NetGalley NEVER works for me because there’s a 10% chance I read the book before the pub date. Why bother then?!

2. I don’t need my physical shelves in a specific order

To be fair, this is primarily because I have a lot of small/random bookshelves and not a gorgeous library room with built-in bookshelves. I will someday, but not yet. I have two taller/bigger black bookshelves, two smaller white bookshelves, and one little corner bookshelf. I also have one at my dad’s house that I’m currently storing the B-list books I’ve read already that aren’t favorites and/or need to donate. Because my books are kind of everywhere and split up, I genuinely don’t care what order they’re in. I had one rainbow adult fiction shelf in my old apartment, some favorites lumped together on another shelf, some non-contemps on a small shelf or two… it doesn’t matter. I don’t have too many places to look when I’m searching for a specific book, so I don’t need it to be in a set spot alphabetically. HOWEVER, I can guarantee this will change when I have a house with a library room or big built-in, uniform shelves. I will then go alphabetical, separating YA fiction, adult fiction, and nonfiction titles.

3. I only buy books when I’m 100% sure about them

I don’t have a physical book buying problem… at all. (Do I have a Kindle book buying problem? Perhaps. Sometimes. But only when they’re on sale. That’s not the point here, okay?!) I SO RARELY acquire physical books. There are probably a bunch of reasons for this, so here are a few of them. I like to own full series and books by my favorite authors, so those are the top books I buy and/or preorder. I’m not the type of person (anymore) who goes into B&N or some other bookstore and goes crazy, or buys books they’ve never heard of, or stocks up on books they may not read. I pretty much only buy books when I’m 100% sure I want to own them for one reason or another, but it’s mostly if they’re a favorite author or series. As of writing this post at the end of August, I have bought EIGHT PHYSICAL BOOKS THIS YEAR with my own money. I was gifted two from gift cards and two came for review.

4. My preferred audiobook genre is now contemporary instead of fantasy

I used to do a lot of fantasy audiobooks because remember that short attention span I talked about? That’s really only true when I’m reading a page. I put the book down, scroll twitter, eat some food, etc… Audiobooks were my favorite way to consume fantasy because I would essentially HAVE to pay attention to them if I wanted entertainment when showering, getting ready for work, and driving around. I hate having to rewind it because I zoned out, so I really do pay more attention. Within the last year though, for some reason, I’ve listened to a lot more contemporary audiobooks. It could be because they’re shorter? I listen to more podcasts now too, so I feel like I don’t want to spend an entire month alternating between podcast episodes and just one audiobook.

5. Mood reading isn’t really an issue for me anymore

There are some exceptions to this, like I mentioned in the first point about fantasy books. There are some genres that I just avoid most of the time and/or am rarely in the mood to read, but that’s a separate thing. I’ve found that I have less of an issue with just READING a book because I have to read it. If there’s a blog tour and I need to read something, I don’t hate myself for signing up for a mystery book because I’m in a contemporary mood. I just read it, like it, and move on. I don’t find myself in reading slumps BECAUSE of genre. I do get burnt out sometimes from reading too many romance books, so I’ll toss in a mystery/thriller to jazz things up, and then I can usually head back into romance without a problem.

6. I am SO BAD at reading library books (TBH all physical books…)

I love libraries and they’re a major reason that I don’t buy a lot of books. I know that most of my TBR can be read with a simple request or drop-by. The biggest problem is that by the time I get the book in and bring it home, my interest has peaked and then plateaued already. I know I JUST got over saying that mood reading isn’t a big issue for me right now, so this probably sounds contradictory, but it’s just all in the timing. If I have a stack of 10 library books, I will probably read 4 of them at most and send the rest back unread and overdue. Seriously. I should also mention I am generally bad at reading my own physical books too. There’s something just SO addicting about my Kindle lately!

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