Reader Problems Book Tag

Hiya, bookish friends, and welcome back to the blog! As fellow bookish nerds, I think there are many things we can all relate to, especially when it comes to the reading-related struggles we all face at one point or another. When I spotted a tag dedicated to talking about how we handle our bookish predicaments, I couldn’t help but jump on the bandwagon myself! Enough small talk from me – let’s jump right into this thing!  

1) You have 20,000 books on your TBR. How in the world do you decide what to read next?

I would totally consider myself a mood reader, which helps me narrow my field substantially when trying to decide what the read next. From here, it’s pretty normal for me to read the synopsis on the back of a few books, and then pick my next read from that small pool. I have also noticed that if I read something long/dark/violent/required a whole lotta brain power (like a fantasy novel!), I run straight to a contemporary or romance novel so that I can give my brain a break to reset itself before diving into another hardcore read.

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2) You’re halfway through a book and you’re just not loving it. Do you quit or are you committed?

The answer to this question definitely varies from book to book. Typically, if I am not loving a book that is in a series that I have really enjoyed so far and/or is written by one of my auto-buy authors, I’ll keep reading it until the end. Any other book I read until the halfway mark, and if I’m still not invested whatsoever, I’ll quit. It is very rare that I will give up on a book, though! I can count on one hand how many times I’ve resorted to this.

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3) The end of the year is coming and you’re so close, but so far away on your Goodreads reading challenge. Do you try to catch up and how?

This really wasn’t something that affected me until I started college and working three on-campus jobs, and in 2020, this was a SERIOUS struggle for me. Here’s the thing, though: I simply cannot force myself to sit down and cram in a bunch of reading. If I’m not enjoying it, then there’s literally no point in taking the time to read, so there’s no rushing to the finish line at the end for me. I’m one of those people that values quality over quantity. If I don’t make my reading goal (which has only happened maybe once or twice!), I’m sad about it, but when I reflect on all the great books I do get to read each year, I don’t beat myself up about not hitting my goal.

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4) The covers of a series you love do. not. match. How do you cope?

In short? Myself and my bank account (if I can buy covers that do match) literally cannot.

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5) Everyone and their mother loves a book you really don’t like. Who do you bond with over shared feelings?

Often times, I talk to my same bookish friends from college and/or those on my book-y social media accounts about all my feels, even if they loved the book I’m (lightly) smack-talking. Since everyone has their own opinions, expectations, and feelings about every book they read, I usually take everyone’s thoughts with a grain of salt and don’t go out of my way to talk to people who I think have the same opinions as me on the books I read. So far, this method has worked out pretty well!

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6) You’re reading a book and you are about to start crying in public. How do you deal?

In order to stop the tears from flowing, I typically just have to stop reading before I get too emotionally invested. It pains me to do sometimes especially when the book is so good, but to save myself the embarrassment of people realizing I don’t have a completely black, emotionless heart (GASP!), I have to just lay the book aside and redirect my brain to another task.

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7) A sequel of a book you loved just came out, but you’ve forgotten a lot from the prior novel. Will you re-read the book? Skip the sequel? Try to find a synopsis on Goodreads? Cry in frustration?!?!?!?

My answer to this question is very dependent on the book. I don’t normally re-read books because I find that the details start coming back to me within the first two to five chapters or so, but if I REALLY loved the book the first time (basically any JLA or Sarah J. Maas book, for example), I’d totally re-read the first in the series so that when I get to the second book, I have all the deets I need in order to enjoy it to the max. Most of the time, though, I would say that I rely on reading a couple of spoiler-y reviews and/or synopses to help jog my memory of the first book before moving onto the next book in a series.   

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8) You do not want anyone. ANYONE. borrowing your books. How do you politely tell people nope when they ask?

When I was in high school, I was literally the worst about saying no to book-borrowing requests because I felt like a jerk. Like SUPER bad. My old approach would be to just pretend like I forgot they asked/ignore the request, and if they insisted, I’d only let them have it for a two to three days before I told them I needed it back because I was so worried it was going to get damaged outside my tender-loving care. Then I went to college and realized that as an adult, I could politely turn someone down and they (probably) wouldn’t hate me forever, so now I just straight-up say no when asked. Sorry y’all, but my books are my babies!!!

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9) Reading ADD. You’ve picked up and put down 5 books in the last month. How do you get over your reading slump?

I’m a firm believer that if you’re in a reading slump, your brain is trying to send you a message to take a break. While you may want to ignore that little voice in your head, I’ve found doing so just makes the slump worse. My main hack for moving past a reading slump is to take the few days after you feel one coming on away from your TBR pile to refocus your energy elsewhere. Then, when you come back to choose your next read, you may be more inclined to settle in a move past the slump. Granted, this may take a few tries to work, but in my experience, if you’re patient enough, you’ll be able to get back to your normal, booknerdigan self in no time flat! If you’re interested in more tips on fending off reading slumps, check out my list of tips here!

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10) There are so many new books coming out that you’re dying to read! How many do you actually buy?

I usually buy all of them, since my list of “dying to reads” each year is pretty small!

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11) After you’ve bought the new books you can’t wait to get to, how long do they sit on your shelf before you get to them?

While I wish I could get to most books within a week or so of buying them, adulting often gets in the way. Though it’s a long time, some books sit on my shelf for months before I get to read them. My goal each year is to read all the books I purchase that year by its end, though, so hopefully long before they even have the chance to collect dust!

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That is it for the Reader Problems Book Tag! Agree and/or disagree with some of my answers? Comment below and let’s talk about all of our bookish dilemmas together!

Until next week! May your bookish problems be limited until we meet again 😊