What to Read Next?

Before I started this blog what to read next was almost a random question. It might be a book just purchased that was highly recommended or from an author I especially liked. If I had been reading a lot of fiction I might consciously turn to a non-fiction book. Sometimes it would be looking at the TBR pile and deciding it was time to go to the bottom to see what I wanted to read but had let be buried from view. I say it was not quite random as I usually tried to alternate a book from a previously read author with a book from a new author.

Since becoming a blogger I find my reading has become more organized. I have participated in a couple of memes hosted by Kerrie Smith at her blog, Mysteries in Paradise. The first was the Alphabet in Crime Fiction and the second is Crime Fiction on a Euro Pass. The first I joined at the letter “G” while I have been on the train for the whole journey to date. I am also participating in the 5^th Canadian Book Challenge at John Mutford’s Book Mine Set blog.

As I usually prefer to place a book review in the weekly memes it means my next reading has been influenced by what is the next letter in the alphabet or next destination on the train. Living in a community of 6,000 people with no bookstore means it is harder for me to go buy what I want to read for a meme. The nearest large bookstores are 185 km from Melfort in Saskatoon.

To get what I want to read next for memes has taken me to the library more often than I have been in recent years. As a library board member it is probably a good idea that I have been going into the library more frequently.

Another impact of writing blog posts concentrated on mysteries has been to read even less non-fiction.

Blogging, by getting me to the blogs of other book lovers, has also expanded my author horizons. The recommendations of other bloggers have sent me looking for authors I had not found on my own.

What I rarely do is re-read a book. There are so many books I am anxious to read that I have not read that it will take a special reason to go back to read a book again.

I do not think I will take part in a meme again for awhile though I reserve the right to change my mind! I would like to read next for awhile the book that looks most interesting from the stacks of the TBR.

In looking over the stacks on my desk I know that The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen is going to read next shortly. When it is done I think I am going to complete some non-fiction that has been languishing.

There remains one imperative in what to read next. A newly published Saskatchewan mystery will not even reach the pile. It will be my next read as soon as purchased. Next week I will be reviewing the most recent Saskatchewan mystery – The Mystery of the Moonlight Murder – which I purchased last month.