How do you decide what book you are going to read next? Do you plan an entire reading queue or do you ask friends to recommend books? Do you actively search for your next book to read based on book reviews or news sources or library lists? Do you randomly pick up any old book that is close at hand? Do you only read award winners or one specific genre or New York Times bestsellers?

Typically, I decide what I am reading next based on my current interests and whether or not a book speaks to me. Sounds supernatural, but honestly, the book has to speak to me. I have had books in my home library for decades before I get around to reading them. And then one day, as I am scanning my shelves for my next read, a dusty book will shout, “Hey! Remember me?! I sounded super interesting eight years ago and today I am even more interesting! Read me!”

Other times, I will dive into a brand new book just brought home from the book store because the subject matter is so incredibly compelling that I can’t possibly shelve it until I’ve read it. This is rare. Usually, books need to percolate in my brain and languish on my shelves for a while before I am ready to read them.

There is nothing worse than reading a book that is forced on me as mandatory, hence my distaste for almost every book I have ever read for English classes in the past. And for some reason, I respond the same way when too many people recommend the same book to me. I tend to veer away from bestsellers, though I do read a few to keep my finger on what the reading masses deem worthy of reading. I love reading new authors and bizarre fiction. I love reading new books by favourite authors. I almost never re-read books. I lean genre heavy, but read widely and have thoroughly enjoyed all sorts of novels. Quirky hits a sweet spot for me. I prefer character-driven stories, but also love a page turning plot-driven adventure. And a highly readable narrative nonfiction can be an absolute delight. The thought of only reading only one kind of book is tremendously distasteful to me. Why would I want to limit myself like that?

I have to read a lot as a literary agent, but when I am reading manuscripts written by my clients, I am reading with a very different mindset from reading for pleasure. It is a more analytical approach and I read the manuscripts on a screen, my laptop or iPad. I never read for fun on a screen, but that doesn’t mean that reading my client’s writing isn’t fun. It’s just different from reading FOR fun. My recreational reading is done with print books or audiobooks. I’ve found that print helps turn off my work brain so that I don’t edit while I read. Listening to audiobooks makes household chores, driving, and going for walks more enjoyable. Reading on a screen is work.

Picking my next recreational read can happen very quickly. Sometimes I even know which book I am reading next before I finish the one I am already reading. Other times, it can take me days to pick my next read. Especially if I have just finished a fabulous book and am suffering a tragic book hangover. Book hangovers are simultaneously the worst and the best thing ever! I will wander the house, scanning my bookshelves, or I will sit on the edge of the bed and stare unfocused at the stack of books on my bedside table. Eventually, the perfect book will speak to me.

So how do you choose what to read next? I really want to know.

– Stacey