Systematic Choices

For many years, I've read more than one book at a time. Ever since my migraines started, I resorted to one book at a time with my library's e-book app.

Now that I can handle light again, and therefore physical books, I'd like to go back to reading more than one book at a time. I was in the middle of three when my migraines first hit, so I need to finish those. And I decided how I want to choose my books to read.

I've always had systems for how I choose books and what kind of books I read. I usually read four books at once, and I think of them more as four slots, each with a different type of book.

My first slot is always a classic novel. I'm always reading one because I enjoy exploring the classics. I've read ones I loved, like Jane Austen, Dracula, and Bleak House, and I've read ones I didn't like, such as Moby-Dick and Anna Karenina. But I'm passionate about reading them and exploring the different novels from different time periods and different countries. Waiting on my shelves for me to read them are Les Miserables, Don Quixote, Grimm's Fairy Tales, Arabian Nights, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and Frankenstein.

My second slot is something I've recently decided. It will be young adult fantasy.

For almost a decade, I exclusively read young adult books for several reasons, but I started to crave reading books without all the angst of teenagers, books written for adults. I started reading romance and was able to get what I craved. But I do still enjoy young adult fantasy. It's one of my favorite genres. There's less angst in young adult fantasy than young adult romance, which I like.

I have many young adult fantasy books on my shelves that I either haven't reviewed, haven't read, or haven't read the entire series. So, my plan is to reread the books I've read and haven't reviewed, finish series I've started, and check out books from the library where necessary. There are more than a few series where I only have the first one or two books in a trilogy or quartet and will need to get the others from the library.

So, my second slot will be these young adult books.

My third slot is something I've mentioned before—my need to read romantic suspense. I will always fill this slot with a romantic suspense novel.

I will fill the fourth slot with whatever I want, likely romance most of the time, but can be anything not covered in another slot. Books from the library or from my shelves... whatever floats my boat when I'm picking a book.

I'll keep reading these books evenly by rotating through, each book having a day where I read it whenever I pick up a book, while I go through each book in turn.

This probably seems overly complicated, and it very well may be. I have complicated systems for a lot of things I do to keep track of what I'm doing, and I'm sure all of them seem strange from the outside. But they work for me. I enjoy reading more than one book and getting a variety in, and my system ensures I get that variety. It brings me happiness, and isn't that what life's about?

Photo Credit Ylanite Koppens