Amber was kind enough to feature a guest post of mine some weeks ago on her book blog, and if you’ve been reading Creadium for any length of time, you know that I love nothing more than to swap guest posts!  So, here’s Amber with a post about her TBR (To Be Read) pile and how she goes about picking her next book for review. Amber is also hosting a contest on her blog, related to this post, so keep reading for more details.  Take it away Amber!  

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Elle Beauregard was one of my author guests on Amberkatze’s Book Blog a few weeks ago and she asked if I would like to write a guest blog for her too. Naturally I said I would be happy to write something for her but the problem was, what? So I asked my readers!

Victoria came up with the perfect topic.

“How about a blog on your TBR pile. If it’s like mine it’s huge. How you go about deciding what to read next.”

Well I can tell you my TBR pile is more than huge! I actually don’t want to know how many books I have on my bookshelf that I still need to read. Oh when I think about the ones that have been on there for years….

So how do I pick which one to read next? Well usually I try and read any ARC’S I have been given to review. Now I don’t get many of these because I am in Europe and most publishers, until now, haven’t really been eager to post me any. However I do occasionally get ARCs direct from authors and also from Netgalley. So they come first unless the release date is months away. There is nothing worse than
reading a book and not being able to post the review for another three months!

After the ARCs come the new releases. Yes I need to get rid of some of those books that have been gathering dust on my bookshelves for years but do my blog readers really want to read reviews for books that came out over two years ago? I am sure they are more interested in the latest releases. Plus it is really really hard to not read the books I have pre-ordered because they are on my must read list!

Then I try and read something from the dust covered bookshelf. For every few new books I always try and read one or two older books. I also need a break from the Paranormal sometimes and pick up a cozy mystery. I also have a few chick-lit books in there and normal mystery & thrillers. They haven’t seen much action but they are there in case I get the urge to read one.

However something has really messed up my ‘what to read next’ process. My Kindle. After all it is much easier and more practical to carry my Kindle around that a proper paperback book. There is nothing worse than being stuck somewhere and you have finished the one book you had with you. Some books are just heavy to carry around but the Kindle is nice and light. So that comes into play now
as well.

Of course on weekends , while I am at home, I am trying to just read paperbacks. Problem is that I usually end up getting so into a book on my Kindle that I read that instead. At the beginning of the year the deal I had with myself was no Kindle reading at home. I kept to that for a few months but lately the books on my Kindle have been too good to ignore.

So back to the question. How do I decide what to read next from my tbr pile? Who knows?? I certainly don’t. There is a certain amount of reason behind my choices but to be truthfully honest I read the one I want to read, the one I am in the mood for or the one that catches my eye. Some books have gotten completely lost in the piles and found themselves on the last page on my Kindle. Sometimes I find them again and think ‘wow! I still have to read that, I should get to it next’ but I am like a magpie who likes shiny things…well I always manage to be tempted by some shiny book ;)

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See the pictures in the post?  Go to Amber’s contest post on her blog and tell her which book from her TBR shelf you’d most like to win.  She’ll draw a name, and you could win that very book! Good luck!