This post, despite the misleading title, is more of a query rather than a how-to.  I, like many readers I know, keep a large stack of unread books nearby so I have plenty to choose from each time I finish something. This habit can get a bit out of hand when I’m leaving my house for vacation or even just to go to a coffee shop for a few quiet hours, and I end up lugging a heavy bag of two or three books…just in case.

I don’t have any tricks for choosing my next read.  I just look at my shelves and wait for one of the books to pop out at me.  Naturally I want to read them all (or I wouldn’t have acquired them), but that doesn’t mean I want to read all of them at this exact moment.  Sometimes the first book that sticks out isn’t the right one, I’ll read a few pages and put it aside for another time and go back to the shelves.  This habit exasperates my boyfriend who likes to taunt me by saying that he still reads in the “old-fashioned one book at a time” manner.

So, dear readers, I want to know how you choose your next reading adventure.  Do you use the same method I do, scanning the shelves for “the one?”  Do you set out to read certain books one after another and keep yourself to it? Do you venture into the bookstore and ask your favorite bookseller?  All suggestions and comments are welcome, but please don’t tell me to get an e-reader to alleviate the pain of carrying so many books around.  I want a real book that I can throw in my bag and fold its pages and write in and stretch out with on a picnic blanket on a warm summer day.  -Kaycie

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