Ask HN: How do you decide what to read next?

4 points·cercobellezza··3 comments

I have a huge list of books I want to read of all kinds of genres. Everytime I finish a book I start to think about what to read next and sometimes I'm stuck, there's too much choice.

I also feel like my list only gets bigger even though I read many books every year.

So how do you guys do it? And do you read more than one book at once?

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It totally depends. Since I am into more spiritual books, for me, it's always like one book leads to another.

I also let my current state of mood guide my choice.

And sometimes I like to pick random books that famous people are recommending.

You can use platforms like https://www.whatshouldireadnext.com/ or https://www.readupnext.com/ to get book suggestions.

These days I do most of my reading on the bus to and from work and it is driven by the requirements of library books being due, being recalled, etc. I have been using interlibrary loan a lot lately (at my uni I can request a book and often have it the next day) which gives me a reason to hurry.

Other times I have read a lot more but I have been playing a lot of video games lately though watching very little video other than the occasional sports game but I am going to more sports games than watching them because sports photography is my current obsession.

I try and find books that are not popular, since if you want to Think Different, you have to read what others are NOT reading, so you have an advantage over your competition who are all indoctrinated by the latest trend or groupthink. Old dusty libraries & bookshops with obscure literature are my favorite for procuring these items.

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