Hello!

I’ve really come to terms with the fact I’m not a mood reader and that the entire reason for this is that I hate making decisions – I can say no to something I’m not in the mood for, but making a decision? Absolutely not.

So where this year has been significantly more successful in my monthly TBRs, I do actually get to entertain the thought of figuring out what to read after I finish all the books on my list!

But how, I hear you ask, can you possibly choose what to read when you don’t mood read? What a fantastic question.

I made a TikTok last month using different methods to choose what I’ll read after my monthly TBR and after I didn’t get round to reading them, these books are now just hovering on my peripheral. We’ll see when I get round to reading them, but the point of this post is to tell you how!

Method 1 – The New Buys List

Does this help my TBR? Technically yes, just not the backlist. It does, however, help me justify the books I’ve bought this year! There’s not much method to this – I look at my book spreadsheet, go down to the first one I haven’t read and change that.

Sometimes that means reading a backlist book to be able to read a sequel I’ve bought despite not starting the series (lol) which is exactly what happened with my pick in the video.

The next book on my list that I haven’t read is Cursebound by Saara El-Arifi and it’s one I was sucked into buying because the Waterstones exclusive edition is stunning so I bought it despite not having read Faebound…

I like this method cos it’s quite a randomised list and they’re obviously all books I really want to read because I’ve actually spent money on them. The next few books on my list after Faebound are books 2 and 3 in the Killing Eve series, Dracula, and the original Greek mythology, Homer’s epic poems. All books that intimidate me a little bit but definitely a variety!

Method 2 – TBR Jar

My TBR jar is significantly out of date at this point because I stopped adding books in 2024 (with intent to make a brand new jar when I get through these ones) but I’m also reading books from the jar without picking them out the jar so I quite often get dupes. But that does also feel satisfying if I’m honest!

This is a really great way for me to get through my backlog, especially because it only contains books I bought/hadn’t read before 2024 and it gets me excited about the books I have that I don’t necessarily see people talking about on social media.

My current pick for this method is Charlie, Love and Cliches by Ella Maise, which I’ve seen a lot of mixed reviews for but I’ve read a couple of other books by this author and they were the easiest to read palette cleansers so I’m actually glad to have one of those on the list.

Method 3 – TBR Tarot Carts

This is a product I really didn’t need to buy considering how much I rely on lists and jars but they’re really cute (mine are from Wordy and Wild but I think they’re sold out) and I wanted another method for the TikTok video I was making (lol). The prompts are quite varied and it made me think about my books in a way I hadn’t before!

The prompt I picked was ‘Set in a country you want to visit’ and I realised so many of my books are either set in England, America or a fictional fantasy universe. So I turned to my 25 in 2025 list and found that The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods was set in Ireland. I then managed to pick that book for my May TBR so I have since read it!

Is it time to choose another book with the TBR tarot cards??

Method 4 – Continue a Series

This one is very self-explanatory, but I’ve definitely got more of a focus on working on the series I’ve started this year. Though this method was definitely born out of the fact that one of the first books I picked from my 25 in 2025 in January was a re-read of the first book in the Maximum Ride series by James Patterson, which was my entire personality when I was 14 so that obviously made me want to reread the rest of the series (that I own, anyway).

I managed to read book 2, School’s Out Forever, in February and then I haven’t been able to make time for book 3, Saving The World and Other Extreme Sports, yet. I think my plan with this method, which is also a category on my monthly TBR, is focus on one series at a time and then when I finish that series (hopefully) pick another one to work on in this more passive way.

And with these four methods, I have a much smaller list of books to choose from! Like I said, I read ‘The Lost Bookshop’ (though ironically not because of this list) but I think going forward my plan will be to choose books through these four methods, and then once I’ve read them all I will choose another four books.

This system makes sense in my brain and means I don’t feel like I’m drowning in lists and priority books and books that I should have already read.

Do I think I’ll get round to any of these books this month? Probably not – I’m only 300-odd pages through the 1000+ pages of my book from the wedding library for this month and I’ve got three other books that I either haven’t finished yet or haven’t even started. But I thought telling you about these methods might be fun!

If you’re not a mood reader, please tell me how you decide what to read next because I clearly need more methods to add to my list!

Thank you so much for reading,

Sophie xx