Making Up For Monday

This fun blog hop is hosted by An Avid Reader; A Wannabe Writer.

This week's question is interesting:

How do you decide what to read next?

My Response:

I changed my approach for 2014. Before this year, I'd just read whatever book seemed most interesting at any given moment. This method seemed to work out OK until last year. I inadvertently blew off my reading challenges somewhat in 2013, realizing in mid-December that I had a big pile of books I needed to read in order to complete the challenges. I really didn't want to have challenges I didn't finish, because since I started this blog in 2011 I have completed every challenge that I signed up for. To fix this, I made a list of all the books I needed to read - and then read them in the order in which they were on my list. As you might imagine, I read a LOT at the end of December - but it worked, and I completed all the challenges, by the skin of my teeth!

I didn't want to repeat this experience in 2014, so for this year I created another reading list that I use to determine which book get read next. This way I concentrate on challenge books (and TBR pile books) and I am not so tempted to read other books. Of course, I do read other books from time to time, but I have made much better progress on my reading this year because I mostly stick to the list.

How do you decide?