Hello everyone!

For a long time I thought I was a mood reader, but when I read other blog posts about mood readers, I feel that it doesn’t 100% jive with me. But first things first! What is a mood reader?

A mood reader is someone who reads depending on their mood. You read when you feel like, whatever you feel like reading.

But then I think, I am not completely a mood reader. Although I pick what I read depending on my mood, I am fairly predictable in other aspects of reading, such as when and where I read. That gets me thinking, could I be an organized reader?!

An organized reader picks their next book based on prioritization of new releases, blog tours, ARCs, etc, and reads at scheduled times of the day or days of the week.

That doesn’t sound like me either! I could never follow a list of what I am going to read next. For me, there is no such thing as prioritization when it comes to reading. Like, what is prioritization even?

So… I decided to invent a new term for someone who is somewhere in between (such as myself):

The organized mood reader is someone who has the combined qualities of a mood reader and an organized reader.

In actuality, I think most people are a blend of both, but some may lean more towards one or the other. For the rest of this post I’ll tell you guys about what makes me both a mood reader and an organized reader. Do you guys have some of these qualities as well? What are your reading tendencies? Let me know what you think!

What makes me a mood reader:

1. I happily add books to my ever-growing TBR.

Whenever I read a glowing review or a fellow book blogger recommends a book, onto my TBR it goes! I really have a low threshold for adding books to my TBR. On average, I read 4-5 books per month, and… let’s just say that I add much more to my TBR than I take away. As a result, my TBR is growing at an exponential rate. I’d like to think of it not as a weedy garden but a field exploding with pretty flowers.

2. My TBR does not have an order.

A book could be on my TBR for years, but does that mean that I will get to it sooner than this shiny new book I just discovered? You would think that there is an order to my TBR, an algorithm that tells me what to read next, or that I simply go through my TBR in chronological order from when the books were first added. Nope, not at all. Which takes me to my next point:

3. I let my mood dictate what I want to read next.

You could say that the value of the TBR is lost on me, because I rarely stick to it! If a non-TBR book catches my eye, it could automatically become the next book on my TBR. That’s not really fair to the other books on my TBR right? To that I’d say: all is fair in love and war and…. TBRs.

4. My reading pace varies.

Sometimes I finish a book in a day! Sometimes it takes me a week! … Or two! When I like a book, I spend half a day or an entire day reading it until the very last page. When I dislike a book, I make every single excuse to not read.

5. I buy/borrow books impulsively.

Instead of reading what is already on my bookshelf, I often end up buying or borrowing a new book that catches my attention. Which means that despite my tiny bookshelf…. I have still yet to read half of it. One-click online shopping for ebooks and audiobooks is my best friend! (Or the bane of my existence, depending on how you look at it.)

But what makes me an “organized” mood reader?

1. I follow a (very) predictable pattern of when I read and where I read.

I read on my commute and I listen to an audiobook when I exercise and/or do chores. I go to many lengths to ensure that my life is, in general, very routine. If you keep track of the time(s) that I read on the average weekday, you’ll find that it is very similar from one day to the next. (Yes I would be very easy to assassinate.)

2. I very rarely DNF books.

When I start a book, I really make an effort to finish it, no matter how much I dislike it. I probably should DNF some books because most books I dislike by the halfway point I end up disliking away! But alas there is that perfectionist part of me that insists on toughing it out until the very end.

Not to say that these qualities are the very definition of an organized mood reader, not at all! Maybe you read at erratic times throughout the day or the week but you follow your TBR to a tee! Maybe you read depending on your mood but you make an effort to read all the books on your bookshelf first before making another purchase! (In which case please show me your ways!) My point is that there may be a gazillion different variations of the organized mood reader, some being more organized while some being more moody (like me.)

What do you think? Are you an organized reader or a mood reader or a bit of both? Do you limit your spending when it comes to books? How do you keep your TBR in check? Do you DNF books?