Picking Your Next Read: Creature Comforts VS. Branching Out

Fact: I don't like coffee. I just like saying Coffee Clutch in my best and deepest New York accent. Considering I'm a New Yorker, I'm pretty freaking good at it. So I've got my tea and I hope you have your heated beverage of choice, because it's time to gab the day away.

Sometimes I feel like the order in which I'll read the next couple of books on my TBR are similar to my eating habits.

Me too, JLaw, me too.

I bet you're wondering: Huh?

Well, there are people (mostly kids, but also some grown ups), who can eat THE SAME THING every meal, every day. When my brother was younger, he couldn't get enough hotdogs.When I was a kid I consumed so much mac and cheese I can't even tell you (this is still true today, but I try to moderate. With breakfast foods and sushi. CALL ME. LET'S GET DINNER). 

Patrick picks hamburgers.

Then there are people who CANNOT eat the same thing twice in one week. They just get sick of it. It's either TOO MUCH pasta or TOO MUCH chicken or TOO MUCH whatever else. Someone once told me we couldn't get pizza because they'd had that for dinner the night before. I was like... SO?

I feel like these tendencies are similar how people choose their next read.

Some people who like to read contemporary novel after contemporary novel. And then there are others who eat up every paranormal book they can find. They like a genre and they STICK WITH IT. Every now and again they'll read something else, but they're comfortable consuming the same genre of book over and over again and never get sick of it.

But then there are people who CANNOT read the same genre over and over. They'll read a contemporary, then a fantasy, followed by a paranormal, a dystopian, maybe some sci-fi or a historical and then maybe come back around for some more contemporary (not to say people have a schedule like that, but you get the gist). Whether it's a boredom thing or other, they just can't read the same genre two books in a row.

Where do I fall?

I have a tendency to mix it up A LITTLE. Basically what happens is I'll read something that needs SERIOUS world building (dystopian, fantasy, paranormal...) and then need to go back to something a little less magical (contemporary, historical...). Y'know, to help my brain distinguish between worlds and stories or whatever with a dose of reality. But there are no hard-fast rules. If something interesting pops up, I'll skip whatever else is in my immediate TBR pile and read that, regardless of what genre my last read was. Or if I suddenly decide I want to read these three awesome looking (non-series) retellings in a row, I'll do it. So basically what I'm saying is:

I WILL say that I can't bringe read too many series in a row. It's like, y'know how some people can go out and drink Thursday, Friday and Saturday night? Yeah, I can't. Feels are akin to alcohol and I don't do hangovers for either.

TALK TO ME, MY PRETTY READERS! Do you stick with your creature comforts, do you branch out or do you do a mix of both like I do? Let me know all about your food/book picking habits in the comments below!