Don't Know What to Read Next? Try These 7 Ideas.

What if I say Maeve Wiley or Taylor Swift can help you out of your reader’s block? Yeah, you read it right. Most of us have a long TBR list filling our sticky notes, journals, note apps or goodreads profiles. And some of us have plenty of unopened books piling in our bookshelves. Even with all this, sometimes we struggle to find a book to read next. There are also times where we struggle with the motivation to read. Even re-reading our most favorite book may seem boring. My personal solution is very simple: when in confusion, go with a theme. So, here are some ideas to break that reading block.

1. Pick a color and read 3-5 books with having cover of that particular color

Feeling blue? Go through this blue book list. Want some sunshine? Go with yellow. Feeling lovesick? Choose red.

2. Get a reading bingo

Reading bingo is just like the regular bingo, but with the cells filled with different book ideas. There are plenty of templates available on the internet. Find one and may be share it with your friends or reading group and and see who gets the B-I-N-G-O first. Here is an example.

3. Read books recommended/read by celebrities (or fictional characters)

Won't it be fun to go through the book recommendations and reading list of your favorite public personality? This YouTube channel has a lot of such videos. Here is the Maeve Wiley book collection video:

4. Try some reading challenges

Reading challenges are mostly run around a theme. I will attach some of my favorites here.

• The Bustle Read Challenge 2016 which is focused on women and writers of color.
• A year of reading the world: this list has book recommendations from every country. Picking one book from every country and reading through them will surely be an enriching reading experience.
• There are reading challenge groups on goodreads as well.

5. Look out for “songs as books” threads on Twitter.

Do you associate books with songs and vice versa? Some music fandoms on Twitter has done so and have created interesting "songs as books" threads. If you are a pop music fan, this will be an interesting reading task for you.

Here is a small compilation of artist specific threads that I collected from Twitter:

• Taylor Swift: This one comprises of some of her popular songs like Blank Space, Style etc. And, this one is focused on her latest album evermore.
• BTS: This one features songs like Rain, Jump, ON etc.
• Bastille: This is a thread of Bastille songs as YA books.
• Beyoncé: This thread starts with her 2008 song Video Phone.

Maybe you can do it yourself. Pick five of your favorite songs and search for books with similar names or themes and enjoy the reading.

6. Judge a book by its cover and read.

They say "don't judge a book by it's cover". But, I ask, why not? Search for ‘aesthetic book covers’ on the internet and read what your eyes find beautiful.

7. Pick a book that is written by an author who shares your name or has a character with your name

For example, if your name happened to be Christopher (as in Christopher Anthony John Martin), try this book Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Super-athletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall or The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a novel by Mark Haddon, which has a character named Christopher John Francis Boone, a 15-year-old boy (these are not my recommendations and are just examples, I haven’t read both these books).

These are my seven ideas. May be you can have a reading idea collection book and put down all the reading prompt ideas you find there. This way, you will never have to worry about what to read next.

For boosting your motivation and reading streak, try the following:

Do a readathon

Sometimes hitting a big book number count can bring back the motivation. Readathon is where you read continuously for hours. This is a good way to clear the book piles. There are people who pull 24 hours. But 8 or 12 or 16 hours is also worth it.

Do an “I read one book for 7 days” challenge

This is another way to increase the number of books read and to decrease the length of that TBR list. Just keep in mind that, for doing this, you will have to choose books in such a way that it fits your schedule. If you want to step up the challenge, do it for 14 days. And, don't forget to flex it on social media :)

Hope you liked some of these ideas. Happy reading!