I had one of those moments in the library recently. You know, when you are standing there surrounded by thousands of books and you can’t find anything you want to read.
I was with a friend and we had arranged to meet another friend for coffee a short while later.
‘Found something?’ she asked, her face falling as I put the two books in my hands back on the shelf.
‘Mmm, not yet.’
‘This looks good.’ She held out a paperback. ‘It has great reviews, too.’
My eyes glazed over as I scanned the blurb. ‘Not really my thing, I’m afraid.’
My friend glanced at her watch.
‘Give me two more minutes,’ I pleaded.
I grabbed two books after a cursory glance at the blurbs and checked them out.
That evening I sat down and opened the first one. It looked promising. The first page was okay, then it went downhill.
The second one just wasn’t my thing either.
I trawled through my Kindle and settled for a novella. Not brilliant, but readable in an emergency.
I returned the library books the next day, alone this time and wandered listlessly from aisle to aisle. After forty-five minutes I finally settled on two books. That evening I sighed heavily as I realised that these books were not for me either!
I needed a plan!
A bookworm like myself suggested I asked for recommendations from other keen readers. But how can I get readers to know which books I’m likely to want to read, when half the time, I don’t know myself? Just because I was an avid reader of cozy mysteries yesterday or last week, doesn’t mean I want the same thing today.
After much heart searching, I think I have found the answer! The way to select a book without trawling through the whole of the library (or even the whole of a bookshop, or charity shop bookshelf):
The Rainbow Reading Plan for the Less Stressful Selection of Books. It’s a long or short term plan, no end date in sight. I have great hopes that it will keep my friends happy, too and they won’t avoid coming to the library/bookshop with me.
The plan is to use the colours of the rainbow in order to select my reading material. Once I have read and enjoyed a book with a red cover (or mainly that colour) I can move on to the next colour, which is orange. Once I have enjoyed a book with an orange cover, I can go on to books with yellow covers. etc!
I spent just over half an hour at the library this morning zooming from one red cover book to the next, a bit like a bee going from flower to flower! I finally selected three red cover possibilities!
I’ll let you know how I get on.
By the way, how do you choose your reading material?