Discussion: Mood Reading Influences

It is known that I am a mood reader. This means that my reading habits are centered around my mood. It means that most of the time I spend more time choosing which book I read that I do reading. Sounds frustrating, right? This discussion will spotlight some of the influences that impact my mood reading tendencies.

1. Overwhelming TBR

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As a reader, you are constantly adding more books to your tbr list. However, the danger of owning so many unread books is that there is so much variety to choose from that you just don’t know where to start. Furthermore, when you actually sit down and take stock of what you own, you realise just how big the pile is and wonder how can you possibly get through all of these books. 

2. Weather Changes

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It’s a fact that the changes in weather affect your mood, so it’s natural for these changes to have an impact on our reading habits. For example, in the summertime, I’m more likely to read a summer contemporary book because the story reflects the mood I’m in. However, it’s not always as clear cut as days of glorious sunshine. When you live in a country where the weather pattern changes on a day to day basis it’s hard to gauge what sort of mood you’re in. Case in point, only a week ago we went through what felt like all four seasons. We had sunshine, we had rain, and we had snow. That is enough to confuse anyone. So, when the weather is so unpredictable, it’s hard to gauge your mood.

3. Genre debates

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Similarly to the overwhelming tbr, you also have to gauge which genre you’re in the mood to read. Readers really are spoiled for choice because there are so many genre’s and subgenre’s that it makes the choice that much harder for us. It’s easy enough to decide that you want to read fantasy, but within that, you have high-fantasy, historical fantasy, sci-fi & fantasy, and that’s just a small sample of them. How can you possibly narrow down the choice when there are so many different avenues to explore?

4. Life shenanigans

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As is the case with most bookish dilemmas, reality likes to get in the way of our reading plans. Most of these influences stem from tiredness, busy schedule, and just general chaos in your day to day life. The amount of effort it takes just to pick up a book on days where life is getting in the way is immense, so how are we even meant to have the focus to make the decision on what to read.

5. Netflix

Netflix can be our best friend and our worst enemy. Just think back to all the hours spent binge-watching when you planned on reading, or that time you stopped reading because a programme your mam was watching caught your attention. Netflix has a surprisingly influential role when it comes to mood reading habits. It’s the perfect alternative when you don’t have the energy to think about reading.

6. Indecision

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If you are typically an indecisive person, it’s only natural to go back and forth between the books you might want to read. It’s possibly the biggest influence because no matter how hard you try, you just can’t make that call to just pick a book and stick to it. On top of that, you have to try and gauge your mood before even thinking about picking up another book, which is not an easy task. It is a frustrating process because despite wanting to read, your indecisiveness prevents you from making that final judgement call because you will always be questioning whether or not it’s the right decision.

To conclude, there are several influences that contribute to our mood reading tendencies, and sometimes you have to admit defeat and face the fact that you just have to roll with it. Other times, why not try to pick a book and read, it might not work, but at least you’ll know that your mood isn’t calling you to that book.

Are you a mood reader?
What influences your mood reading tendencies?

25 thoughts on “Discussion: Mood Reading Influences”

  1. I am definitely a mood reader. More than anything I think what influences my mood reading tendencies is what type of book I want to read, whether I’m in the mood to read something different and a little outside of my comfort zone or if I want to read a good old romance book.

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  2. I set a weekly TBR, but have been known to swap out books, because of my mood. The weather and my life at large play the biggest role in switching up my TBR. There are just days, when I know I cannot emotionally handle a particular kind of book. The prior books sometimes makes me seek something different too. If the last book was super emotional, sad, or heavy, I will look for something on the lighter side. If the last book was meh, I will scan my books for something I know is sure to delight me. My mood is really important, and affects my enjoyment of the book. So, I have learned to work with it.

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  3. Yesss I agree with all of these! The biggest, tbh, is indecision for me. I think I want to read a thing but… do I REALLY? It is best when someone or something “makes” me read a book because otherwise… would I ever? Who knows! Also, I have never related to anything more than the adulting GIF, wowww.

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  5. Oh my gosh … I relate to this post too much ha-ha! I’m DEFINITELY a mood reader. For instance, the month of March and the beginning of April … I was all about that reading. But December of 2018 … it was torture to read. I find it hard when life gets in the way … and then I just don’t have the attention span to read … so I Netflix it up.

    I’m doing okay right now for reading, but Avengers has taken up space since I’m re watching them all before End Game ha-ha!

    Oh and seasons are a BIG thing for me … I stopped reading Crooked Kingdom because I just didn’t feel it … Fall seems to be my fantasy and horror reading time … so once it moved from winter to spring … I stopped reading it, even though it’s good. So weird …

    Awesome post!

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    1. This is basically me. My mood reading definitely ebbs and flows. The most frustrating part is when you’re in the middle of a book and that reading moon vanishes. That is my current predicament.

      I need to watch Infinity Wars again before Endgame and stock up on tissues cause I know I’m gonna get emotional haha.

      Seasons are definitely a huge influence. I find the summer months I’m likely to go for contemporary instead of dark fantasy.

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      1. Me too … I have two books that are GOOD but I’m just not feeling them. Or the worst is when you have a bunch of ARCs you’re trying to get done but you just aren’t feeling that genre at the moment … I’m currently in that predicament right now … ugh 😦

        Oh gosh … I definitely cried when watching Infinity Wars … so many emotions! I have Spiderman, Dr. Strange, Thor Ragnarok, Infinity Wars, and Ant-Man and the Wasp left to watch before I see End Game! It’s been really cool watching them “relatively” back to back, though I did take a couple days break recently ha-ha!

        Summer used to be my fantasy reading month – especially since that was when HP books would release. But recently, I’ve steered towards realistic fiction/contemporary/coming of age novels. All those happy vibes.

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  7. I think most readers can be mood readers at one time or another, and go through periods of time where they are mood reading more than others. I wouldn’t consider myself a big mood reader… I compile a TBR every month of about 5 books and do my best to stick to it. I do not plan out which audiobooks I’ll be reading each month, so I allow myself to select my audiobooks based off my mood.

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  8. I’m definitely a mood reader. I respect the heck out of those who can set up a monthly/weekly/etc. TBR and stick to it, but they tend to make me feel as if reading was a chore, and I somehow *never* seem to be in the mood for the books I selected for that time period haha. All of what you’ve listed influences my reading A LOT, but the one I related to the most is genre debates. At certain times I only want to read books from one genre, and nothing else interests me. I also struggle with starting multiple novels – I’m currently reading three novels + Marie Kondo’s book, and all of them are so enjoyable, IDK which one to continue first haha. Great post!

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    1. I am exactly the same when it comes to tbr lists. I can never stick to them. It’s literally my inner rebel telling me to read something else haha. I feel like I should try DNFing more since I can’t find it in me to read multiple books at one time, but am so stubborn I feel like I need to finish what I’ve started even if I’m not in the mood to do so.

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  9. I am very much a mood reader, but instead of that making me more indecisive, it makes me more selective. But I’m still influenced by the same factors, like weather, life happenings, and of course Netflix! I find that instead of not knowing which genre to choose, I get interesting in a very particular genre or sometimes I even just want to read one specific book! The struggle occurs when that book hasn’t been released yet, or I haven’t heard of any book that matches my mood!

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    1. I think it’s incredible that you can use your mood reading to make you ore selective. I feel like it’s half the battle won when you know what you want to read. I typically find I’ll get the realisation that I want to read a specific book right when I start a new book.

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  10. I’m definitely a mood reader but my heart just doesn’t want to accept that. I always try to force myself to read specific books in the month and it never works. My heart is a slow learner apparently lol. My most definite influences are probably Overwhelming TBR and Indecision which is a terrible combination omg. I’m awesome at adding new books to my TBR and The Absolute Worst at picking which books to read next and then sticking to them or changing my mind and start over. It’s a struggle but understand your bad habits is the first step to change them haha. Thank you for sharing!

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    1. I’ve found that forcing myself to read a book just puts me off it even more. Indecision is definitely a massive factor. It doesn’t help that my list of owned unread books continuously reaches new heights.

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