Leaving behind a world when you put down a book can be hard. You have been invested in these people’s lives, and now the story is over – if you want it to be or not. Sometimes there are other ways to continue (the next book in the series), and sometimes there are not. Either way, you need to re-enter your own reality, and then decide how to move on.
If you are anything like me, you become fully vested and are impacted by the people we visit in our books. When I finish a book I need some time to process what I have just experienced and re-enter my own world. Some books need more processing than others. A Walk Across the Sun by Corban Addison, an amazingly written and compelling story about a very difficult topic, left me stunned for days after. Even now, months later, I am impacted by the story. Other books do not leave as deep an imprint upon me, and are easier to move on from.
So, how then do we choose our next book? As always, that depends. I have been challenged to find the “perfect” answer and have tried different ways, all with hit or miss results. Here are some of the ways I have tried.
I maintain lists of books that have been recommended to me either directly or from another source, such as Princeton Book Review, Wall Street Journal, and even Buzzfeed Books. I keep these with information on the book in the list, and see what hits me as interesting at that time. It was from these sources that I found A Walk Across the Sun.
If you are part of a book group, you can easily use that as the next book to read. If you finish that one in plenty of time, it can be great to read others by that author or on that topic to have a deeper discussion around the original book. As a book group facilitator myself, I do this. My group read Look for Me by Edeet Ravel. I didn’t realize when the book was selected that it was a second one in a trilogy. I was so captivated by the writing and the mood this book I immediately went to read Ten Thousand Lovers, the first book.
I receive books from friends and family that they think I need to read. I will pick these up when I have some open time and nothing that I am burning to read. My mother-in-law keeps trying to give me her old books, but I have read most of them already. My mother, who is currently a member of 3 book groups, also gives me books and book titles (she is another library user – that is where I got it from.)
I try different websites, and the Goodreads.com recommendations of IF YOU LIKED THIS BOOK YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE….. all with varying levels of success.
In short, like how you meet new people, you need to just put yourself out there and start the relationship in as many ways as possible, because you never know when you will meet “the one”.
The Source 4 Books 