Top Ten Signs You’re a Mood Reader

Posted April 8, 2024 by Jana in About Me, Top Ten Tuesday / 21 Comments

Welcome to another TTT! This week’s topic is a freebie! Sorry, I know more than anyone that it’s super hard to come up with topics sometimes, but I love seeing your ideas! I might even steal a few for future topics, with credit to you of course! This meme is almost 15 years old, and it’s a struggle keeping weekly topics fresh, new, and relevant after all this time! But it’s also fun to stretch my creativity, so I keep going! No complaints here!

For my topic this week I decided to do “Top Ten Signs You’re a Mood Reader”. I talk about being a mood reader every time I write up a seasonal to-read list, so I thought it would be fun to talk more about my reading habits! This list is meant to be funny and really only applies to me. I’m not making any diagnoses here. LOL. So here we go!

1. You never know what to read. 
I seriously just. Never know.

2. Re-reading books is a major gamble. 
There’s nothing worse than re-reading a favorite book, being in the wrong mood for it, and deciding you don’t love it anymore!

3. Picking out the next book you want to read is one of the harder decisions you make in life. 
I’ve been known to spend an hour or more scanning my shelves and flipping through my kindle library, trying to decide what I’m in the mood to read. Sometimes it ends up being nothing and I turn the TV on instead. lol. It’s exhausting!

4. Sometimes it takes a day to read a book and sometimes it takes weeks. 
If I’m in the mood I can devour an 800-page book in two days. If I’m not in the mood, it can take me two weeks to read a 300-page book. And there’s not usually anything wrong with the book, I just can’t bring myself to read it!

5. You’ve got a dedicated shelf of “try again later” books. 
Sometimes I’ll pick a book up that I am super excited about and is definitely a Jana book, only to find I’m not in the mood for it. It’s not deserving of the dreaded DNF label, so I’ll shelve it as “try again later” and go back to it someday. Sometimes I end up really loving these books and sometimes I’ll still end up DNFing if I’ve tried and failed multiple times.

6. You’re usually reading more than one book at a time. 
This helps me a lot because it keeps me interested when I can switch around.

7. A reading/review schedule? We don’t know her. 
It is SOOOO hard to commit to reading or reviewing a book by a certain date. Blog tours give me anxiety, even though I will always jump at the chance to be on one for a book I’m excited about. I just need enough advance notice so I can make sure I’m in the mood at some point! Seasonal TBRs are a nice idea, but I rarely stick to them.

8. Reading most likely isn’t your only hobby. 
I’ve got many other hobbies I can switch between, which is good. In addition to being a mood reader, I’m also a mood crocheter, mood cross stitcher, mood video gamer, mood baker, mood cleaner/organizer, and mood TV/movie watcher. Hopefully I’m in the mood for at least one of these hobbies at any given time or then it’s doomscrolling and we all know that’s never a good idea. LOL.

9. You go through reading phases.
If I’m in the mood for a certain genre, trope, topic, etc. then I’ll usually stay there for a while. I remember a year when over half of my reads were historical romances. I’ve hardly read any of them this year!

10. You like a lot of different genres. 
This kind of goes hand in hand with going through reading phases. I read from a lot of different genres: mystery, thriller, sci-fi, fantasy, historical fiction, contemporary/fantasy/historical romance, romantic suspense, and women’s fiction. Sometimes I think I’m in the mood for a contemporary romance, only to get a few pages in and realize it’s a mystery I want. I switch things up all the time!

Does this sound at all like you? Can you relate?
Are you a mood reader? If not, what’s that like? lol.

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21 responses to “Top Ten Signs You’re a Mood Reader

  1. How fun is this list. :) I’d like to read faster, but tend to take days to read a book so I guess the longer read time is a “mood” normal for me. But then again I also am not a mood reader to try an 800 page novel… so maybe admitting that it takes me days to read a 300-some page novel might not be a great confession. ;)

  2. I’m the direct opposite of a mood reader. I like to have a reading schedule and to know which books I should read next for blog tours, book clubs or publication dates. I used to work in project management so maybe it’s a reflection of that.

  3. Ooh nice topic and reasons! I don’t think I can call myself a mood reader. Maybe some of the time. I just wrote a post about when I get burnt out on genres. Mainly if I read too many in a row, I need a break. But I’m usually good after 2 or 3 books from another genre then I’m ready to go back to the first genre! Lol. Otherwise I say I’m pretty much happy reading anytime whenever I have time! Sure trying to schedule review books can be a little crazy but I try not to request/accept any unless I am DYING to read it! I’ve been showing such restraint on Edelweiss lately I surprise myself! I occasionally break the streak when there is a book that I may just be curious about and can get. This way I don’t have to feel like I waste money buying something I may just feel meh about in the end or I may love it and be happy to have read it early! Who knows!

    Here’s my Tuesday Post

    Have a GREAT day!

    Old Follower :)

  4. Oh man, you nailed it with this list. There are some great things about being a mood reader, but there’s always the question of “did I not like the book because it’s a bad fit for me, or because I was just in the wrong mood?”

  5. I definitely relate to so many of the things you said. I feel seen! I feel horrible if I take two weeks to read a 300-page book but it happens. And I have phases of binging on a particular genre/trope/type of book for sure!

  6. I can 100% relate! This is me exactly. Sometimes I feel like making a list of books to read is pointless because I’ll almost always be wanting to read something else.

  7. #1 is me. It’s why I like reviewing books with a deadline. It gives me no choice and I’m able to read with purpose. No deadline and my Kindle feels vast and unwieldy. I don’t know which book to pick up next.