Mood Reading

Today’s post is courtesy of a great prompt hosted at Booking Through Thursday. Why not hop over there to join in? I’d be interested in your responses if you do so please leave me a link here too if you take part. Thank you.

Does your current mood affect your reading? Affect your choices? I know there are plenty of books I enjoy, but only if I’m in a particular kind of mood–or books that can lift me out of a bad mood without fail. Surely I’m not alone?

No, you’re not alone. I find that my reading tastes vary enormously depending on the time of year and what’s going on around me. I enjoy a whole range of styles and topics in my reading choices – historical fiction, crime thrillers, romance, epic dramas etc – but what is affected by my mood is not so much which book I’ll choose next but how much I can get into it and read in one sitting.

There are times when I can read and read and read and make my eyes go square, and a particular book is like a living thing in my life which accompanies me wherever I go. I take it everywhere with me – from room to room in the house, and even outside the house even when there’s no chance of me actually reading it. It really does become like a living, breathing companion and when I do settle to read it’s like an exercise in literary gluttony.

However, there are times when I’m not so connected and can leave a book for days on end without picking it up. There’s a certain amount of connection that is involved with the book itself, obviously, but mostly it does depend on what mood I’m in. I’m the same with other things I do – crochet for example – so I know that it’s me, not the books.

Being given a Kindle has been a revelation in my reading habits and there hasn’t been a day when I haven’t read at least one chapter of something on it.

A thought to finish with – reading doesn’t usually lift a bad mood with me. Rather, it changes the focus of what my mood was about in the first place.

What about you?

 

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