April 2026
    M T W T F S S
     12345
    6789101112
    13141516171819
    20212223242526
    27282930  

    So I've developed some pretty debilitating ADHD over the past few years, and one of the many consequences of it was a severe impact to my reading. I gradually found myself a) having an extremely hard time to conventionally pick a book I want to read and b) actually sticking with the book I'm reading without losing interest less than 1/3 of the way through and having FOMO over another book. After getting diagnosed and going on medication, I was able to mostly fix the second problem – but I was still having trouble actually deciding what to read.

    The old "pick what looks good/what you're in the mood for" just stopped working for me, and it didn't help that my home library just kept getting bigger and bigger, compounding the analysis-paralysis.

    So I basically just removed the choice from myself and left it up to random chance. I put all the books I've really been wanting to read into an alphabetized, numbered list, and used a random number generator to spit out a number anywhere from 1 to xxx. Whichever number came up would be the book I would read – and finish.

    I actually found this to work really well for me, since all the books in the list are ones that I would love to read and just haven't been able to because of choice paralysis. And the randomness of it took out the nagging voice in my head constantly thinking that I picked the "wrong" book.

    Anybody else have any unusual methods like this to choose what book to read? Probably doesn't apply to normal folks that can just pick up a book what looks cool to them lol.

    by keepfighting90

    5 Comments

    1. CrazyCatLady108 on

      i have a master list, it has over 600 titles.

      i have a ‘will read next’ list, that is about 10 titles. i add to it when it get short, and remove from it if i have passed a specific book too many times. in the past i have used a random number generator to put books on the short list.

      i’ve also found it helps to start reading the new book when i know i only have a couple of days left in the current book. gives me time to know if i want to DNF without the pressure of being without a currently reading book.

    2. thevampiresanguini on

      I sometimes do the idiot version of your method where I just pick a random number and then count down on my book shelf and pick the one land on. 

    3. vinniethestripeycat on

      Sometimes I have my 12 yo niece choose one from my physical tbr pile

    4. PyrexPizazz217 on

      I grab a selection of appealing TBRs, read the first lines of each, and go with the one that speaks to me most.

    Leave A Reply