Mood Reading Q&A

As some of you may remember, I am slowly working my way through the Books Unbound backlist. This is a podcast where two young Canadian women talk about books and their bookish lives. They are young and their taste in books is wildly different from mine, but they are so enthusiastic about what they love that I can't resist listening. Their 96th episode "The Mood Reader Tag!" is just them answering questions about mood reading and I thought it was so fun that I'm going to ask you the same questions.  

This photo is 100% unrelated to the post topic, but LOOK HOW ADORABLE Hannah is walking with her stick. 

1) How do you define mood reading and are you a mood reader?

I think I'm more of a whimsy reader than a mood reader. It has nothing to with my mood, really, but more of what I think I should be reading at that time. On a nice sunny day, I do not think I should be reading a gothic thriller. When I was at my mother-in-law's deathbed, it didn't seem appropriate to be reading a trashy romance novel. So, basically, it's not about mood, necessarily, but about outside circumstances.  Does that even make sense to anyone else?

2) Do you have a TBR? Do you stick to it?

I have lists that are guidelines. So, I loosely am reading books for the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge and the Top Fantasy Books by Women list from r/fantasy. But then someone will rave about a book on a blog, podcast, or someplace else and suddenly I'm reading that instead. And I certainly don't read books in order on my TBR. That would completely go against my whimsy reading.

3) Do you cry reading books? If so, what books have made you cry?

I don't cry often, but A Closed and Common Orbit made me cry so hard I had a hard time breathing. Also, basically every Katherine Stone book I've ever read has made me cry and I admit that there's a type of sentimentality to those books that really gets to me. And I remember crying at a lot of books as a child - Where the Red Fern Grows, A Little Princess, Charlotte's Web, and The Secret Garden are examples.

4) Do you use reading to escape, learn, or critically reflect?

I read to escape. I read a lot of romance and fantasy for this very reason. Reading is entertainment for me and I don't want my reading to stress me out.

5) What is a book that made you laugh out loud?

The Comeback by Lily Chu. The scene where she's singing "Paradise City" nearly made me pee my pants. 

6) What is a book that you don't really know how to feel about?

A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore. I think about this book So Much, but I don't really understand it, I don't think. It's a war book and then it's a book about siblings fucking and then my mind explodes. Also, can I get a what what for Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, which is a book I originally read for my book club and thought was meh, but haunts my dreams now. Do I like this book? I don't know. 

7) Are you more likely to read on a sunny day or a cloudy day?

I read every day regardless of the weather. I read first thing in the morning and right before bed and most days I read other times, too. Ideal conditions for reading would be a day off where it's raining. That's a guilt-free reading day, as far as I'm concerned!

8) Do you usually "set the mood" when you read? Candles, lights, etc.?

I do not. I do the vast majority of my reading in bed and that is as cozy as it gets, but I don't do candles or mood lights or a special chair or anything.

9) Can you leap from book to book or do you need buffer time between books?

I leap. I finish a book, walk into the mudroom and get another one off my library pile, and start reading a new book.