The gap between books is where reading habits go to die. You finish something great, feel a kind of readerly afterglow, and then — nothing. Days pass. You scroll your TBR list but nothing quite calls to you. The momentum you’d built evaporates.
Choosing your next book shouldn’t be this hard. Here are the approaches that actually work.
Keep a Running “Want to Read” List
The single best thing you can do for your future reading self is maintain an ongoing list of books you’re curious about. Add to it whenever you encounter a recommendation — from a friend, a review, a podcast, the end of a book you loved. Don’t filter too hard at this stage; it’s easy to remove something later.
When you finish a book, you’re not starting from scratch — you already have a shortlist of things you wanted to read. The choice becomes: which of these feels right right now? That’s a much easier decision than: what should I read next?
In ReadBrew, your “Want to Read” shelf is always a tap away. You can add books throughout the day as you discover them and come back to a warm list every time you finish something.
Trust Your Mood Over Your Intentions
We often choose our next book based on what we think we should read — the literary novel we’ve been meaning to get to, the non-fiction on the subject we want to learn about, the classic sitting judgmentally on the shelf. Then we start reading and don’t get past the first chapter.
The better question is: what do you actually want to read right now? Are you energised and want something ambitious? Are you depleted and need something comforting or fast-paced? Coming off an emotional book and need something light?
Your mood at the moment of choosing is real information. Ignoring it leads to books abandoned at page 50. Honouring it leads to books devoured in a week.
Give Every Book 50 Pages — Then Decide
Some books take time to find their footing. Others reveal within three pages that they’re not for you. A useful heuristic: give every book 50 pages before making a final call. That’s enough to get past the opening setup and into the story or argument the book is actually making.
If you’re not engaged at page 50, it’s okay to put it down. This isn’t failure — it’s curation. Your time is finite and your reading list is long. Mark it as DNF (Did Not Finish), note why it didn’t work, and pick something else. You can always return to it later when your mood has shifted.
The worst outcome is grinding through a book you hate for 300 pages out of obligation — it kills reading momentum and makes you less likely to pick up the next one.
Where to Find Good Recommendations
When your Want to Read list runs dry, it’s time to go looking. The best recommendations come from people (or sources) whose taste overlaps with yours. Here are the most reliable places to look:
Friends who read
A recommendation from someone who knows your taste is worth ten algorithm suggestions. Ask specifically: “What’s the best book you’ve read this year?”
The author’s backlist
Just finished a book you loved? The author almost certainly has other books. This is one of the highest-probability bets in reading.
“Readers also enjoyed” comps
Every major book database surfaces similar books based on reading patterns. These can be inconsistent, but they surface titles you might never find otherwise.
Reading communities
Reddit’s r/books, Bookstagram, and BookTok are full of readers discovering and recommending books. Search for your favourite genre + “recommendations” and you’ll find more than you can read.
End-of-year best-of lists
Literary publications publish their best books of the year every December. These are curated by people who read constantly for a living — the hit rate is high.
The acknowledgements page
Authors often credit books that influenced them in the acknowledgements or notes. If you loved the book, this is a treasure map.
Breaking Out of a Reading Rut
Sometimes the problem isn’t any single book — it’s that you’ve fallen into a reading rut. Everything on your list feels like more of the same. Nothing sounds exciting. The very act of choosing feels like a chore.
A few approaches that reliably break a rut:
Read something completely different
If you’ve been reading serious literary fiction, pick up a thriller. If you’ve been grinding through non-fiction, try a short story collection. Genre switches reset your expectations and often reignite enthusiasm for reading in general.
Re-read a favourite
Re-reading feels indulgent, but it’s one of the fastest ways to remember why you love reading in the first place. You already know the book is good. There’s no risk. And you’ll almost always notice things you missed the first time.
Try a very short book
Novellas and short books (under 200 pages) are underrated for breaking ruts. They’re low commitment, and finishing something quickly rebuilds the sense of forward momentum. Once that feeling is back, picking up something longer feels easy again.
Ask someone else to choose for you
Decision fatigue is real. Sometimes the easiest solution is to hand the choice to someone else entirely. Text a well-read friend, post in a reading community, or ask a librarian. Ceding control removes the paralysis and often produces a genuinely surprising recommendation.
Keep the Gap Between Books Short
The longer the gap between finishing one book and starting another, the harder it becomes to pick back up. Momentum decays quickly. If you can, have your next book already chosen before you finish your current one — ideally, sitting somewhere visible, spine-up and waiting.
The best readers don’t choose books when they’re between reads. They choose books while they’re still in the middle of something else, adding to their list as they go. By the time they finish the current book, the next one is already decided. The gap closes to almost nothing, and the momentum never really stops.
The Bottom Line
Choosing your next book is mostly a systems problem. Keep a running Want to Read list. Trust your mood at the moment of choosing. Give books a fair chance but don’t finish ones you hate. And keep the gap between books as short as possible. Do those four things and the decision paralysis largely takes care of itself.
Keep your whole reading list in one place
ReadBrew lets you manage your Want to Read, Currently Reading, and Finished shelves — so your next book is always a tap away.
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