I’m down to 2 suggestions in my little Skribit box to the right—just waiting for both to come in at the library. I have a handful of 2009 releases checked out, but I’m getting dangerously low.

I’ve really enjoyed this setup whereby you tell me what to do, and no actual thinking is required of me in picking my next books. More, please!

To add your recommendation, enter a title under “What should I read next?” C’mon, how often does someone listen when you tell them what to do?

Photo by Misserion.

You can now use the Skribit widget in the sidebar to make a suggestion for what I should read next. Or you can just vote on what others have already suggested.

Every other book I read will be an audience pick, as long as the library hold timing cooperates.

You could suggest:

• One of your favorite YA books
• A book that just sounds cool
• A book you’re not sure about (I don’t mind doing the recon work!)

No matter what you suggest, I’ll go with the top vote-getter for every other book I start!

Photo by erin MC hammer.

I love writing book reviews. They help me:

• Look smart. I mean, look at how much I read! I must be smart.
• Learn from others. Articulating what I do and don’t like in a book will help me revise my own novel, if I ever get off my ass to do such a thing.
• Practice writing. I haven’t touched my novel since the last day of NaNoWriMo 2008, so I have to do something to keep my fingers limber.

But I’ve started to wonder: Do others get as much out of my reviews as I do? And what, exactly, are they reading for? So tell me…

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Photo by smittenkittenoriginals.

I have 137 YA books on my to-read list, which is actually my to-read spreadsheet. (Am I the only YAnnabe with an addiction to Excel?)

Most of these entries came from Book Crush, subtitle For Kids and Teens: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment and Interest, by librarian extraordinaire Nancy Pearl.

My other major sources of YA book recommendations are:

• Awards—Winners and honorees of ALA awards, the National Book Awards, and so on
• Bookstore picks—Indie Next picks from independent booksellers
• Blog reviews—Reviews on my favorite YA blogs, like The YA YA YAs and Abby (the) Librarian (not to be confused with Abby (my) daughter)

Even with all this vetting, sometimes I indulge a whim or a pretty cover and start a book that’s not so great.

Which just annoys me.

We have so little time to read, when it comes down to it. Even if I read 100 books a year for the next 40 years, that’s only 4,000 books left in my reading life. That’s nothing at all, not really.

I’m trying to force myself to stop reading if a book’s so bad I’m actually rolling my eyes at it. But sometimes, I keep going just because I want to see how the plot plays out. Sometimes it’s the only book I have with me, and reading something is better than reading nothing.

Still, this is a struggle for me. I’d like to avoid starting a crappy book in the first place, but I also don’t want to just stick to award winners and books popular in the blogosphere. It would be fun to one day discover the next Graceling, y’know?

How do you make sure your next read is worth your time?

Tell me your secret! Does it involve checking the Amazon rating, going with Goodreads recommendations, devising a complicated five-pronged algorithm?