I am a mood reader so I like to have my options and often keep my holds and loan shelves full on Libby and hoopla. My library allows 30 loans and 15 holds on Libby, and 15 on hoopla per month. If I don’t get to something in time and I’m able to renew it, I’ll just keep doing it until I am in the mood for it. Is this really bad to do, as in each time I renew it does it remove one possible download from that audiobook? I had an ebook that I couldn’t renew because it said all copies had expired. I couldn’t help thinking was that because of me renewing it so many times, not even reading it, and started feeling guilty.

If this is the case, what is your strategy for audiobooks/ebooks if you are a mood reader? How do you curate your loans to try to only keep an audiobook one time? Do you suck it up and read it anyway before it’s due, do you return it (but then you’re at the risk of repeating the cycle if you put it on hold again, it has a lot of people waiting, then you’re not in the mood the next time it becomes available either), do you “try a chapter” of everything to see if you’d even LIKE that book before it’s due? Do you listen to those “skip the wait” 7-day loans so you’re still getting new releases but have access quickly so you know that’s the mood you’re in? I love these but there isn’t a huge variety. Similarly do you only choose books that are available at that moment/no wait time (aka usually backlist titles) so you’ll know that’s exactly what you’re in the mood for and will listen to it immediately? This is the one that makes the most sense to me, but then I feel like I’ll never get to read new releases since those always have wait times. Would it be worth it to wait until the hype dies down after a few months to then read it without a wait time?

I read about 15 books a month, probably 10 of those being audiobooks. So I need a system that can accommodate that size, give me options, but I also need SOME type of tbr (usually a seasonal tbr I save to my goodreads with what I think I’ll be interested in soon) or I’ll just get slumpy and read nothing without having some goals. My current method is creating the seasonal tbr, seeing which ones I want to read physically vs audiobook, then saving all of those audiobooks to my Libby list. If it’s available now I pick and choose throughout the month, if it requires a hold I check the wait times and put them on hold when I think I’ll be ready for it. But then I’ll still randomly borrow things in between so I still get stuck with things I didn’t get to in time. My obvious issue is that I have 45 options basically a month and read 10 of them so there’s always a rollover. So how do you narrow it down if you’re a mood reader?

I’d love to know if anyone has figured out a system that works for them!