Read 'n Roll

Booking through Thursday this week asks:

Do you get on a roll when you read, so that one book leads to the next, which leads to the next, and so on and so on?

I don’t so much mean something like reading a series from beginning to end, but, say, a string of books that all take place in Paris. Or that have anthropologists as the main character. Or were written in the same year. Something like that… Something that strings them together in your head, and yet, otherwise could be different genres, different authors…

I might get on a roll about books I acquire inspired by the book I'm currently reading - put on my list something else by that author, or be attracted to something set in the same country or time period - but generally I do not enjoy reading something too related as my next book - particularly if it's a series. It took my about two years to read the Bartimaeus trilogy. I liked it, so I didn't want it to end that quickly. I find that if something has a particular tone, a particular style of language - say Virginia Woolf or E. M. Forster - I get that voice in my head. If the book is very strong I'm almost having internal monologues running through my head in that voice and then when I begin to read something else I'm often disappointed if it's not exactly the same. I've learned it generally won't be the same, so it might as well be different. With genre, I don't like to get on a roll, it's too boring. I don't want three mysteries in a row. One is fine, two can be ok, but that's the max. There too many things I have to do in life. I don't want my reading to make me feel obligated. I read to be interested and I read to be free. I like to mix things up while adding to the TBR pile. Then as I'm sitting in Victorian England in one book, I can gaze longingly at some fantasy novel on a distant planet, or a book about the Russian revolution and think - I wonder what happening in there! I think I'll go there next.