15-Day Book Blogger Challenge - Days 10 & 11

It was my mom's birthday yesterday (Hi, Mom!), so I didn't get any reading or blogging accomplished.  Which means today's Book Blogger Challenge post is for both Day 10 & Day 11.  For more info about the challenge, or to participate, visit Good Books and Good Wine.

Day 10 -  What to Read Next

Once I've finished a book, and I need to choose something to read next, there's a couple of things that help me make my decision.

• The genre of the book I just read.  If I just read two dystopian novels in a row, I'm most likely not going to want to read another one.  I'm going to find a book in a genre that's not even similar, to keep things from getting too monotonous.
• The release date, if it's an ARC.  I'm trying to read and review ARCs around their release date, although that hasn't worked out too well so far.  But since I've only just gotten ARCs for the first time at BEA, I figure I just need to work on scheduling things better.
• How much I've been dying to read a book.  I just bought Raven Flight from Amazon, and I got Through the Ever Night at BEA, and I CANNOT WAIT to read them, so as soon as I finish my (overdue) library books, they are next up on the list.
• Deadlined books.  Obviously, books from the library or borrowed from friends/family get higher priority because I don't get to keep them.  I'm still not all that good at prioritizing though, which explains the fact that I'm always paying fees when I go to the library.
• Recommendations/Reviews/Word-of-Mouth.  If I'm stuck and can't decide what to read next, either because I'm torn between books or I just don't have the motivation, I'll visit people's blogs or talk to a friend and see what they have to say.  Sometimes one person's love of a book will make me want to read it next.

Day 11 -  My Top Five Blog Posts

My five best blog posts?  How do I decide what makes a post "the best"?  Are we talking most viewed or most commented on?  Or just the ones I enjoyed writing the most?  Too many possibilities!  Since there's no criteria for how to choose "the best" posts, I've decided to pick the top five posts I enjoyed writing the most.

• WWJAT? A Review of Lost in Austen.
• This was the first review I ever wrote, and I had so much fun doing it that I just knew that blogging was right for me.
• Top Ten Fictional Crushes.
• Who doesn't like talking about their book boyfriends?  Seriously?
• Top Ten Bookish Memories.
• I really loved this post, because I got to look back and see how my reading obsession got started, how it's shaped my life, and where it's been leading me.
• Random Thoughts - Books & Food.
• I love baking and cooking and tea, almost as much as I love reading.  So writing a post about how well the two of them mesh just seemed natural.  It was also a lot of fun to write.
• Blogger Confession - Binging.
• I confess that the main reason I love this post is simply because it's the first time I've ever used GIFs.  It was just so much fun looking through pages of GIFs to find the right ones, and then incorporating them into the post.

So there you have it.  How I choose what to read and which of my posts are my favorites.  How about you?  How do you pick what to read next?