What is the Most Important factor in deciding on book to read next

[Jeffrey]

Herewith a simple question: What is the most important factor in deciding on the next book to read? I am constantly taking out of library multiple books which I never get to because other books come first. I think my rubric is as follows:

1. Favorite Author
2. Continuing Series that I liked
3. Is it at library (that is free)
4. Genre (I try not to read books in same genre repeatedly so this is a double edged sword. Is it in SF, fantasy or thriller, history, and am I interested in this genre at this time
5. Continuing Series that I read a book
6. New author
7. Recommendation, blurb
8. Length
9. Cover art
10. Did I buy it and have not read it yet

What is your process? What makes you read a certain book more than another book? Beside club reads, does any particular reviewers or recommendations lead you to read a specific book ahead of another.

[Kathi, There’s no such thing as too many books!]

I have a few odd rules about choosing what to read. If I'm doing a group read, that trumps anything else. If not, my system is to choose a series read alphabetically in reverse by author starting with Z. Between each book in the series, I read a stand-alone book, choosing alphabetically by author starting with A. I try to make the stand-alones be a different genre than the series. I own a lot of books (ebooks and physical books both) and so I generally am choosing from my own supply.

I add to my supply based on authors I already like, recommendations from friends, genre, and appeal (blurb).

[Femmy]

If I'm choosing from my own TBR stack, my choice depends on my mood. My reading interest currently covers fantasy, general fiction, nonfiction on popular science or language/translation or Islam.

When I'm deciding which book to buy, my priority goes something like this:

1. A new book by a favorite author
2. The latest installment in a series that I like
3. A new author based on recommendations/reviews/award
4. A new author for a book club read

[Lindsey]

Book club reads, especially those that I'm leading, trump everything (I have 2 IRL book clubs that I manage). Past that, I also try not to read the same genre back to back and for the last couple years have been attempting to reduce my owned & unread pile. The longer it's been on my shelf, the sooner I try to get to it.

OTOH, I have been known to binge read a trilogy/series as well as to throw the "rules" out the window for whatever I feel like reading. Probably what created my TBR pile in the first place!

[Ian]

Its usually what catches my eye. But usually its continuing a series that i have on the go.

[Betelgeuze]

1. What i'm in the mood for. I tend to have periods in which I read many books from one genre.
2. New book in a series.
3. New book favourite author.
4. Books from new authors in my favourite genres