I am dealing with an odd reading slump this year. I have books scheduled for publishers and authors but when I don’t have a books scheduled, I cannot figure out what to read. Suddenly, NOTHING sounds good. I looked at my kindle and do you know how many books I have? Over 2000. Let’s assume I have read 1/2 of those, that leaves 1000 unread books! Then I decided to look at how many paperbacks I had and it was almost 500. Again, lets assume I have read 1/2 of them (which in this case is probably a low estimate) that leaves 250 unread books. yet, I can’t find anything to read?!?
I have heard of TBR jars before so this wasn’t a new concept. I did modify it a little to allow for my tendency to be a mood reader. Here are the steps I took to create my TBR jar in case you want to attempt it yourself.
- Go to wherever you get your digital books from and get a list of all the books you own. If you have a kindle, you can check “Your content and devices” to see all the books you own.
- I printed this list out, but you could export it into excel I’m sure. I then crossed off all the books I had read.
- I printed a list of all the paperbacks I owned, and again, crossed off the ones I’ve read. I use Library Thing to keep track of my paperbacks because you can scan them and its so easy!
- I got some colored paper and cut it into strips. I also grabbed several mason jars my mom gave me (thanks mom! I found a use for the mason jars).
- I wrote each book on a strip of paper. This took FOREVER.
- I sorted them into piles by sub-genre (contemporary, PNR, sports, dark, historical)
- I created 1 jar for each genre, folded the books, and put them in the jar!
That’s pretty much it! It sounds simple, but honestly, just because of the sheer number of books I have, it was kind of time consuming. I wanted to focus only on books I own but haven’t read. You could also do this with your TBR from goodreads. That list would be exportable as well and easy to work with.
The side benefit was recognizing all the books I own but never plan to read. There were books I saw on my list that seriously made me wonder what I was thinking when I clicked it. If there was a way to donate digital books, I totally would.
I’m not crafty at all, so trying to figure out how to decorate the jars was a different struggle. I got these chalkboard stickers to place on the jars and used a liquid chalk pen to write on it. I had the pens from when we used to have actual chalkboards in our classrooms (because I’m that old!). I might eventually add a ribbon or something. Maybe. Again, crafty isn’t really my thing. Also, you might notice in the pictures I have different sized jars. This worked out GREAT since there are some book genres I had a LOT more of than others.
Want to get the supplies I used? Here you go:
Tell me what you think! I would love to hear back from you if you decide to do a TBR jar or have already done one. Do you have some cute (and easy) crafty ideas for how I could decorate? Share your thoughts in the comments!
I had to create a TBR for my ebooks last month because I found myself downloading them and forgetting I had them. My TBR is nowhere near 2,000 or even 1,000 though lol. A TBR jar is kind of fun though and does help you tackle unread books.
The only thing I would say is don’t be afraid to DNF books or not even start a book. My reading tastes have changed over time so a book I got a few years ago might no longer appeal to me now.
This is amazing! It’s an awesome idea to anyone who is going through a reading slump or to anyone who can’t decide what to read next. Love the chalkboard stickers. 🙂
The TBR Jar is a great idea. I hope you enjoy and happy reading.
That’s a great idea, Samantha! I think that’s the only way a TBR jar would work for me, as I’m a mood reader, too. However, I have almost 4’000 books on my kindle – so even just thinking of writing book titles on little pieces of paper makes me feel all itchy 😀
I hope this will help you in the future!
Sounds like a fun project, even if it was pretty time-consuming. Hopefully this solves your issue of feeling like you don’t know what to read.
I love that you’ve created actual TBR Jars! That’s amazing. I’m sure it cuts down on the anxiety of finding something new to read. I don’t have anything near what you do to choose from, but I’ll often ignore what I have and get something from the library, haha. I might have to try your method!
Lindsi @ Do You Dog-ear? ?