Tuesday, June 24, 2014

On Making a TBR Jar

Hey, lovelies! Today I wanted to talk about our ever-growing to-be-read lists and how some books, while once very much anticipated, never make it to our hands to be read. I have a ton of unread books on my shelf and even more on my Kindle. You can calle me a "mood reader", because I almost always pick a book based on my mood. Any of you like that? Or do you just read strictly by a schedule you've created for yourselves? What happens when you're in the mood to read something, but cannot choose your next read? That's where a tbr jar comes in to save the day.


I have noticed that some people create a Goodreads shelf and use random selection to choose a book. I've used that, but.. it's not that fun. Though very practical. But.. What do you do when you don't know what to read next? The next part of this post.. It'll be kind of a tutorial. Sort of. And and annnnd let's discuss in the comments! I want to hear your opinion on what do you do when you can't choose your next book to read.

I like creating all sorts of lists, but I'm so bad at following them. One thing I am good at following though, is picking a book from my tbr jar every now and then. When I feel indecisive about a book and don't know which one to choose, I use the help of my tbr jar. I usually know which genre I'd like to read next so I pick 1 or 2 paperslips in a certain color and voilà! We have ourselves a book to be read ;) I know some of you have way bigger tbr lists than I do, but once it's done (and the process itself is quite exciting itself), you won't regret having spent a few hours on it. Also, you can decorate it however you like to suit your personality, mood or shelf. I posted a picture of mine a long time ago on Instagram and I thought I'd share the process of making one :)

So first off, you need some paper, scissors and a pen. That's it! List all the books you have on your tbr or you can just write down all the books that you have owned for the longest time, but haven't picked up yet. Whatever you want. Just write them all down, cut them out and that's as hard as it gets, really. Here's how I did mine:


I bought some colored paper (should have avoided buying them right before Valentine's Day, because they were out of pink, but whatever *hair flip*) and figured that I'd like mine to be so that a particular color would be for a particular genre. So it happened that orange is contemporary, grey is dystopian/sci-fi, blue is paranormal and purple is fantasy. You don't even have to do it like this, you can just do them all on a white paper and not even fold them. My first attempt a year before looked something like this:


Now the next thing you need is a jar. I've seen so many pretty jars in different stores, but I decided to be environmental-friendly and basically recycle. Used an old soup jar and it still has the label on it, but it's just because I don't know how to decorate it yet. Waiting for good ideas and inspiration to hit me, but not in a big hurry tbh with you. It looks colorful and quite pretty on my shelf so all's good for now :)


And that's it! It's so easy to do and saves you from feeling frustrated when you're feeling indecisive. I hope you guys enjoyed this post and I have a few questions for you to get the discussion going, because I really have no cons to say about tbr jars and the system that seems to be working for me. Sorry it wasn't much of a discussion, but I hope it helped or inspired some of you. I'd love to hear your thoughts. 

Do you have a tbr jar? If so, is there any way you organize the content? If not, would you like to make one? Also, how do you choose your next read? Do you just ask your friends for some advice and help in picking a book out when you're feeling indecisive? 

18 comments:

  1. I WANT TO DO THIS OMG YES.

    I love artsy crafty things and this would be so cool. I could use an old candle jar (yaay for recycling ;) I'm so considerate of the planet haha). Then i could decorate it with glitter and stuff and ohhh. Yes. This weekend I am so doing this!

    It'll actually make things easier because I always flitter back and forth between what I want to read next. I need to have the decision taken out of my indecisive hands.

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  2. I actually had no idea you color coded them before and I think I may just try it out because color coding will definitely help me when I feel like being a moody reader. This should help me waste less time on GR looking for a new book to read :P

    That is a new book that isn't an arc because I need to have a schedule when it comes to arcs or otherwise I will go crazy and lose my mind.

    Thank you for sharing this, Siiri! :)

    Rashika @ The Social Potato

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  3. This sounds like a lot of fun, I've heard about this one before but without the color coding and because I'm quite a moody reader I didn't think that would be much help for me, but this way it's a really good idea so I may try it in the future. :)

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  4. This is so adorable! I may have to actually try it. I have a stack of books currently sitting on my nightstand and I don't know which I want to read first, so the jar sounds like a fabulous idea. I'll let you know if I go through with it. :D

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  5. Cute! I like this idea and OMG you have such pretty handwriting!! I think I might try this :D

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  6. I like that you color code them, so if you want to read a contemporary you can just pick one! :)
    I would love to have something like that, but only if someone made it for me. Haha! I'm a little too lazy for that! :P
    I'm sure this will be helpful to a ton of readers, Siiri!

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  7. That is a excellent idea! I would probably pick one up and say "Nope." over and over until I get frustrated.
    Thanks for sharing!

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  8. OMG, I love the color idea! I'll probably do the same thing as Andrea.
    I've been wanting to make this for ever! I have my jar and I put glitter on it and a pretty pink bow and I even bought one of those paper puncher things so I wouldn't have to cut the papers (I hate cutting!) but I never finished. My main thing is that I have so many books on my TBR and writing them sounds like a nightmare (I also hate writing...I'm lazy) But, I have a priority TBR that wouldn't be so bad.
    I might have to take a trip to Michaels this weekend. Thanks for sharing!

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  9. Thank you for sharing this Siiri! <3 Such a great idea, and I too love the idea of color-coding everything! Definitely going to give this a try!

    ~ Zoe @ The Infinite To-Read Shelf

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  10. I'm about to do this one, too! I love the concept of not having any bias influence you and you just leave it to luck. To give me even more incentive, I plan to also donate a certain fixed amount of money every time I finish a book, an idea I got HERE. Hopefully when I get through it all, I'm a few thousand bucks richer ^_^

    Faye at The Social Potato

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  11. Love this idea Siiri! Such a fun way to choose the next book to read, adds a little bit of mystery and anticipation to it. I'm way too lazy for the TBR jar though, I'd do it once and then likely revert to reading in order of release date like I usually do. Boring, party of one:) Looking forward to seeing what names you pull out of the jar next!

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  12. Oh MY GOD i love this idea! Why hadn't I thought of this before? SUPER CREATIVE and cool and i totally want to make mine colour coded, too!

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  13. I've seen a few people now create TBR jars and they are so pretty and such a great idea! Thanks for sharing yours again :)

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  14. I really like the idea of this tbr jar Siiri, I've become such a mood reader lately too, and sometimes I'm always struggling to decide what to read next, hence the reason for having monthly polls on the blog. But my tbr pile is really out of control too, so I think I may need to copy you on this idea too! Thanks for sharing this post with us :)

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  15. A lot of people have been doing this, but Francine had this awesome idea to reward yourself after finishing a book!.

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  16. I do have a TBR jar, but I don't actually use it. Haha. I'm an idiot, I know. I wish I would use it, but sometimes I'm just not in the mood to pick a book out and then read it. Maybe next time I'm struggling to find something to read?

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  17. I made a TBR jar earlier this month and I LOVE it. I only put the unread books that I currently own, though, to make it easier. Mine was such a hit my sister immediately requested I make her one too. She used a color coding system--one color for unread owned books, one for unread (currently checked out) library books, and one for library books she'd like to check out in the future.

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  18. This is a great idea! YES for colour coding!! I really need to do this, will have to get supplies (coloured paper) next time I go out shopping!

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