I spend a few hours several times a week watching book related videos/vlogs on youtube. This morning, I watched a video by 'mothereffingbooks' about 'Book Jars' and thought it was a REALLY good idea.
The point is to take a jar and fill it with slips of paper with titles of books that you have on your shelf, on your to-read list, Mount TBR, or books that are part of some reading challenge you might have partaken in recently. Whatever your need, this is a great way to get you reading the books you should be reading instead of starting 20 books and not finishing them.
I often struggle with choosing a book from my shelves when I'm not reading library books. (I tend to force myself to read every single library book I check out and they tend to take up a lot of time.) Sometimes it's because I'm in a reading slump and sometimes it's because I simply have too many good books in my immediate 'to-read' pile and have a hard time choosing which one I want to read. I tend to read a few pages of each and go with whichever one interests me enough to keep reading. But sometimes it is a little more difficult than that. Recently, I read the first chapter of 7 different books and still couldn't choose which one to read and ended up making a special trip to the library just to get some random books that I would force myself to read. The problem with that is that I am not reading the books on my MUST READ list and end up reading lots of not so great YA ficiton instead of the classics and '1001 Books To Read Before I Die' books that I should be reading. I also own too many books to count and I'd estimate that at least 80% of those are unread so it's important for me to find a way to get myself reading those books.
So this 'book jar' idea is a great way to remedy those problems. Of course, I could just continue the bad habit of reading a few pages and then choosing another book to better fit my mood, but at least this will possibly help me stay on track and be held more accountable for the books I read. I'll be angry at myself if I gave myself this 'rule' and then proceeded to break it.
I used a pickle jar but feel free to use whatever you please if you want to make your own.
A fun way to tackle that TBR pile! Interesting! I'm almost done with a jar of coco powder, i think i'll use the jar for this :D Thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeletebtw thanks for entering my giveaway :) I replied to your comment and i'd really like for you to read it :)
Thank you :)
Thank you!
DeleteYes, I definitely love this 'book jar' idea! I'm hoping it helps me tackle at least some of the books I have on my shelves before the year is over. :)
Wow, I made the original book jar to cheer myself up after my laptop died and then suddenly loads of people were making them and oh my word, it has been AMAZING to see what everyone is doing with the idea! Have fun with your picks - I'm about to pick my fourth choice from mine and you can see how I'm doing on my blog, Alex in Leeds.
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome! I find the best ideas come when there is no internet to take up all my time. :)
DeleteI've always done the good old 'Choose a name/title/etc out of a hat' thing and have always used whatever I had on hand but had never used a jar and gave it a name and purpose like that. I think it's a great idea. I haven't really utilized it yet but I know I will eventually. I keep adding in book titles. :)
After I have picked a slip out should I throw it away or put it back into the jar
ReplyDeleteAs long as you read the book that is on the slip of paper, you can throw it away. That way, you don't end up picking out books that you've already read.
DeleteI still haven't read the first book I picked out of my jar and have had the slip of paper pinned to my memo board for a couple of months now. I've been reading library books again despite that I said I wouldn't. Because I haven't read that book, and because I don't think I will anytime soon, I am going to put it back into the jar and choose another and hope the next one will grab my interest more to actually read it. :)