So, I have a confession.
I love books.
Phew. It feels good to get that off my chest. Growing up, my parents rarely denied me a book. The Book Fair at school was the best! {Especially when my mom worked at the school…I got discounts AND got to go every day.} Over the years, my love of books has resulted in me having a lot of books I haven’t read yet. I generally buy multiple at a time, get excited about a couple of them, and then go buy more books. There are always some that get passed over. THEN, when I finish a book and am ready to move on to my next one, it takes me forever to decide which one I want to read. This perpetual cycle leads me to the creation of my book jar.
I got inspired this week to make a Book Jar. What is a book jar, you ask? Whenever you get a new book, write the title and author on a slip of paper, and put it in the jar. Then, when you’re ready for a new book, shake up the jar, and pick one out! It’s as easy as that. Having a book jar around cuts down on the time you spend looking for a book so you can read more. Does it get any better?
DIY Book Jar
You need:
- Jar (or vessel of choice)
- Paper
- Pen
- General proximity to your bookshelves (To know what you have or haven’t read.)
Instructions:
- Take an inventory of all of the books you own but haven’t yet read.
- Cut your paper into about 1in strips. I didn’t measure, so they’re all pretty variable. (Note: This was my first book jar. I ended up needing a bigger one. Whoops!)
- Write the titles and, if you choose, authors on the slips of paper.
- Fold paper up, and place in jar.
There are a few different ways you can do it. In a Facebook group I’m in, one of the other members asked if people with a book jar had separated books by genre. If you opt for colored paper, you can color code genres (if you want to). I did not do that. For me, it took about an hour, though I was pretty distracted with Netflix on in the background. Plus, I apparently have way more books that I haven’t read than I thought.
I can’t even tell you how many books I own that I haven’t read. Some are gifts. Some I’ve purchased because I’ve heard great things. I’m “opening myself” to rereading books, so it may or may not be taking me a bit longer to get through my unreads.
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