I have been using my TBR jar for a long time now, although I only started keeping track of them just before the end of 2014. I have had mixed results with the ‘official’ rules, and therefore created my own more relaxed rules and I’ve been able to actually use my TBR jar this way… Last December I finally updated my TBR jar to its current version; long overdue as I hadn’t added any new books to the old one since 2016. Whoops? Below you can see what 700+ books look like in tiny pieces of paper; they almost didn’t fit either haha.
I also realized I never made a The Numbers post after the first 25 TBR Jar Picks and 10 More TBR Jar Picks… Which means I’m almost 30 titles behind; another whoops? I decided to dedicate this post to TBR jar pick 36 to 55, read between September 2017 and March 2020. Let’s hope I will be able to put together the next The Numbers post a little more quickly. 😉
First of all, let me introduce you to the 20 books that have made it to this list:
36. Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes (September 21st 2017) (4 stars)
37. Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly (February 11th 2018) (4 stars)
38. Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke (March 10th 2018) (2,5 stars)
39. Summer Of Sloane by Erin L. Schneider (April 22nd 2018) (2,5 stars)
40. When The Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore (June 26th 2018) (3 stars)
41. Thin Wire by Christine Lewry (July 17th 2018) (3 stars)
42. An Officer And A Spy by Robert Harris (November 12th 2018) (DNF; 0 stars)
43. The Insect Farm by Stuart Prebble (January 13th 2019) (3 stars)
44. The Shattering by Karen Healey (January 29th 2019) (3 stars)
45. Be Frank With Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson (February 25th 2019) (2,5 stars)
46. Tell The Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt (March 27th 2019) (3,5 stars)
47. Sweetheart by Chelsea Cain (May 2nd 2019) (4,5 stars)
48. The Dead Girls Of Hysteria Hall by Katie Alender (May 13th 2019) (3,5 stars)
49. The Problem With Forever by Jennifer L. Armentrout (June 29th 2019) (2 stars)
50. The Cellar by Natasha Preston (August 22nd 2019) (3 stars)
51. The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson (August 28th 2019) (3,5 stars)
52. The Museum Of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman (October 21st 2019) (DNF; 0 stars)
53. Like This For Ever by S.J. Bolton (January 7th 2020) (4 stars)
54. What We Saw by Aaron Hartzler (February 4th 2020) (4 stars)
55. The Storied Life Of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin (March 23rd 2020) (5 stars)
Let’s review my TBR jar choices, shall we? On to the numbers…
First of all some quick facts. The 20 books on this list have a total page count of 7.077 pages; an average of about 354 pages per book. The average rating is 3,03 stars, which is quite low but then again I did have 2 DNF on the list. Still, I had quite a few good ones too.
And now some graphics for those who like them as much as I do.
This explains why my average rating ended up being quite low… 55% of the books received a 3 star rating or less, which is definitely way below my regular numbers. I guess my TBR jar doesn’t know it all after all? 😉
This one is actually quite surprising since I have been reading mainly Adult books these recent years, but I guess my TBR jar wants me to read mostly YA? Having no Middle Grade title at all isn’t all that strange though, because I hardly read books belonging to that age group in the first place.
I somehow seem to read a lot more books written by female authors in general, so this graphic isn’t all that surprising. I still do wish to balance this number more in the future, but with the TBR jar making the choices it won’t be easy. xD
The main genre is basically the most dominant genre I think each book belongs to. I definitely like how this one seems more balanced out than my regular main genre numbers… As I normally have a way bigger number of mystery/thriller/horror reads. I guess the TBR jar does make me read more diverse!
I have been reading less series in general, so I’m not all that surprised most TBR jar picks were stand-alones. I do have quite a few series I really want to get to, but in general it’s not the TBR jar that makes me pick them up. 😉
Most books that belong to my list of TBR jar picks are recently published, although none after 2016 as I never actually added the new titles to my old TBR jar after that. xD I’m glad to see 8 books were published in 2013 or before though! And one of them published in the 1960s.
Last graphic: unsurprisingly most books I’ve read have between 300 and 399 pages, which seems to be the norm with the books I read in general. No short and very long reads here, although four titles did have 400 pages or more.
Tired of numbers yet? I know I am! That’s it for this TBR jar picks review; I’m looking forward to the next 10… Do you have a TBR jar and does it work for you?
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Wow!!!! I did have a tbr jar and it was overflowing. Sometimes now I do a poll on insta or twitter and get followers to vote for my next reads x
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That’s a fun way to decide what to read next as well!
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I so admire your tbr jar and all the stats. I wish I could do this too but I know that if I didn’t like the book that I picked I wouldn’t be able to read it! 😂 xx
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Haha that was me before as well! xD But I’ve divided them in four different genre groups and I get to pick one of each and decide which title I want to read most. Somehow having four options always makes me actually read the book in the end. xx
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That sounds good, maybe I should try it sometime. xx
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This is such a good idea. I am not sure I would be able to do it though because if I pulled one out that I didn’t feel like reading I’d just put it back and be like, “ok so that was a test pull” haha!
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Haha that used to be me too! But ever since I divided my books in four different genre groups and I get to pick one of each and decide which title I want to read between those, I actually do read them. xD
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TBR jars can be a lot of fun! I have never done one for myself, but I used to do one for group reads that I did with some friends. We’d all put in books we wanted to read, and so we’d never know what we were going to pull out of that jar since we didn’t even know which books had been put into it. I hope you next TBR picks give you higher ratings!
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Oh that does sound like a lot of fun!
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Lilac Girls was a little on the slower side for me, but I liked it a lot. I hope you do, too!
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Oh yes Lilac Girls was a bit slow for me as well! But as a whole I still enjoyed it.
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I just wasn’t as fond of Caroline’s (?) POV. That one wasn’t as interesting.
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Oh yes I wasn’t a big fan of her POV either!
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wow, your level of planning is impressive. Got lost in the stats but love the TBR jar idea.
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It was a lot of work, but it’s been fun using the TBR jar! I’ve managed to read a lot of interesting titles I wouldn’t have immediately picked up otherwise…
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I really need to do something like this. It’s such a creative way to finally get it done 🙂
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It’s always fun to discover what the TBR jar wants me to read next.
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I love seeing all of your stats! I don’t use a TBR jar personally, but I think it would be a cool thing to try. Even if I were to have a weekend of reading and randomize what’s on my shelf, I think it would be fun!
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That sounds fun too! If you have your owned-but-not-read shelf featured on your Goodreads profile, you can always try reading one of those 11 books when you check your profile… They seem to change every time you go there.
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Ooh, that’s a great idea! Thank you!
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I’m thinking about making a new TBR jar with all of my books in it again. I have my old one that I am using for a challenge for this year, but it would be nice to have one that has all my books and not just some of them!
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Yeah, that’s one of the reasons I finally gave in and made a new one… I hadn’t updated my old one since 2016, and I felt like I was neglecting all those newer backlist titles.
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