Readers, let’s face it… sometimes, choosing our next read is a daunting task. Especially if we’re overwhelmed by the amount of books we want to read!

In an attempt to solve this problem, here are a few creative ways we can choose our next reads!

Use a TBR Prompt Jar

If you’re an avid viewer of BookTube (the bookish side of YouTube), you’ve probably seen several BookTubers such as Sara Carrolli or Rachel Catherine use a TBR prompt jar to select their monthly reads. The jar method involves readers filling a jar with reading prompts on folded up pieces of paper, putting them all into the jar, and picking books based on the prompts that are randomly selected.

…Or a TBR Prompt Spreadsheet

At the beginning of 2024, I made my own, mobile version of a TBR prompt jar in Google Sheets, which works the same way in providing randomly selected prompts. If you’re interested in how I made it, check out this post! Throughout the year, this spreadsheet has evolved from a virtual TBR prompt jar into a basic headquarters for all my unread books, with tabs featuring lists of the books I’ve bought this year, which free books I’ve downloaded onto my Kindle, etc., and how many unread books I’ve had on my Kindle for over 2 years that need to be prioritized. It’s been a fun game-changer for helping me decide what to read each month!

Let Social Media Choose

BookTubers have also popularized this method of choosing their next reads by posting a Story of two books and asking their followers to vote on which book they should read next. I’ve seen this done in different ways, from just posting pictures of two books side by side, to covering up the covers and depicting what the book is about with emojis to leave your followers guessing. I’ve done this a couple times on Instagram before I started using my TBR prompt spreadsheet, just posting the books side by side, and enjoyed the anticipation of finding out which book would get the most votes.

Ask A Friend, Family Member, or Significant Other to Choose for You

This is so risky, but that’s what makes it fun! If you have a list of books on your radar, or have a shelf on Goodreads with all the books you own/have access to, pass that list on to a loved one and ask them to choose your next read for you. I’ve asked my husband to choose for me this way four times over the past couple years, and three of those books ended up being reads I adored! I haven’t tried this with anyone else yet, but I’m interested in taking that chance in the future. Especially since most of my loved ones aren’t readers. XD

Create a TBR Prompt Game

BookTuber Destiny Sidwell did this in 2023 to create a few of her monthly TBRs, and I thought it was a cool way to go about choosing what to read each month. Like the TBR prompt jar, spaces on the game board represent different reading prompts. Some, if I remember correctly, may have also had specific book titles written on them. Her game board also included special spaces that required her to draw a card, which introduced other prompts or book titles. While I haven’t tried this method myself, if you enjoy crafting, I think you’ll thoroughly enjoy choosing your next reads this way.

Read Books That Were 5-Star Reads of Bookish Friends or Bookish Influencers You Follow

I recommend this method with a caveat: if you don’t own any of their 5-star books and/or cannot gain access to them via your library or library app, please do not feel pressured to go out and buy them just for the sake of creating your TBR this way. Buying books is one of my favorite pastimes, but we should prioritize books we personally want to buy, or already own, rather than always trying to “keep up with the Joneses” per se, and stocking up what everyone else is reading instead. But, if you already own or have free access to books that your friends or favorite book influencers have rated highly, go for it! If you have similar taste in books as the person whose 5-star reads you’re reading, there’s a high chance of coming across a new favorite read in your favorite genres. If you have the opposite taste in books, this could make for an interesting experiment!

Assign Numbers to the Books On Your TBR and Use a Random Number Generator to Choose What You Read

This is another TBR building method that’s popular on BookTube. A lot of times, readers will wrap the books on their TBR cart up in wrapping paper and write numbers on the paper so they’ll know which book belongs to which number. I don’t ever foresee myself trying that specific method because it involves a lot of effort and I don’t want to waste wrapping paper. 😛

This would, however, be super easy to implement in a TBR spreadsheet, using a formula that picks numbers at random. That would definitely make for some interesting TBRs!

Talk to Me, Arrowheads!

How do you choose your next read or build your TBR list? Have you tried any of the methods above? Let me know in the comments!

Aim high, stay strong, and always hit your mark.

-Allyson 😀