I’m not going to bury the lede. I got baked and decided to make a Monopoly-inspired game board to help me tackle my TBR pile. (Also a great lead up to my upcoming gift guide on boardgames!) I have so many books and a very large Goodreads list, which often leaves me paralyzed by choice.

I first came across this idea on Instagram through PrintedPaperTraveler, who designed a board that’s a mix of Monopoly and Snakes & Ladders. She calls it TBR Knockout.

Here’s her video on how to get started:

I wouldn’t describe myself as a super crafty person, but I do have a Canva account. I also think I prefer the digital nature of my board, as it allows me to easily change squares if I find that things aren’t working as well as I thought.

I went completely bonkers with pastel pink clip art and honestly, it brings me so much joy.

(You can right click on it for a larger version.)

The idea is that you roll two six-sided die and move that number of spaces. Peruse your TBR pile for whatever matches the prompt you landed on.

I have a couple dynamic categories on the board: Color, Read the Alphabet, Least Favorite/Favorite Tropes, and Release Month. These are designed to change as I land on them. Example: Once I land on Read the Alphabet for A, I pick a book with a title, author name, or character name that starts with A. Once I finish, I’ll edit the square to B.

Other explanations:

• Friend Read: Goodreads has a “compare shelves” feature. I’ll compare my shelves with a GR friend and pick a book on my TBR pile that they’ve already read.
• Nightstand Read: Every month, I put about 5-7 books on my nightstand as some sort of aspirational reading list. Land on this square, and I have to choose one of those.
• Chance: I bought some TBR cards! They’re little cards with prompts on how to choose what to read. You can easily design some yourself. Here are the ones I’ve purchased: Romance TBR Card Deck from BookmarkedWithLoveCo, TBR Cards: Romance Edition from FleursOnSunday, TBR Cards: Fantasy Edition from FleursOnSunday.
• Community Chest: I’m starting with a jar with 5 slips of paper with randomly selected titles from my TBR pile. As I pass GO, I get to add more to the jar.

The idea is to read books I already own whether in physical copies or digitally. I also want to make more use of my library. There is one square that allows me to buy a new book, but I have to read it immediately.

Here’s a blank version of the above board if you’d like to make your own. Customize it with whatever categories you want! I kept mine pretty general, but may create some harder, more specific categories in the future once I take this for a test drive.

My first roll was for a total of 4 spaces. I landed on New Series. For this square, I think I’ll finally start Done and Dusted by Lyla Sage ( A | BN | K | AB ), which is book one in the Rebel Blue Ranch series.

What do you think about gamifying your TBR pile? Have you done something similar?