Beat The Backlist 2020

Overview

A new year, a new TBR pile, and a new set of readers tackling their backlist!

Welcome to Beat the Backlist (the 2020 edition)! This reading challenge is dedicated to helping you knock those backlist books off your ever-growing to-read list. Head over to Novelknight for full details.

Any genre, any format, any length.
Any book published in 2019 or earlier is fair game.
Re-reads count. And you don’t have to own the book!

Guidelines

The book must have been published in 2019 or earlier to count. It can be in any format (including an ARC/eARC) as long as the release date is 2019 or earlier (i.e. 2020 releases are not allowed).

You have to start and finish the book in 2020 to count it. Any books started in 2019 and finished in 2020 do not count. Any books started in 2020 and finished in 2021 also do not count.

The challenge runs from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020

BEAT THE BACKLIST BINGO

It’s back! Beat the Backlist Reading Bingo was something I attempted last year, and I fancy having another go. It’s an added element to the challenge. There are two bingo cards available, you can find both over at Novelknight. One card features 24 general prompts. The second features 80 prompts total for readers wanting an EPIC challenge!

Potential Reads

2020 marks my fourth time participating in Beat the Backlist. As I did last year, I’ll set an initial target of 10 books to read, but hopefully will be able to manage more. My TBR pile is HUGE so there’s no shortage of books to choose from! Here is just a short selection of potential reads for this challenge…

Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
Dracul by J. D. Barker and Dacre Stoker
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
The Kingdom by Jess Rothenberg
Tomorrow by Damian Dibben
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
The Invisible Library series by Genevieve Cogman
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Red Sister by Mark Lawrence
Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho
Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill
The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett
Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
Different Seasons by Stephen King
The Mitford Murders by Jessica Fellowes

There are so many more books I could have mentioned above, so I look forward to seeing how many books I manage to read for Beat the Backlist.

Monthly Progress

January

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

The Six by Luca Veste

Hercule Poirot’s Christmas (Poirot #20) by Agatha Christie

Stoker’s Wilde by Steven Hopstaken and Melissa Prusi

February

The Poison Song (The Winnowing Flame #3) by Jen Williams

The Colour of Magic (Discworld #1) by Terry Pratchett

March

Dracul by Dacre Stoker and J. D. Barker

The Kingdom by Jess Rothenberg

April

A Different Kind of Evil (Agatha Christie #2) by Andrew Wilson

May

Beat The Backlist Bingo

Beat the Backlist Reading Bingo was something I attempted last year, and I fancy having another go. It’s an added element to the challenge. I’m going for the card with 24 general prompts. Let’s see how I progress:

Borrowed it for the cover – The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. I wanted to read this from the moment I first heard about it, but I’m using it for this category because I never got tired of looking at the cover. I also think this may be a contender for the category of a top 10 read of the year.

Released in the 2010’s – The Six by Luca Veste

Written before 2010 – Hercule Poirot’s Christmas (Poirot #20) by Agatha Christie

Wish you had read it sooner – Stoker’s Wilde by Steven Hopstaken and Melissa Prusi

Book you never finished before – The Colour of Magic (Discworld #1) by Terry Pratchett

One word title – Dracul by Dacre Stoker and J. D. Barker

Genre you never/rarely read – The Kingdom by Jess Rothenberg