Overview
A new year, a new TBR pile, and a new set of readers tackling their backlist!
Welcome to Beat the Backlist (the 2021 edition)!
The Beat the Backlist reading challenge is designed to help you tackle all the books you keep meaning to read and still haven’t. Head over to Novelknight for full details.
Guidelines
The guidelines are simple:
The book must be published in the previous year or earlier (for the 2021 challenge, anything published in 2020 or earlier counts).
You have to start and finish the book in 2021.
And that’s it!
Any format, any genre.
Re-reads count, and you don’t have to own the book.
It’s open for the entire year so whenever you feel like jumping in, you can!
BEAT THE BACKLIST BINGO
It’s back! I enjoyed Beat the Backlist Reading Bingo last year, and for 2021 Bingo is back, with a card packed full of reading prompts. This year, there are two bingo cards available and you can find both over at Novelknight.
It’s an additional element to the challenge and finding books to meet each category is fun. I’ll mainly be using the 24-prompt card, but some of the prompts on the 52-prompt list are just irresistible, so this year I’ll be adding that list to my challenge post as well. There’s no way I’ll reach the target, I didn’t read that many books in total last year, but I want to add it for reference, just to see how many prompts I can complete. My main focus will still be the 24-prompt card.
Potential Reads
2021 marks my fifth 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…
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
The Dark Tower series by Stephen King
The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton
Stoker’s Wilde West by Steven Hopstaken and Melissa Prusi
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin
The Book of Koli by M. R. Carey
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
The Invisible Library series by Genevieve Cogman
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho
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 Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
February
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower #1) by Stephen King
March
Open Season (Joe Pickett #1) by C. J. Box
The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower #2) by Stephen King
April
The Waste Lands (The Dark Tower #3) by Stephen King
May
No progress
June
Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton
The Naturalist (The Naturalist #1) by Andrew Mayne
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
July
Wizard and Glass (The Dark Tower #4) by Stephen King
August
No progress
September
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
October
Crooked House by Agatha Christie
Home Before Dark by Riley Sager
November
‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
December
No progress
Beat The Backlist Bingo Progress
This year Bingo is back with a great collection of prompts. While my main focus is the 24-prompt card I may choose a few from the 52-prompt list as well. Here is a collection of covers that fulfill a prompt on either of the lists featured above:
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow – Standalone
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill – A book with illustrations
The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower #1) by Stephen King – Kept you up late reading
Open Season (Joe Pickett #1) by C. J. Box – Genre you never/rarely read
The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower #2) by Stephen King – Author has a book releasing in 2021
The Waste Lands (The Dark Tower #3) by Stephen King – Black and white
Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia – Based on non-Greek/Roman mythology
The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton – It’s on a ship!
The Naturalist (The Naturalist #1) by Andrew Mayne – Book where the woods/forest are important
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone – More than one author
Wizard and Glass (The Dark Tower #4) by Stephen King – Purple cover
The Secret History by Donna Tartt – Caused a major book hangover
Crooked House by Agatha Christie – From your 2020 backlist TBR
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison – Book you’re giving another chance
Pages And Tea 
Great post, definitely thinking of joining in 🙂
Also I am amazed at how many books we have in common on your TBR, either ones I’ve read and loved or ones I own and can’t wait to read!
LikeLike
It’s a fun challenge, and I have SO many books that could count towards it, my TBR list is endless 😀
LikeLike
I’m so tempted to try this challenge, but I’m not very good at follow through. Looks like you have some amazing books planned!
LikeLike
Am looking forward to trying to make a dent in my TBR list 🙂
LikeLike
Oh, this is soooooooo tempting! If only I hadn’t just sworn off challenges for 2021! Hmmmmmm. But maybe…. lol
LikeLike
It’s one you could always join at any time if you changed your mind about a challenge 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good luck with your backlist challenge. I’m also trying to catch up with some backlist books this year but I’m going to keep it loose – less chance of me dropping the ball completely that way.
Lynn 😀
LikeLike
Thank you 🙂 Hopefully I’ll be able to read as many books as last time for the backlist challenge.
LikeLike