Overview
A new year, a new TBR pile, and a new set of readers tackling their backlist!
Welcome to Beat the Backlist (the 2022 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 AustineDecker.com for full details.
Guidelines
The guidelines are simple:
The book must be published in the previous year or earlier (for the 2022 challenge, anything published in 2021 or earlier counts).
You have to start and finish the book in 2022.
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
Bingo is back! I enjoyed this last year, and for 2022 Bingo is back, with new cards packed full of reading prompts. This year, there are two bingo cards available. You can find both at AustineDecker.com.
Bingo is an additional element to the challenge and finding books to meet each category is fun. I’ll mainly be attempting the 24-prompt card, but some of the prompts on the 52-prompt card are interesting too, so I’m adding that list to my challenge post as well, just for reference as I doubt I‘ll manage to read that many books over the whole year. My main focus will be the 24-prompt card.
Potential Reads
2022 marks my sixth 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 Dark Tower series by Stephen King
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
The Shape of Darkness by Laura Purcell
The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex
The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss
The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
The Invisible Library series by Genevieve Cogman
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
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 Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow
Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw
Buried (DC Jack Warr #1) by Lynda La Plante
February
The Wind Through the Keyhole (The Dark Tower #4.5) by Stephen King
March
Murder is Easy (Superintendent Battle #4) by Agatha Christie
Foundryside (The Founders Trilogy #1) by Robert Jackson Bennett
April
The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Room in the Attic by Louise Douglas
May
Death on the Nile (Hercule Poirot #17) by Agatha Christie
Death Comes as the End by Agatha Christie
June
No progress to report
July
The Hollows by Mark Edwards
The Midnight Man by Caroline Mitchell
Billy Summers by Stephen King
August
An Evil Mind (Robert Hunter #6) by Chris Carter
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers #1) by Becky Chambers
The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard
Hunting Evil (Robert Hunter #10) by Chris Carter
September
Witch by Finbar Hawkins
The Crucifix Killer (Robert Hunter #1) by Chris Carter
October
The Executioner (Robert Hunter #2) by Chris Carter
Practical Magic (Practical Magic #1) by Alice Hoffman
November
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
December
The Night Crossing by Robert Masello
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
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 Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow – Book about siblings
Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw – Novella
Buried (DC Jack Warr #1) by Lynda La Plante – One word title
The Wind Through the Keyhole (The Dark Tower #4.5) by Stephen King – Your favourite trope on the page
Murder is Easy (Superintendent Battle #4) by Agatha Christie – Murder, mystery – or both!
Foundryside (The Founders Trilogy #1) by Robert Jackson Bennett – New-to-you author
The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia – Discovered via social media
The Room in the Attic by Louise Douglas – Indie or self published
Death on the Nile (Hercule Poirot #17) by Agatha Christie – You watched the show or movie first
Death Comes as the End by Agatha Christie – Forgotten on your shelf or eReader
The Hollows by Mark Edwards – a book set in the season you read it in
The Midnight Man by Caroline Mitchell – title is an alliteration
Billy Summers by Stephen King – superheroes/villains OR character in disguise
An Evil Mind (Robert Hunter #6) by Chris Carter – a book in a genre you never/rarely read
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers #1) by Becky Chambers – set in space OR on/in the ocean
The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard – a book about books
Hunting Evil (Robert Hunter #10) by Chris Carter – everyone has read it but you
Witch by Finbar Hawkins – Debut novel
The Crucifix Killer (Robert Hunter #1) by Chris Carter – First in a series you’ve been putting off
The Executioner (Robert Hunter #2) by Chris Carter – Second or fourth in a series
Practical Magic (Practical Magic #1) by Alice Hoffman – Involves family secrets
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury – Classic novel
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters – Protagonist has a profession that twists the truth
I really should do this challenge, I have so many backlist books I’d love to read. The Goldfinch and Piranesi are two I’d love to get to😁
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Hope you manage to get around to both of them 🙂
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This looks really fun but, sadly, I’m more determined than ever to make 2022 my year of reading randomly — though it would be interesting to come back and check how many boxes I could tick off!
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A year of reading randomly sounds good, I hope you discover some great reads.
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Since I read 101 (hope to be 103 by midnight tomorrow night) books off my shelves this year, I think I should finally join the Beat the Backlist challenge! Thanks to your influence!
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Did you make it to 103 books? So many books! Have fun with Beat the Backlist if you decide to join 😀
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Alas, I did not. But that’s okay!
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I would like to do a backlist challenge but I’m terrible at challenges, I literally think my mind closes up as soon as the word pops up; So, I’m secretly (don’t tell my brain) telling myself it’s just a thing I’d like to do.
Lynn 😀
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I like BtB because it’s really low pressure, otherwise I think I’d feel the same 😀
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