Hey peeps! So I’m here today with a challenge that my friend Austine from Novel Knight is hosting next year: the Beat the Backlist reading challenge! This challenge is a fun way to read those books on your shelves that have been sitting there for way too long. You know, books that aren’t new releases. A lot of people (myself included) focus a lot on newer releases, but this is a fun, engaging way to read those books that you really want to read but may have fallen to the wayside since.

Here’s the guidelines and stuff if you want to participate:

• Date: January 1 through December 31, 2017
• Rules: Books must be released prior to 2017!

That’s it! It’s as simple as that. If you use Twitter you can post updates with #beatthebacklist

Austine is also have a mini-challenge that I am definitely joining in and that is the Win the House Cup mini-challenge! This mini-challenge is OPTIONAL. It’s just a fun way to see which House reads more!

I’ll be going for Hufflepuff as I am a Hufflepuff and I’m super excited to join in this challenge! Not gonna lie: this mini-challenge was the extra push I needed to join the backlist challenge. (I mean, I was going to join anyway, but this was just added incentive.)

You can read about how to earn points for your house here!

So if you want to join, go check out the sign up post! But now I’m going to talk about the books that I’m hoping to read next year toward this challenge.

Overall Goal: 20 books

Books for the Challenge

• Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
• Cress
• Winter
• Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
• Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix
• Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince
• Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows
• Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
• Clockwork Princess
• City of Lost Souls
• City of Heavenly Fire
• Lady Midnight
• Carry On by Rainbow Rowell
• Gathering Darkness by Morgan Rhodes
• Frozen Tides
• The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
• The Hero of Ages
• A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
• Splintered by A.G. Howard
• Unhinged
• Ensnared
• Untamed
• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
• Literally any book I’ve started before, put down, forgot about, and haven’t finished. Which is a lot.

Okay, so this list is 23 books long, but uh… I could keep going. Seriously. I have so many books that are on my backlist that I really, REALLY do want to get to! So I’m going to use this challenge as a way to do so. The list above is also not set in stone. I’m going to read whatever I want next year (as I do every year), so this list is more like a guideline than a rulebook. *insert Pirates of the Caribbean quote here*

I hope some of you will want to join me and others in this challenge! It seems really fun, and since it’s a year long it’s a pretty relaxing one.

Let’s Chat! ≧◡≦

What do you think of this challenge? Will you be joining in? What are some books that haven’t been released recently that you’ve been meaning to get to but haven’t yet?