The Backlist Reader Challenge 2022: Rules & Sign-up

December 9, 2021 Challenges 25

The Backlist Reader Challenge 2022 (full-size logo)

The Backlist Reader Challenge 2022

Is your TBR pile more of a mountain? Are there hundreds (or thousands) of books on your Goodreads to-read shelf? Then join the club — or rather, The Backlist Reader Challenge!

I don’t know about you, but my Goodreads to-read shelf has over a thousand books on it, and that’s not counting the books on my “someday” list. Nearly half of them are already on my Kindle or sitting around the house on shelves and in piles; some others are library books I hope to borrow eventually.

The Backlist Reader Challenge (#BacklistReader) encourages us to read those older books that have been piling up on our TBR piles or lists for years. And by “older,” I mean books that came out before 2021 (in other words, in 2020 or earlier.)

The challenge runs from January 1, 2022 through December 31, 2022. It ends at midnight in whatever timezone you’re in. You can still post reviews, and link them, up until January 5, 2023, but only for books you finished reading in 2022.

The Rules

Rule #1: To count for the challenge, books have to be published before 2021 AND already be on your TBR list or pile. 

In other words, you don’t have to own the book. If it was on your want-to-read list when you signed up for the challenge, and it came out in 2020 or earlier, it counts… regardless of format (ebook, print book, audiobook) and regardless how or where or when you acquired it. Library books totally count, as long as you had the book on your want-to-read list before you signed up for the challenge.

What does”TBR list” or “to-read” list” mean, exactly? It means whatever you use to keep track of the books you want to read. If that’s a shelf or a pile of physical books, great. If it’s the “to-read” shelf on Goodreads, also fine. If you keep a spreadsheet on your computer or a list in a notebook or a “for later” list in your library account, those work too. Just as long as you have something to keep track of what you want to read, but haven’t read yet. (In my experience, most book-lovers have a to-read list of some sort, somewhere.)

Do rereads count? Personally, I love rereading familiar books, and in any given year, at least a third of my reading is rereads. But… Back when I first created this challenge, the goal was to encourage myself to read books I hadn’t ever gotten around to reading. On the other hand, there are some books on my TBR list that I read a long time ago but want to reread, because I can barely remember them. So here’s the compromise I came up with: you can only count a book you have read before IF (a) you haven’t read the book in the last 10 years, AND (b) you can’t remember much about it.

Rule #2: Create a goals or sign-up post on your blog

…or wherever you usually post your reviews or your thoughts about a book (e.g., Goodreads, LibraryThing, Instagram, Facebook.) Please link back to this post! Then link your sign-up post below, where you see the “Add your link” button. (Please link your actual goals/sign-up post, not your home page.)  You can set your own goal, and you can list the books you want to read this year, or leave it up to your mood at the time—as long as they are already on your TBR list when you sign up! You can sign up through December 1, 2022; after that, the sign-up link will be closed.

Rule #3 (optional): Review the books you read for the challenge, and post your links on the review linky

You can find the 2022 review linky here. You can also get to it through the top menu bar.

-*You can certainly do the challenge without writing reviews, but the review links are your entries for the year-end giveaway. Reviews don’t have to be long; a few sentences is fine. If you don’t have a blog, you can post them on Goodreads or LibraryThing or even on your Facebook or Instagram. Please link to your review itself (not to your blog’s main page, your profile, or the book’s main Goodreads or LibraryThing page.) If you’re not sure how to find that link, email me and I’ll walk you through it.

Note: The review linky will not go live until January 5, 2021, because InLinkz restricts the linky to one year, and I need to give you time in January 2023 to post your last-minute reviews.

Rule #4: Before January 5, 2023, create and link a wrap-up post 

Let us know how you did! I’ll create a link-up post like this one for the wrap-up posts, so you can share your achievement with others who are participating!

Show your support for other participants

Please support other members of The Backlist Reader Challenge by reading and commenting on their reviews, found in the review linky. This isn’t a rule, and you don’t have to check out every review on the list, but please try to visit a few every time you post a review of your own. Your fellow readers will appreciate it!

What else you need to know

There will be at least one giveaway: a $15 Amazon gift certificate (US), or up to that amount in books from Book Depository (as long as they deliver to your country.)  The winner will be chosen from the review links at the end of the year, using a random number generator.

Social media: Please use #BacklistReader on Twitter, Facebook, and anywhere else hashtags are useful!

Go find those older titles you still haven’t gotten around to, and make 2022 the year you finally read them!

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Sign-Up Post Links

For sign-up links only! Please don’t post review links here. Use the review linky instead.

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25 Responses to “The Backlist Reader Challenge 2022: Rules & Sign-up”

  3. Lily

    Hello! If I bean a new book in 2021 but was not finished with it / struggling to finish it, could I still finish it for this challenge? Thanks

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Hi, Lily! If you read more than half of it in 2022, you can certainly count it toward the challenge. (Assuming it fits the other criteria, of course.) But if you just had a couple of chapters to finish up, I don’t think it really counts toward the 2022 challenge.

          • Lily

            Hello! I was wondering about the giveaway(s)…Will they all be at the end of the year? Thanks!

          • Lark_Bookwyrm

            Hi, Lily! Yes, at this point, I’m only planning one giveaway, which will be at the end of the year… or rather, early next year, since I like to give people a few extra days to get their reviews done. After all, you might finish a book on Dec. 31! So look for the winner sometime in January 2023.

  7. 2022 Reading Challenges | Maphead's Book Blog

    […] Backlist Reader Challenge. I love a challenge that rewards me for reading older books. Heck, I’ve been doing that for years! For the Backlist Reader Challenge hosted by the Bookwyrn’s Hoard readers must read books published before 2022 and be on one’s to be read list (TBR). […]

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    […] The Backlist Reader Challenge hosted @ The Bookwyrm’s Hoard asks us to set up our own goal for reading books that we have been planning to read, for years perhaps, but haven’t got round to. The only stipulation is that the books be ‘old’ i.e. published before 2021 (in other words, in 2020 or earlier). There is a giveaway too at the end. […]