#BeatTheBackList2019 Challenge

The last thing I should be doing this year is joining a reading challenge. I can count off the many elements of this year’s struggles, time-wise, that would get in the way of my accomplishing this. But then I realized, perhaps it is about time that I tested the limits of my time management by making time for something that I love doing in order to beat back the daily mundane of my usual 9 to 5 job, or in this case, my bloody 4 am to 1 pm job.

What better way, I think, to continue doing what I love than to motivate myself on a daily basis by joining a reading challenge? And not just any challenge, but a Beat the Back List challenge.

The name says it all.

The #BeatTheBackList2019 Challenge is hosted by the ever-amazing Novel Knight. I discovered the challenge on Twitter and couldn’t help but shimmy my way over to Novel Knight to get the deets (if you click on the link, it’ll lead you straight to everything it’s about).

It’s a very simple challenge in hindsight, isn’t it? Read as many backlist books as you want–that means reading books that are published pre-2019. Any book is accounted for on here–YA, MG, NA, Adult, picture books, you name it! Thinking of rereading backlist books? You’re in luck because rereads absolutely count! It’s a fun little challenge to beat back all those backlists that you’ve been holding off for some time (because newly published books are great temptations, let’s be real).

Now if that doesn’t incenticize you, and you enjoy a good ol’ team challenge, you can join the Hogwarts House Mini Challenge. Naturally, ya girl signed up as soon as I saw it because #housepride for the Slytherins means a great deal to me. The only difference in personal goals to this is that you have to submit every backlist you’ve read this year in a form. Each book submitted automatically calculates into points, so the points list is always updated. I am proud to say that the snakes are in the lead, which is the best thing and has definitely motivated me to keep reading!

Another little thing I’ve participated in for Beat the Back List is this cool little Reading Bingo! Getting a “bingo” in doesn’t count for house points, but it’s actually a pretty nice game to get into for self-motivation and to discover new backlist books categorized in each box. 

But there are also other fun things to go about the 2019 Beat the Back List Reading Challenge apart from the House Challenge and Reading Bingo. Just go ahead and check out all the details over at Novel Knight!

My Beat the Backlist so far

My January is looking sickly romantic with all of the regency romance books that I suddenly had the urge to read. It’s always nice to take a break from the YA zone of things to enjoy some NA/Adult regency novels. I especially enjoyed reading Mary Balogh books this January and it was incredible nostalgic, considering how Mary was my first regency author and is probably my one and only favorite in said genre just because of how well-written her stories are.

2019 is definitely looking up to be the year of backlists for me, and I have no complaints on that! I absolutely adore the books I have read so far. I’m certain after January, I’ll find yet another month where I will read just regency books. For February, I’ll be starting on the YA books I’ve been dying to read.

Let’s head on over to some of my personal reading goals for the year, shall we?

Personal Goals

It’s always pretty amazing to know that you have set some personal goals for yourself–whether it’s five books or fifty–it feels good to be self-fulfilling to the goal you’ve set in mind. For this year’s Beat the Backlist challenge, I’m reading some new and old books to fill up this challenge, as well as my own Goodreads challenge. 

I am always a “read-what-I-feel-like-reading” kind of person because it feels more natural to read a book than having it planned out. It’s not to say planning books you need or want to read next is a bad thing. In fact, I find anyone who does that admirable because I could never, for the life of me, stick to a list unless the next book on that list is something I feel like reading. But I made a list, nonetheless, on Goodreads of some of the books I want to read this year for the reading challenge. 

Of course, I’ve handpicked some select few I wanted to prioritize before the year ends just so I can pick something off should I get into an emergency book slump (the worst kind of reading dilemma).

• Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas
• The Dark Artifices trilogy by Cassandra Clare
• The Shades of Magic series by V.E. Schwab
• Crazy Rich Asians trilogy by Kevin Kwab
• The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer (re-read)
• Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling (re-read)

Yes, I know, it’s a mammoth of a priority list, especially the Throne of Glass one because that series is , well, eight bloody books (including Assassin’s Blade). The last time I binge-read that many books is Harry Potter at seven to eight books (including Cursed Child, please don’t burn me) and I found that binge enjoyable. Let’s hope I have the same feeling for the Throne of Glass series.

And of course, I couldn’t help but throw in a reread for my to-go books, the Harry Potter series. For an extra reread, I am also throwing in The Lunar Chronicles just because I started collecting the books now and I am actually pretty excited to be going back to this world of Marissa’s. 

I have had the most fun writing my first official post aside from my launch post on WordPress.

Are you going to be joining the Beat the Backlist 2019 reading challenge? Or have you already joined and are beating me in an opposing Hogwarts house?

Let’s discuss it over on the comments below!

See the lot of you back soon!