Or, why wouldn’t I keep doing this to myself?
I mean, it’s officially 2021, and in the spirit of beginning as I mean to go on, I figured I might as well dive into another round of #BeatTheBacklist! I mean, yes, I read less than I expected to of last year’s list (though I did read far more in number than the 52 I planned to – just… very few of the SPECIFIC 52 I planned to, and not nearly enough of my physical TBR), but having a list did at least remind me of what I hoped to accomplish reading-wise.
So how many am I hoping to read? 100 physical backlist books. That’s uh… definitely more than last year (read almost double except that 100 is just a much nicer round number than 104 lol), but considering I managed to read 80 books in the dumpster fire that was 2020, it seems like it might be possible? It’s just barely less than 2 books a week, which normally I could definitely do with my reading speed, and it seems like a nice challenge. PLUS the larger number to choose from might actually help keep me to this specific list since I won’t feel quite so constrained by the limited number of books. Possibly. Maybe? I don’t even know, y’all. I’m still working on this whole gaming my own brain strategy lol.
And really, in the end all of this is arbitrary, so what the hell. As long as I’ve read more physical books by the end of the year than when I started, I’ll consider 2021 a reading success even if I don’t read the full 100. And if I manage to read and pass on more books than I receive, that will just be a bonus, right? Right.
As always, I am working with a bingo card because they are ridiculously motivating, and I am starting off my overall list with a couple I have in progress, followed by hopefully the ARCs on the pile (marked with italics) I own since I know those will be for sure mostly passed on and given away, as opposed to the finished copies which I am much more likely to keep if I like the book. When I enjoy ARCs, I inevitably buy a finished copy down the line. So… OK yeah, it won’t help the overall in house totals that much, but at least it’ll FEEL like I own less books at the time LOL.
Like last year, I’m going to try to keep track of how many books I read by authors of color (marked with an asterisks) as well, though if I go off the list like I did, I may not manage to read the minimum 50 like I hope, especially as I’m not sure I own that many at the moment as I’m working through the backlist. But that’s the goal at least: that half of this list is by authors of color and that I actually READ them. Oof.
1. 84 Charing Cross Road - 1/11/21 - "Book you forgot you had"
2. Skip Beat! Omnibus 14 * - 1/11/21 - "person on the cover"
3. Hungry Hearts *
4. Wild Beauty *
5. The Diviners
6. Nocturna *
7. Wicked Fox *
8. We Hunt the Flame *
9. The Storm Crow
10. Wicked Saints
11. Beasts Made of Night *
12. Crown of Thunder *
13. Where Dreams Descend *
14. Shadow Weaver
15. The Queen Underneath
16. The Apprentice Witch
17. The Lie Tree
18. A Drop of Night
19. Zeroes
20. The Skylighter
21. The Storyspinner
22. The Girl from Everywhere *
23. All Out *
24. Out Now *
25. Dying with Her Cheer Pants On
26. Carols and Chaos
27. Are You Listening
28. These Ruthless Deeds (re-read Vicious Masks first) *
29. Shadow of the Fox *
30. Anna Dressed in Blood *
31. Girl of Nightmares *
32. Wintersong *
33. Crooked Kingdom (re-read Six of Crows first)
34. The Belles *
35. The Devouring Gray
36. The Disasters
37. Empress of a Thousand Skies *
38. Mirage *
39. The Wrath and the Dawn *
40. Akata Witch *
41. Children of Blood and Bone *
42. An Unkindness of Ghosts *
43. The City We Became *
44. Cinderella is Dead *
45. Ash *
46. The Girl with the Red Balloon *
47. We Set the Dark on Fire *
48. Rebelwing *
49. The Sound of Stars *
50. Shatter Me *
51. Stealing Snow *
52. Beyond the Red *
53. With the Fire on High *
54. Pride *
55. Temper *
56. Three Dark Crowns *
57. From Twinkle, With Love *
58. Sabriel
59. Lirael
60. Abhorsen
61. Dear Jane Austen
62. The Ocean at the End of the Lane
63. The Mermaid’s Voice Returns in this One
64. To Make Monsters Out of Girls
65. The Language of Thorns
66. Manga Classics – The Stories of Edgar Allen Poe
67. Manga Classics – Hamlet
68. Valor and Vanity
69. Of Noble Family
70. Tarnished are the Stars
71. The Girl in the Green Silk Dress
72. Uprooted
73. Grrls on the Side
74. Beauty Queens
75. As Old as Time
76. Library of the Unwritten
77. The Walls Around Us
78. The Rest of Us Just Live Here
79. Emerald Blaze
80. Sekret
81. An Unkindness of Magicians
82. Devils Unto Dust
83. Ghost Wood Song
84. This Splintered Silence
85. Song of the Current
86. Gideon the Ninth
87. Once and Future
88. The Sword in the Stars
89. Midnight Never Come
90. The Eterna Files
91. Lawless Lands
92. Cotillion
93. Lady of Quality
94. The Passage
95. Loosed Upon the World *
96. Shallow Graves
97. Ill Wind
98. The Secret Ingredient of Wishes
99. Honor Bound
100. Honor Lost
Welp there is the list, or the approximate list I suppose? After a quick (well it took a couple hours to be honest, but we’ll call it quick just for the sake of my sanity LOL) audit of EVERY single solitary unread fiction book on my bookshelves (I pulled out any lifestyle, self-help, and writing craft book since those I tend to read single chapters of over time instead of reading as a whole “book” so to speak), I had a whopping 169 to choose from. If I read even a majority of those above, that will knock my stack down SIGNIFICANTLY.
And if I don’t, oh well. I’m just excited to get even a few of these read. There’s a ton on here that I’ve super looked forward to but that just got buried as other things came in. I think I also managed a good mix of genres and formats from graphic novels and short story collections to novels and poetry collections. Plus there are lots of different lengths, so if I do get bogged down, I have several quicker reads I can use to help get caught up or just slide back into my reading “zone” so to speak.
But yeah, wish me luck and lots of enjoyable reads!