2024 Beat the Backlist Reading Challenge

Happy New Year everyone! We’ve successfully completed a 365-day revolution around the sun. But with every end comes a new beginning. We are provided with 366 blank pages – 2024 is a leap year – upon which to paint new memories. I hope that we will all paint these blank canvases with good and lasting memories, may it be with the people we love or all by ourselves. Thankfully, things are finally looking up after spending nearly three years under a shroud of uncertainty due to the pandemic. I sure hope that the good times keep on rolling.

As has been the tradition in the past few years, I will be kicking off the new year by looking back to the previous year, its hits, and of course, its mishits. It is also an opportunity to take a glimpse of how the coming year is going to shape up. This book wrap-up is a part of a mini-series that will feature the following:

2023 Top Eighteen Favorite Books
2023 Book Wrap Up
2023 Reading Journey by the Numbers
2023 Most Memorable Book Quotes (Part I)
2023 Most Memorable Book Quotes (Part II)
2023 New Favorite Authors
2024 Books I Look Forward To List
2024 Top 24 Reading List
2024 Beat the Backlist Challenge

With 130 books completed, 2023 is my most prolific reading year yet; this eclipses the personal record of 103 books I completed in 2022. It still feels surreal how I was able to complete one of my long-time goals and I was able to do it not only once but twice. Since the pandemic started, I already read 418 books. Of the 130 books I read in 2023, 118 were published before 2023, making it yet another successful backlist reading year. I have repeatedly emphasized that I am a Backlist type of reader. This is also evident in my choice of books I read. Nevertheless, I did try to inject some new blood into my reading journeys in recent years. Still, I am lagging behind in terms of new books.

Over the past few years, I have joined the Beat the Backlist Reading Challenge. I have been successful in this challenge as I have managed to go above and beyond my reading target. The number of backlists I read in 2023 was nearly double my target of 60 books. I was also able to complete reading all twenty books I specially listed for my 2023 Beat the Backlist Reading Challenge. This number is five books higher than the target I set in 2022. But despite making vast progress in my backlist reads, I still find myself swamped in backlist reads.

As has now become an integral part of my annual reading journey, I am listing myself up again for the 2024 edition of the Beat the Backlist reading challenge. This challenge was brought to life by Austine Decker. Essentially, the challenge is about ticking off older books from your to-be-read list. The books can be of any genre, format, or length.

The Rules

The Beat the Backlist challenge has one goal: helping you show your TBR who’s boss. There were no changes in the rules, which remain to be simple:

1. For a book to count, it must be published in the previous year or earlier. In 2024 that means that anything published in 2023 or earlier is fair game.
2. You have to start AND finish the book in 2024.
3. And that’s very much it!

Everything beyond that is optional and all for fun! Please note that books of any format and of any genre will count. Re-reads will also count. It is also not necessary to own the book.

My Goal and Goal Tracking

While I can be ambitious once in a while, I have opted to keep my target realistic. My target for the year will again be 60 books, the same target I had in the previous year. If the past three years were any indicator, I can easily hit 50 books, 60 even. This is, I guess because I have been working from home. However, things are returning to normal so there is no guarantee that I can hit lofty targets. As such, I want to set a target that is conservative, a target that is realistic. For the purposes of this reading challenge, I am enumerating, 20 books that I resolve to read no matter what the circumstances may be. Most of these books were published from way beyond and I bought them in 2021 or earlier.

Here’s my 2024 Beat the Backlist challenge list:

BUDDENBROOKS by Thomas Mann ^{a b c d}
A BOOK OF MEMORIES by Péter Nádas ^{b d}
THE THREE MUSKETEERS by Alexandre Dumas ^a ^{b d}
ADAM BEDE by George Eliot ^{a b}
THEM by Joyce Carol Oates ^{a b}
NATIVE SON by Richard Wright ^{a b}
THE TEMPLE OF MY FAMILIAR by Alice Walker ^{a b}
THE SCARLET LETTER by Nathaniel Hawthorne ^a
HOUSES by Borislav Pekić ^d
SENTIMENTAL EDUCATION by Gustave Flaubert ^{a d}
OF LOVE AND SHADOWS by Isabelle Allende ^{a b d}
THE GIRL WITH THE ALL GIFTS by M.R. Carey
THE TEARS OF DARK WATER by Corban Addison
THE STORY OF EDGAR SAWTELLE by David Wroblewski
I’LL BE THERE by Kyung-Sook Shin ^d
THIRST FOR LOVE by Yukio Mishima ^d
POOR PEOPLE by Fyodor Dostoevsky ^d
THE BLACK BOOK by Orhan Pamuk ^{c d}
THE BLACK NOTEBOOK by Patrick Modiano ^c ^d
THE HOUSE OF POWER by Sami Bindari ^d

^a 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die – 9
^b 2024 Top 24 Reading List – 8
^c Nobel Laureate in Literature – 3
^d Translated Literature – 12

I am setting a lofty target for myself it seems! HAHA. After all, these challenges are meant to push us beyond our boundaries. Success cannot always be guaranteed. Nevertheless, I am hoping I get to finish all these books. There is also a reason why I cross-marked it with my other reading challenges. For the third year in a row, I will also be participating in the reading prompt. Please note that this is optional and is just meant as a guide. I used the 2023 prompt and while I missed out on some, I managed to bingo, two times. Below is the reading prompt in Bingo Format.