Must Read in 2023 // Backlist Reading Goals

Posted February 1, 2023 / Book Challenges, Book Lists, Features / 6 Comments

Back in 2016, I hosted a little challenge (not really – people could sign up but it was mostly for my own accountability!) where I made a list of “must reads” for the year. There were so many books I was jacked up for at one point and can’t believe I hadn’t gotten around to them. The same thing clearly remains true for 2023!

I managed to read THREE of the eight books I had on that 2016 TBR so clearly this method didn’t work for me… but I will bring blind optimism to this year and give it another shot! I don’t want to go crazy with an unrealistic number because I’m truly not great at reading backlist titles when I have review copies and new releases to be excited about (I’m the worst).

I thought it would be more fun to create a more traditional “challenge” rather than a direct TBR for myself. That way, I can intentionally read maybe one book more month that gets a must-read book off of my TBR. I’ll include some options of books below as well. For my purposes, “backlist” is going to mean anything from 2022 or earlier, unless I specify a year in the prompt itself.

Backlist Reading Prompts

1. A backlist review copy

This one is self-explanatory but realistically I could make a whole challenge of ONLY reading backlist review copies. I’m pretty good at staying on top of them (currently have a 70% Netgalley ratio) but there are plenty I could read lol. Anyways, 95% of the books I request for review are books I genuinely want to read and had on my TBR well before coming across them on Netgalley… so it’s always lame when I sit there and see all of the books I was excited about just…unread.

TBR Options: ALL FIRED UP, THE PLACES WE’VE NEVER BEEN, ALWAYS JANE, WHERE THERE’S A WHISK, GILDED, WAITING FOR TOM HANKS, DON’T YOU FORGET ABOUT ME

2. A backlist BOTM selection from my shelves

I start and stop my BOTM subscription quite a bit so it’s not like I have a million of these to choose from. According to the app, I’ve read 8 books from BOTM and still have 13 to read. Honestly not that bad. Two of them were for my January 2023 box so those don’t count for this particular challenge. That leaves 11 books, which I will list below!

TBR Options: ALL THE DANGEROUS THINS, GIRL FORGOTTEN, THINGS WE DO IN THE DARK, THE UNSINKABLE GRETA JAMES, BLACK CAKE, THE EX HEX, EVERYTHING WE DON’T SAY, THE HEART PRINCIPLE, THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME, ARSENIC AND ADOBO, HAPPY AND YOU KNOW IT

3. A backlist owned book published in 2021 or earlier

The next two are similar obviously. I wanted to specifically read a book I own – this can be physically or digitally, as long as it’s not a book I need to buy or check out from the library in order to read it. This could even include review copies that I have to read still because technically I own it on my Kindle. Anyways, this allows for me to pick a book from 2021 or earlier. I can’t only consider 2022 to be “backlist” this year! I’m not going to list all the review copies below but some of my TBR options include owned books/audiobooks.

TBR Options: DEFY THE NIGHT, YOUR LIFE HAS BEEN DELAYED, THE HEART PRINCIPLE, DONUTS AND OTHER PROCLAMATIONS OF LOVE, THE SUMMER OF BROKEN RULES, READ BETWEEN THE LINES

4. A backlist owned book published in 2020 or earlier

For whatever reason I pulled less cover images for this category (probably got sick of opening Goodreads listings lol), so there are only a couple listed below. Regardless, I have plenty of books that fit into this category I can still read from my list.

TBR Options: TROUBLE IS A FRIEND OF MINE, WINDWITCH

5. A backlist book that isn’t contemporary or mystery (ideally from this list)

I recently reminded myself I should probably read more genres. I love fantasy books when the pacing and world is right and sometimes science fiction can be fun too! I hope to make one of the reads for this challenge from the list I posted the other day.

TBR Options: NINTH HOUSE, WINDWITCH, MY CONTRARY MARY, FORGING SILVER INTO STARS, DEFY THE NIGHT, GILDED (plus the books in the link above)

6. Any backlist book from my “jazzed up for this” Goodreads shelf

I use this shelf on Goodreads to track any book I’m super excited about. I don’t remove them when the book is finally released, because then I have a shelf of top reads I’m looking forward to regardless of release date. I can pull any book from this list as long as they were published in 2022 or earlier.

TBR Options: All of the cover images on this page were pulled from that Goodreads shelf, plus many others you can find at the link above

7. A backlist book from one of my Five Star Predictions or Most Anticipated lists

I used to make Five Star Predictions lists and Most Anticipated TBRs for TTT all the time. I keep up with the latter type of post all the time and maybe I’ll bring Five Star Predictions back soon too. Regardless, I have a good amount to choose from and may have to review those options later, but there are a few on here from my 2021 most anticipated list below.

TBR Options: YOUR LIFE HAS BEEN DELAYED, MY CONTRARY MARY, READ BETWEEN THE LINES, THE HEART PRINCIPLE

8. A backlist book I preordered or just ~HAD~ to buy

I still do that thing where I decide I MUST own a book and just HAVE to buy it immediately… only to ignore it for months or years. This also goes for some preorders too. It’s not a hard and fast list or anything, but I can think of a number of books off the top of my head that I’ve included here. I can also reference my Goodreads “preordered” shelf if needed too.

TBR Options: THE SUMMER OF BROKEN RULES, THE AGATHAS, FIVE SURVIVE

9. A backlist book that is in a series or starts one

I know I should really focus on finishing or continuing series rather than starting them, but I wanted to open the door to start some fantasy series I really should get to. These books are all exciting options for me!

TBR Options: MY CONTRARY MARY, NINTH HOUSE, WINDWITCH, TROUBLE IS A FRIEND OF MINE, FORGING SILVER INTO STARS, DEFY THE NIGHT, SO THIS IS CHRISTMAS, GILDED

10. A backlist book by a favorite author

This is a little bit of a broad category but I think it’s worth noting that I sometimes put off reading books by favorite authors. I either do this to hoard them so I always have one waiting to read if I REALLY need it, or because I’m just a bad reader haha. Regardless of the reason, there are lots of books shown here (or elsewhere on my shelves) that could count for this prompt.

TBR Options: HOPE AND OTHER PUNCH LINES, THE ESCAPE ROOM, NINTH HOUSE, MY CONTRARY MARY, THE HEART PRINCIPLE, PLACE WE’VE NEVER BEEN, GILDED, SO THIS IS CHRISTMAS

11. A backlist holiday book

Another self-explanatory one but I to tend to get excited about new releases in the holiday category more than backlist options – I can never keep up! I only highlighted one book in the cover images above but there are definitely plenty I could choose from.

TBR Options: SO THIS IS CHRISTMAS

12. A book by an author I can’t believe I haven’t read yet

One author came to mind RIGHT away when I thought of this category so I have a feeling this will be where a Mhairi McFarlane book lands. All of her titles are on my shelves (either physical/owned or Goodreads) and I still have not read a book by her! There are other authors who have been on my list forever that I’ve never read (two posts can be found here and here).

TBR Options: DON’T YOU FORGET ABOUT ME, WAITING FOR TOM HANKS, THE CHEERLEADERS

Final Thoughts

Needless to say, this is only a small selection of book options that I may choose from to meet these prompts. I had fully intended on making this a true “must read THESE books in 2023” list, but I thought it would be more fun and open to do it this way. Hopefully I can meet some of these prompts (clearly I picked 12 to do one per month, but I would imagine January is a lost cause at the time I post this in the beginning of February lol).

6 responses to “Must Read in 2023 // Backlist Reading Goals

  1. Kate Unger

    Start with these three – so good!
    1. Waiting for Tom Hanks
    2. The Unsinkable Greta James
    3. The Heart Principle

  2. A friend was recently just recommending The Agathas to me and I think I want to give that one a shot soon (especially since the sequel is coming out in May! Thanks for reminding me to add them to my goodreads shelves 🙂 The Escape Room and The Heart Principle (still cannot believe I haven’t read this one yet!) are also on my TBR for this year. And I really enjoyed The Cheerleaders when I read it so I hope you do too!

    Kristin recently posted: January Purchases | 2023
    • Omg seriously, Heart Principle – cannot believe it’s taken this long to read hahah. I’ve owned it forever from BOTM and loooved the first two books. I didn’t even think about being near The Agathas sequel already… oy vey, definitely need to get to it soon haha. I feel like I keep forgetting Megan Goldin’s name… like I read and loved The Night Swim, picked up Stay Awake without realizing she was the same author, and realized finally the other day that she also wrote The Escape Room hahah. Like she’s one of my favorite mystery authors and I don’t even realize it!

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