Must Read in 2023 // Backlist Reading Goals

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 […]