Project Backlist Reading Challenge is back for 2024 and is better than ever to help you tackle your owned TBR and read more of what you own! I know that I said it in 2023 (and failed), but 2024 is the year that I finally get my owned TBR under control. Yes, you read that right: I am embarking on a year-long adventure to read more of what I own, and I’d love for you to join me in the Reader Voracious Project Backlist Reading Challenge!
Project Backlist was made available to Reader Voracious patrons early! This Reading Challenge will always be free, but if you’d like to support me and receive early post access, the ability to make requests, and more perks for as little as $2 a month!
As inflation soars and salaries remain stagnant, it’s time to put myself on a soft book buying ban for 2024 and focus on reading the books I already own. I want to feel rejuvenated and fulfilled by reading again, rather than shackled by the weight of my own expectations.
A 2023 Project Backlist Reflection
The inaugural year of Project Backlist can best be described as chaotic and untapped potential. Due to a number of things in my personal life, I found myself struggling to read… and that bled over into my ability to create content. As a result, Project Backlist didn’t get the attention that it deserved and I planned in 2023. 😭
Despite my personal management failings in 2023, I believe in Project Backlist and am bringing it back and better than ever. Rather than launching this reading challenge into the void, there will be quarterly email (and Goodreads / StoryGraph) check-ins to track progress and re-align with our goals, and the Nerd Voraciously Discord Server will still have a real-time section to chat all things Project Backlist!
On a personal challenge note, while I definitely fell short of my overall goal to get my owned TBR under control in 2023, I did cut down drastically on book hauls! I am counting this as a win because while my TBR is still a nightmare, at least it didn’t grow exponentially. Huzzah!
The Project Backlist Reading Challenge
The goal of Project Backlist is easy: read your owned TBR. Where this challenge differs from others is you decide the details of your challenge. This challenge is deliberately built in a way that everyone can join the community and build the challenge to meet their specific goals.
Potential Reading Challenge Goals
Project Backlist is what you make of it based on your own needs and no matter the ways you decide to participate, there will be a community of readers there with you every step of the way. Below are a few Project Backlist goal suggestions (each comes with an unlockable badge!) but feel free to create your own goals as well!
- Slow Haul: Read 3 owned books for every 1 new book purchased
- Completionist: Reach an 80% read rate for your owned books
- Committed Reader: Read an owned book a week (or a month)
- Cold Turkey: Book Buying Ban or an ARC Ban
- ARCrastinator: Clear overdue ARC list
- or create your own goal!
📊 Need help tracking your challenge? Download the FREE Ultimate Book Blogger / Reader Spreadsheet Template!
Reading Challenge Participants and Badge
Project Backlist Reading Challenge Participant Badge
Sign up to officially join the reading challenge to earn the participant badge!
Reading Challenge badges will be awarded to participants when completed via a self-reporting form and is on the honor system. Email and Discord announcements will provide reminders to submit progress quarterly.
Participants
Books Read
% Completed
Sign Up to Participate in Project Backlist
2024 is going to be an exciting year of reading and community, and I’d love to have you join us for Project Backlist!
Sign up to participate in 2024’s Project Backlist by completing the registration form. Participants will receive irregular (probably once every or every other month) updates and check-ins via email. The Nerd Voraciously discord server has a role for participants and a special area dedicated to all things Project Backlist.
While not required, participants are encouraged to publish a Project Backlist Reading Challenge sign-up post on their blog or social media so more people can hear about the challenge and join in on the fun! If you do, be sure to use that link when registering.
Let’s Chat!
I hope you’re as excited as I am for this new challenge and community activity! What are YOUR goals going to be? Do you have any badge suggestions? Let’s chat Project Backlist in the comments!
💖 If you like the work that I do here at Reader Voracious, consider fueling my pumpkin spice latte and black tie addiction by buying me a ko-fi or joining my Patreon! ☕
I am so excited! As you know my book collecting habit has become a problem hahahaha so I need help.
Project Backlist sounds like a wonderful challenge, and I do have a backlog of books on my shelves that I haven’t read yet, although I haven’t been buying new books and instead using Libby to read them.
I love this idea! What a great way to save money, all while enjoying what you already have. I don’t buy a lot of physical books, but I definitely need to start on my to-read and ARC pile. Thank you for sharing. Best of luck to you on your challenge!
This sounds like a great challenge. Good luck to everyone participating! I hope you have a wonderful 2024!
Thank you Jodie, and happy reading to you in 2024 and beyond!
I need that ARCcastinator and read 1 own book a week/month. Signing up.
I ALSO need ARCrastinator, did decently well last year and am hoping to clear off my backlog completely in 2024. Welcome and good luck!
Hi Kal! Really happy to find your blog, and also follow along your reading life now 🥰. This sounds like a wonderful challenge, love the specificity and flexibility… I’m another one of those readers that go berserk at the bookstore or the library! Wishing you a lovely new year! 💛
Hi Cherelle, I’m so glad you found the blog and WELCOME! Specificity and flexibility is such a succinct description of what I was going for, so I’m glad that resonates. I wish you all the best in your bookish adventures in 2024!
This is a great idea. I’ve noticed the prices of books and subscriptions going up so I’ve been literally only getting new books from the library or Libby, and gorging on KU books or ones I already own! My shelves could sustain me for years I’m trying to tell myself I don’t need the new shiny ones too 🤣🤣
Everything is so much more expensive these days and I HATE IT! Especially since wages aren’t keeping up, love to have 10%+ less buying power than in 2019. Love that you’re saving cash reading what you own, using your library, and KU! I hope you have an amazing reading year, Athena!
This is a really fun idea. I’ve kinda started started something like that but it’s just another year of trying to level my TBR (but let’s be honest I just wanna read books) lol
Thank you for stopping by and I truly hope you’re experiencing more success than me in tackling the TBR!
I can’t guarantee that lol
According to my Storygraph progress, I’m behind by 7 books to be on track for my 2023 reading goal 😂
I FEEL THIS IN MY BONES! I am currently 14 books behind and am just… trying my best at this point.
I’d already decided one of my main goals this year would be to read less ARCs and more off my existing shelves, so this is the perfect challenge for me. And I love the flexibility! It will work well with my other reading challenges, too. Thank you for organizing this, Kal!
We love to see perfectly timed challenges that align with your reading goals! I hope you’re enjoying a year of reading what you own so far, Dedra! I’m… failing thus far lol
Kal, you have no idea how much I need this. Thanks for organizing!
You’re most welcome, I hope the challenge is treating you well and that all the books are five stars!!!
I love the idea and highly endorse it! There’s nothing more satisfying than getting through the books we already own. I wish I could do more of it and faster myself haha Happy reading and happy new year! 😀
So glad you love the idea and endorse it, and you’re right — reading those owned books is such a satisfying feeling! Happy (belated) new year and I hope the first half of 2023 has been treating you well!
So excited for this Challenge! I do appreciate the effort that has gone in to creating the different levels. I’m going for the Slow Haul this year. Here’s my signup post https://ko-fi.com/post/Project-Backlist-Reading-Challenge-N4N4HEQZH
AHHHH so happy to have you joining Stephanie, and I hope the first half of 2023 (wtf how?!) has been well with your Slow Haul goal! I swear as soon as I make any plans, my brain is like “Yea we aren’t reading at all” and it’s very rude.
Such a good challenge! I started using my library way more during the last year, and will continue with that. I have 9 books on hold, some with 6 months wait, but I don’t mind. They have quite a good selection of audio books.
NORRIE! It’s so good to see you, how are you???
Libraries truly are wallet savers and I’m happy to hear you’re able to make use of one! Hope you’ve worked through that hold queue and are enjoying your reads/listens.
What a great idea for a challenge! I’m caught up on my owned TBR but I know many others aren’t. Wishing you much success on this challenge.
Thank you Jodie, and WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE CAUGHT UP!?!? I’m legit jealous over here haha
I’m in for the slow haul! Slow and steady seems the best way for me to tackle my backlist. I’ve started in 2022 and will continue in 2023 with a mix of backlist books and some new books that I really can’t resist.
Slow and steady wins the race for sure! I hope you smashed your 2023 goals, Inge, and apologies for the dreadfully late response to your comment (2023 sucked). Here’s to an awesome 2024!
No worries and thank you. I did reach my goal and added a few more thanks to audiobooks! Happy reading in 2024!!
I’m thrilled to hear it, Inge! Happy reading in 2024 as well!
I have been seeing challenges like this one all over the book community for 2023. I think 2023 will be the year to tackle our owned books haha
2023 definitely was the year of read what you got for a lot of people! Inflation certainly helped me reel in my out of control book buying habits this year.
This is such a great Reading Challenge! I’ve been working on tackling my owned TBR, so I’ll definitely join 🥰 I need to read some of the books that have been on my TBR for ages next year 🙏🏻
AHHH Caro, I hope you absolutely SLAYED the challenge in 2023! Sorry for taking an eternity to reply to your comment.
Here’s to an amazing 2024 for reads and more!
Ah Kal I absolutely adore this challenge! Whilst I don’t think my TBR is too out of hand, it’s definitely got room for improvement. Hopefully I’ll be able to have read 80% or more of my owned books by the end of next year! I think another goal I’ll add to it will be to read some of the backlist books I’ve been saying I will for years but just haven’t gotten round to. Mainly because I didn’t own physical copies of them but eBooks and libraries are wonderful things, so maybe my goals will be ‘Reach an 80% read rate for your owned books’ and ‘Read 5 backlist books (at least) that have been on my TBR for a year or more’.
Thank you so much for putting this together Kalkal, here’s to us trying to get a hold of our TBRs next year! 💜
Thank you Cloclo for your lovely comment and I am sorry for taking a year to respond (you know how 2023 was). I hope you SMASHED your 80% read goal and at least 5 backlist books read goal for 2023!
This sounds like a great challenge and I would LOVE participate! I really need to get my Netgalley and physical TBR under control and I think this is just the perfect motivation I needed to work on that!
Thank you so much for this! 🤍 all the best with you own challenge 😊
I am so sorry for the incredibly late response to your lovely comment, Mehek. Despite my best intentions, 2023 wound up being a really tough year and this specific challenge took the biggest hit. I did get some backlist reading done (more than 50% of my reads were backlist this year, though! NetGalley is the source of so much reader anxiety for me.
I hope you had a WONDERFUL reading year and am wishing you happy reading in 2024!
This is a great plan! Best of luck with your backlist reading. I’m going to try to read backlist books also—but for me it is both books that I own and books that I don’t, because I want to get my older TBR books off the list.
Love this and hope that you had a successful year of backlist reading, Nicole! Is your TBR any smaller? (Sorry for the stupidly late reply to your comment, 2023 blew.)
2023 was certainly something, right? My year overall was reasonably good, but even so it was an exhausting year.
While I didn’t list my Jan 2023 TBR count and so I can’t exactly determine how well I did, I can see that my average “year acquired” date on my read books spreadsheet is about 2022.5 … so I didn’t do a very good job of sticking to backlist books. Oh well. Hopefully in 2024!
“Certainly something” is definitely an accurate way to describe 2023 lol, I am so glad to see it in the rearview mirror. Glad it was a good year, albeit exhausting!
Good luck this year! Hopefully with the planned check-ins I’ve got for participants this year, it will be better all around.
This is so exciting! I deleted my TBR in the hopes of focusing on my owned TBR, so this is the perfect challenge.
DELETED YOUR TBR?!?! This is amazing and honestly something that I could probably benefit from. My to read shelf on Goodreads is so big that I don’t even look at it anymore — I’ll go to add new books and find that Past Me already did.
Apologies for the dreadfully late response to your comment, Sarah. (2023 wound up NOT being my year.) I hope you had a successful reading year in 2023!
I absolutely will be looking into this! I need a fun challenge to clear out my TBR.
My deepest apologies for replying to your comment a year later like a loser, 2023 was a dumpster fire of a year for me. I hope you had a wonderful reading year in 2023 and did some TBR clearing! Here’s to an amazing 2024 full of 5 star reads.
Oh, I can’t commit to any of these. But every so often I do a Shelf Control post where I pick an unread book from my shelf and decide if I’m going to keep hold of it to read in the future, or get rid of it to the nearest free public library. I’ve given away 6 books that way this past year!
We love a good shelf control post and I love that you’re so good about unhauling books, Davida! Want to come and help me purge some of the books I’m never going to read? hahahah
P.S. Sorry for taking 84 years to respond to your lovely comment, 2023 kind of sucked. I hope you had a fantastic year and here’s to an amazing 2024!
That’s a great challenge! I really need to check into this. I love how you can create your own goal. This might be the challenge for me. I have decided that 2023 is the year that I get my NetGalley under control. When Covid came, I quit my job and started watching my grandchildren. My reading took a major hit and it declined. Not for the lack of trying but lack of time, getting myself organized for this new position, and keeping these boys entertained and challenged. Well, 2023 I have vowed to get myself back into reading and get my NetGalley account back where it should be. I have to do this!!
I am absolutely mortified that it took me a YEAR to respond to your lovely comment, 2023 wound up being a really tough year for me and I am so sorry! I can totally relate to you with Netgalley – it’s been a main source of reader anxiety for me.
I hope that 2023 was a year that you were able to carve out time to read and get your NetGalley account under control! Wishing you a happy and joyful 2024.
This is the absolutely perfect reading challenge for me! I was going to start a new goal/series for myself relating to my out of control NetGalley arcs and that I have so many new books even though I’ve unhauled so many in the past couple of years. I totally signed up and hopefully it’ll help me get things under control! lol.
My Netgalley ARCs are a BIG source of my reader anxiety and this challenge has allowed me to focus on trying to get caught up while not adding to the pile, which is great! I am so sorry for never replying to your comment until now when the post was republished for the 2024 Project Backlist Challenge… 2023 was ROUGH! I hope you nailed your goals and here’s to a fantastic 2024!