One of my goals this year was to focus more on my backlist books list, particularly books that I already own but haven’t yet read, and promptly signed up to both Novelknight’s Beat the Backlist challenge and Whitney’s Unread Shelf Project. Although we are already 7 months into 2018 I appear to be failing miserably at the Unread Shelf Project as I keep getting distracted by ARCs and library books – great for hitting my monthly TBR goals but terrible for making any progress towards reading the books I already own!
In an attempt to do something to turn this around for the latter part of 2018, I have teamed up with Alexa of goldenxlibrary in the hopes that peer pressure will do wonders for making us stick to our goals! We have set ourselves two main rules about the books we read:
- have to be published prior to 2018
- bought before the current month
We also agreed to aim for at least 3 books which fit this criterion per month to make sure a decent chunk of our monthly TBR is focused on our owned TBR to hopefully cut down on the number of unread books we both own!
Earlier in the year, I created an Unread Shelf list that I try to update at least once a month to keep track of my unread books as well as shame myself by seeing all those books written down on paper! As of today, I have 89 books waiting to be read. If I read at least 3 books a month, I will be able to get through at least 18 books which will be a start at least.
July
I have technically already read a book I own this month, but as I finished it before this post I will be strict on myself and not include it! This month my TBR is revolving around the OWLs July resit to all three of these books were chosen as part of that challenge and all three are also gifts from my partner!
Look out for my July #2 post later this month for an update on how I’ve done for my Unread Shelf challenge, and also check out Alexa’s blog too!
GOODREADS / TWITTER / INSTAGRAM /
AMAZON / PATREON
Red Rocket Panda 
I think I was too late for the Beat the Backlist challenge, or I just didn’t feel like tracking another challenge? Never heard of the Unread Shelf one before this.
Yay for peer pressure! Lol my “owned and unread” shelf has over 400 books, so it would likely take at least 2 years to read even if I stopped adding things to it. Getting it under 400 would be nice. Yay for us 😀
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I am having this same problem. I have so many unread books that I own (over 500), but I still keep getting ARCs and checking out books from my library instead. UGHH. So jealous that you have 89 books versus my 500+ LOL. GOOD LUCK! I hope you can get a ton of those ready. I bet it’ll feel amazing catching up on that backlist of books.
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This seems like a very good challenge! I look forward to seeing what you think of Everfair – I read it earlier this year for a book club, and it was quite different to what I expected.
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This is the right kind of problem to have, though…plenty of wonderful things to read. Good luck with your challenge!!
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This is such a great idea! I think I’ll try to do this too. Good luck and happy reading!
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Honestly, I feel like I’m failing the Beat The Backlist challenge too! I hope this really works for you, it’s a really cool idea! Buddy reads might help too!
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ooooh this is such a good goal!!! guess we all suffer from owning countless books we still havnt read but with so many upcoming releases, it’s almost impossible to get this under control, isnt it??? i hope u will succeed with this!!
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