
Hello, sweet peas!
Do you remember that I told you I would enter a six-month Book Buy Ban? Do you remember that I told you how my tbr was growing over my head, slowly encasing me with its stacks for me to be never seen again? (If you don’t, see here for all the gory details. 😉 )
Well, at this point, Austine from the Novelnight came just at the right time. There is a year-long reading challenge going on that I was only dimly aware of – BEAT THE BACKLIST. The link will take you straight to the main page and tell you all about what you need to know about this challenge. (I’m really, really impressed with how they put this up. Really. It’s pretty amazing. )
I have made up a shelf I am naming “Joel” on Goodreads that is dedicated to these books. I’m actually really looking forward to reading these and hope I can stay on track.
Title | Author | Series | Year published | Genre | Read |
Black Coffee | Christie, Agatha | Hercule Poirot #45,5 | 1998 | Mystery | |
Blut des Olymps, Das | Riordan, Rick | Helden des Olymp #5 | 2014 | Middlegrade | |
Bösland | Aichner, Bernhard | 2018 | Thriller | ||
Cogheart | Bunzl, Peter | The Cogheart Adventures #1 | 2016 | Middlegrade | ✔️ |
Coldest Girl in Coldtown, The | Black, Holly | 2013 | YA | ||
Curse so dark and lonely, A | Kemmerer, Bridgit | Cursebreakers #1 | 2019 | YA | |
Dark Lord of Derkholm | Jones, Diana Wynne | Derkholm #1 | 1998 | Fantasy | |
Dark Vault, The | Schwab, Victoria | 2018 | YA | ||
Doctor Who: Timelord Fairytales | Richards, Justin | 2015 | Fantasy | ||
Drachenreiter | Funke, Cornelia | Drachenreiter #1 | 1997 | Middlegrade | |
End of Days | Ee, Susan | Penryn & the end of days #3 | 2015 | YA | |
Every hidden thing | Oppel, Kenneth | 2016 | YA | ||
Fiend in Need, A | Thomson, Jamie | Dark Lord #2 | 2012 | Middlegrade | |
Golden Specific, The | Grove, S.E. | Mapmaker Trilogy #2 | 2015 | YA | |
Haus des Hades, Das | Riordan, Rick | Helden des Olymp #4 | 2013 | Middlegrade | |
Jane Eyre | Bronte, Charlotte | 1847 | Classic | ||
Last Dragon, The | Riley, James | The Revenge of Magic #2 | 2019 | Middlegrade | |
Little Women | Alcott, Luisa May | 1869 | Classic | ||
Lost Compass, The | Ross, Joel N | The Fog Diver #2 | 2016 | Middlegrade | |
Mord im Gurkenbeet | Bradley, Alan | Flavia de Luce #1 | 2009 | Mystery | |
Mord im Orientexpress | Christie, Agatha | Hercule Poirot #10 | 1934 | Mystery | |
Northernlights | Pullman, Philipp | His Dark Materials #1 | 1995 | Fantasy | |
Pick the plot | Riley, James | Story Thieves #4 | 2017 | Middlegrade | |
Renegades | Meyer, Marissa | Renegades #1 | 2017 | YA | |
Sad Cypress | Christie, Agatha | Hercule Poirot #22 | 1940 | Mystery | |
Scythe | Shusterman, Neal | Arc of a Scythe | 2016 | YA | |
Secret Origins | Riley, James | Story Thieves #3 | 2017 | Middlegrade | |
Shadow and Bone | Bardugo, Leigh | Grisha #1 | 2012 | YA | |
Shadows of Winterspell | Wilson, Amy | 2019 | Middlegrade | ||
Smell of other peoples houses, The | Hitchcock, Bonnie-Sue | 2016 | Historical Fiction | ||
Sparkling Cyanide | Christie, Agatha | Colonel Race #4 | 1944 | Mystery | |
Warcross | Lu, Marie | Warcross #1 | 2017 | YA | |
Stolen Chapters, The | Riley, James | Story Thieves #2 | 2016 | Middlegrade | |
Story Thieves, The | Riley, James | Story Thieves #1 | 2015 | Middlegrade | |
To kill a kingdom | Christo, Alexandra | 2018 | YA | ||
Tunnel of Bones | Schwab, Victoria | City of Ghosts #2 | 2019 | Middlegrade | ✔️ |
Und dann gab’s keines mehr | Christie, Agatha | 1939 | Mystery | ✔️ | |
Unwind | Shusterman, Neal | Unwind #1 | 2007 | YA | |
Vengeful | Schwab, Victoria | Vicious #2 | 2018 | YA | |
Vicious | Schwab, Victoria | Vicious #1 | 2013 | YA | |
Von Sternen gekrönt | Benkauf, Jennifer | One True Queen #1 | 2019 | YA | |
Where the Sidewalk ends | Silverstein, Shel | 1974 | Poems | ||
Worlds Apart | Riley, James | Story Thieves #5 | 2018 | Middlegrade | |
Things that go bump in the night squat | Buckley, Andrew | Hair in all the wrong places #3 | 2018 | Middlegrade |
There will be more. I just know it. For example I wanna do a buddy read of “Death on the Nile” by Agatha Christie and I wanna read even more Agatha Christie and probably also some books that I just forgot to put on the list and will franticly scramble to add, as soon as I have pressed the Publish button.
I will also do a lot of rereads because that’s something I do at the beginning of the year. I don’t even know why.
I have also decided to try myself at the Beat the Backlist bingo. The big one. Since I wanna read 80 books this year anyway. And because go big or go and cry in a corner, right?

I hope I can do all of those. I’m seriously hyped.