#beat the backlist bingo

[the-forest-library]

Beat the Backlist Challenge 2024

[the-forest-library]

You know I love a good book challenge, but there are still a few I need to close out. It seems like I should be done already having read 350+ books (I know this is a wild number, and before anyone asks: I listen to audiobooks all of the time, work from home, have multiple chronic illnesses, and practice Covid avoidance), but I guess being a mood reader still outweighs the volume of what I’m reading. The physical book I’m reading now will complete the Popsugar Reading Challenge. I’ve got a few left to finish on the Beat the Backlist bingo, and there’s one book left on my 22 in 2022 list that I’m just not in the mood for. If my library had the audiobook, I could probably power through it, but since I’ll need to read the physical book, it’s going to depend on what I’m in the mood for in December.

How are you doing with your goals?

Weekly Bookish Question #312 ( November 20th - November 26th):

Are you someone who really gears up for the end of the (reading) year and plans what you still want/need to get to, or does the end of November not feel like any other time of the year for you in terms of your reading?

[elenajohansenreads]

Books I Read in 2021

#45 - Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray

Mount TBR: 43/100

Beat the Backlist Bingo: Chapter title page has art (illustrated by the author, no less)

Rating: 3/5 stars

I haven't had an experience quite like that since I first read Les Miserables in eighth grade. It took me just over a month of steady, dogged reading, and I carried that book with me everywhere--to every class in school, every time I was sitting in the backseat of the car while running errands with my parents, every time I read before bed.

Vanity Fair reminds me a lot of Les Mis, not in tone or subject matter, but in my sheer determination to get through it, even when it's slow going. Because I started this book in February. The wit and charm and lively characters carried me through the first two hundred pages fairly easily, but then I began to lose steam. I took what I thought was a short break to read something else before going on, and when I went back, suddenly it was hard to read more than a chapter or two at a time. I told myself to keep going. After all, I was still enjoying it--it wasn't the same feeling of epic struggle to stay interested that I had with War and Peace last year. I liked this book, yet somehow, I couldn't motivate myself to read it.

Pretty soon it became clear the problem wasn't Vanity Fair itself, or at least, not mostly. I was just in the worst reading slump of my adult life, because nothing I read could hold my attention long. I took almost an entire month off reading, but when the mood struck to try again, I'd either try a new book and set it down after five pages, or nibble at the edges of Vanity Fair. When I declared (to myself) that my reading slump was over, I was just past 400 pages in.

Like magic, once I'd warmed up with a few light reads, the pages began to fly by again. I could finish several chapters in a sitting, and genuinely want to read more.

But this is a book review, right? Not the story of my reading slump. So what was it that was giving me difficulty, specifically, about this work?

The names. Formal name etiquette in British high society is just the pits. Our main character, Rebecca, probably showed up in the text under about a dozen different names or epithets throughout the course of the story, because she's got her first name, her full name, her nickname, her married name both formally as Mrs. Husband's Name and Becky/Rebecca Husband's Name, and of course any given description posing as a person that Thackeray wanted to attach to her. Eventually at the very end she's mostly Mrs. Becky, which I didn't recall being used much before. On top of that, there were other instances when a change of status caused me some confusion, because first we have Pitt Crawley, no title attached, son of Sir Pitt Crawley, but when the elder Crawley dies, of course Pitt becomes Sir Pitt because the title passes on, even though that's also the name of the now-dead character. Any male character in the military might be referred to by his rank rather than his name, and when multiple military figures are in the same paragraph (as they often are) they are all referred to by an inconsistent mix of their names and ranks.

And all of this is happening constantly through the entire nearly-700-pages of the novel. It's exhausting.

When this was published, I have no doubt this was common enough that readers had little issue with it. Now? I often had to stop to parse who was who because of the constant flux of designations.

If I could strip that stylistic inconsistency out, that would fix a lot of my problems with reading this right away. However, there were still others. While the core cast of characters is relatively small compared to some epic classics of this length, Thackeray does like to veer off on tangents frequently and spend a chapter or three detailing the life and situation of a minor character. That's something I remember loving in Les Mis, which, again, is the thing I have read that is most like this book; but here, somehow I was never as fascinated by these little portraits as I was when Hugo did it. Here I was invested in Becky and Amelia and William Dobbin (in fact, the resolution of his story is the primary reason I finished this book at all--I was hanging on for that happy ending.) But I did not find myself particularly interested in Lord Steyne or Mrs. Major O'Dowd or the Gaunt family. The minor characters were not completely without charm to me, as I particularly liked the single-page tale of Becky's little French maid abandoning her. What the girl took, what became of her, how she fared after Becky's tyranny, that was all grand. But it was also short, and seeing as it came immediately after we read of Becky's downfall, it felt timely and appropriate. Many of the other, larger tangents from the main story line left me scratching my head about why I was suddenly learning new names or jumping to a different country. I admit to skimming some of the side bits that seemed less relevant or interesting, in order to get back to the "good" parts.

How do I feel three months later now that I'm finally done? It was a long walk to that happy ending I was 95% sure was coming. I'm pleased to be finished but not particularly eager to try any other Thackeray works, because while I liked many things about his style--the wit and humor, the insertion of himself as narrator into the story (occasionally) as a character, the biting satire--there's also simply too much dead weight to carry in order to get to all of that. I'm glad I read it, but I never need to reread it. It's rare for me to find myself finishing a classic novel without either loving it to pieces (My Antonia, Les Mis, Jane Eyre) or hating it with the fiery passion of a thousand suns (too many to name.) But I found this book simply good--not great, not terrible.

[rowanmoonflower]

It's that time of year...time to plot out my reading challenges for the new year! Perusing some online blogs and websites for inspiration and I'm participating in the Beat the Backlist 2022 Challenge and the 14th Cannonball Read for 2022. Hopefully I will finally post some reviews of the books I read in 2022!

Time to get my reading journal pages planned and ready to go. I just might finally get my other commonplace books updated in the new year too. Looking forward to decreasing that TBR pile in 2022.

[bookcub]

my update on beat the backlist. finally got two bingos

[coffeebooksorme]

2019 Reading Wrap Up

I did pretty damn good with my reading in 2019! I read a LOT of books, most of which were good, which IDK what that says about me. Either I’m not picky at all or I’m just too damn nice when it comes to reviewing books. I am definitely getting more critical with my reviews because I had a more well rounded array of ratings this year vs 2018. 

I do plan to keep a more thorough track of what I read in my bullet journal this year just to see how my reading is progressing. I’ve got it broken down to very specific things I want to track and I plan on doing it quarterly so if you’re interested in that nerdy kind of stuff, keep an eye out for that!

TOP TEN READS OF 2019

Darkdawn by Jay Kristoff

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Fix Her Up by Tessa Bailey

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

Well Met by Jen DeLuca

The Toll by Neal Shusterman

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

Tweet Cute by Emma Lord

A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer

Compared to 2018, my read genres are much more spread out. I’m not reading exclusively fantasy or sci-fi any more and I’ve branched out to adult fiction, which you can tell because my top 10 is barely fantasy/sci-fi. I’ve gotten back into adult romance again, which is definitely fun! I used to exclusively read adult paranormal romance before I went to nursing school and while I’m reading more contemporary adult romance now, I definitely missed the genre!

I also started to seriously DNF books in 2019. In previous years I would just soldier on and keep reading because I was worried I might miss something. I don’t do that anymore. I do try to give the book a decent chance but if I don’t like the tone or I’m just not vibing with the characters/story then I’ll DNF it and move on.

My TBR is still huge. I don’t think I’ll ever have a tiny TBR and that’s okay with me. I am trying to not just buy books on a whim, which I think I’ve done better with last year than in previous years. I almost exclusively preorder all my books now so that I can cut down on that. I do go to the bookstore every now and again to cut down on splurging but I do still do that from time to time, though not as badly as I did before.

For 2020, I’m still going to keep a reading bullet journal. I have loads of spreads to keep tract of my reading, which I will hopefully keep up with. I am going to participate in two yearly challenges: Beat the Backlist and the Pop Sugar Challenge. I don’t really like set TBR’s and I totally flaked on my TBR Bingo board last year so I’m hoping that keeping the challenges open to interpretation will help me keep in line with them so we’ll see!

[thefallingdownthebookhole]

2019 Beat the Backlist Challenge | September Update

2019 Beat the Backlist Challenge | September Update #BTB

The challenge will run from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019.

Books must be released prior to 2019 to count for this challenge.

♣ The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor The Looking Glass Wars Seeing Redd ArchEnemy

♣ Shattered Sea Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie Half A King Half the World Half a War

♣ Lunar Chronicle Series by Marissa Meyer Cress Fairest Winter

♣ Harry Potter Series by J.K Rowling Har…

[the-forest-library]

Queer AF - Okay, Cupid

2023 Debut Novel - One Night in Hartswood

That’s Not My Name - The Marvelous Magic of Miss Mabel

Good Vibes Only - Infectious Generosity

Bird is the Word - Elf Dog & Owl Head

On Your TBR 5+ Years - The Silver Chair

Between 300 and 400 Pages - A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Mayhem

Name That Tune - The Breakup Tour

Dance the Night Away - The Ladies Rewrite the Rules

Four Word Title - All the Hidden Paths

These Woods Hold Secrets - After the Forest

Coauthored or Illustrated - Winter

Neon Colored Cover - Karma

Prominently Features a Desert - Places We’ve Never Been

Hotel, Mansion, or Castle - The Glass Castle

Retelling of a Classic - Most Ardently

Creature Feature - Shady Hollow

Written By or About a Celebrity - A Book of Days

Blurbed By a Fave Author - Just for the Summer

STEM Stan - The Planets

I Was Framed! - Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice

Writing About Writing - Says Who?

Second Chances - The Tusks of Extinction

Author Last Name Starts With V - Every Time You Hear That Song

Let's Circle Back to This - The Husbands

First in an Unfinished Series - The Lying Game

[asreadbydana]

2019 Journal Pages

Hello friends! I am back again with another reading journal post, but this time I am showing you the pages I have set up for 2019! A lot of these are the same as last year with a few little additions and changes. 

TBR Shelf I have once again drawn a bookshelf and included all of the unread books that I physically own.  As I read each book I will color it in and hopefully by the end of the year it will be completely filled in! 

Beat the Backlist Reading Bingo Next, as the title suggests, is the reading bingo for Beat the Backlist (which can be found here). I accidentally only did 64 squares instead of 81, but I think that’s still a good amount of books. Plus I wrote down the prompts in a different order😅 Basically with this spread, each time a read a book that fulfills one of the prompts I will color the corresponding square in on the board and then right the title of the book on the right side. I haven’t decided how I’m coloring it yet, so that’s why it’s still blank. 

Book Releases Another self-explanatory page, the list of new releases I am interested in. I only did January through June as of right now because some books don’t have release dates yet or haven’t officially been announced. When July rolls around I’ll make another page with the releases for the last half of the year that I’m looking forward to. 

Goodreads Reading Challenge Another spread I had last year, a tracker for my Goodreads reading challenge. This year I have set my goal at 80 books and like last year I am going to color each square in according to the genre of the book. However, I am still deciding on a key that I want to follow so once I finish it I will post a picture. 

Overview of Books Read This is yet another spread I had last year that I used to mark the days I finished a book. However, this year I am going to use the same genre color coding that I am going to use for my Goodreads tracker to denote the books. I think it will be fun to see all the different colors! 

Book Hauls Last but not least we have the spots where I will keep track of what books I am adding to my collection each month. 

[elenajohansenreads]

I knew/expected that Tiamat's Wrath would get me "it's on a ship" if nothing else did beforehand--it's on several ships! But it does not get me a bingo, and as discussed before, "caused a major book hangover" is a space I'm not necessarily likely to get because of the way I assign books to spaces.

I'm genuinely surprised I don't have a second bingo by now...

[saoirse-a-k]

2019 Book Bingo Challenge & January TBR

feel free to do this yourself or share/redistribute it!

the slots I’m tackling first will be A Non-Fiction Book, A Reread, and A Book Received As A Gift!

I’m at 96 books for 2018 so far, so I’m going to try my best to catch up to an even hundred before I start best-of posts.

Also doing Beat The Backlist again next year, hopefully with more long-term success than this year!

[reddjena]

Beat the Backlist 2022 February Update

Beat the Backlist 2022 February Update

Although I wasn’t able to focus on reading much during the rest of February, I wanted to post a quick update about the few new prompts I have finished and the ones I have started on. You can find out more about the challenge as well as plenty of graphics by reading the original post here. My plan is to post monthly with an update to the Bingo card with the plan to fill out the entire board by end…

[coffeebooksorme]

JANUARY 2019 WRAP UP

A new year, another wrap up, and a great one at that! I read a lot of really great books this month AND I managed to tick off 3 books from my TBR Bingo sheet! I finished two series as well, so I think I did a good job kicking off the year!

In February, I plan on beating my backlist of books down as much as possible since my new release preorders won’t be as daunting as January! There’s Contemporary-A-Thon being hosted by some booktubers that I’ll be participating in from Feb 11th-17th and I’ve already got a tentative TBR going for that. I’ll be nailing it down by next weekend and will post it soon, along with this months bookish bujo spread. 

I also need to pick a TBR Bingo book to read this month and I’m not sure what I want to choose just yet. I don’t want to commit to something too long, which is basically my whole Bingo sheet, so we’ll see. A lot of them are books that are 1st in a series and I’m hesitant to do them because if I like it then I’ll want to read the rest of the series and...yeah. lol

FAVORITES OF THE MONTH

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

DUDS OF THE MONTH

NONE!!!!

FEBRUARY RELEASES I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO

Bloodwitch by Susan Dennard

The Blood Spell by C.J. Redwine

The Last Life of Prince Alastor by Alexandra Bracken

[thefallingdownthebookhole]

2019 Beat the Backlist Challenge | August Update

2019 Beat the Backlist Challenge August Update #btb #bookblogger

The challenge will run from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019.

Books must be released prior to 2019 to count for this challenge.

♣ The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor The Looking Glass Wars Seeing Redd ArchEnemy

♣ Shattered Sea Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie Half A King Half the World Half a War

♣ Lunar Chronicle Series by Marissa Meyer Cress Fairest Winter

♣ Harry Potter Series by J.K Rowling Har…

[the-forest-library]

Takes Place Primarily in Winter or a Cold Region: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries

Set on a Continent You Don’t Live On: The Key to My Heart

Meant to Read It Last Year: This is Not a Book About Benedict Cumberbatch

Giving an Author a Second Chance: Wildwood Dancing

Protagonist Name Starts with M: The Silence Between Us

An Author Writing Under a Pseudonym: Illuminations

Point of View Character is Under 18: 6 Times We Almost Kissed

Lost or Found in the Title: Windfall: The Prairie Woman Who Lost Her Way and the Great-Granddaughter Who Found Her

Non-Fiction Just For Fun: Hello, Molly!

Standalone: They Never Learn

All the Romance: Never Ever Getting Back Together

Name in the Title: Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun

Multiple Points of View: A Guide to Being Just Friends

Here There Be Monsters: The Witch Boy

Protagonist Has a Pet: Hawkeye, Vol 1

Five Word Title: The Star That Always Stays

Plants on the Cover: Plant-Based on a Budget

All About Music or the Arts: A Little Bit Country

That Heist Plot Tho: Partners in Crime

Character is Keeping a Big Secret: Five Survive

Family Drama or Court Intrigue: Ms. Demeanor

Point of View Character is an Adult (18+): Funny You Should Ask

The House is Alive (or at Least Very Important): Mysteries of Thorn Manor

Less Than 170 Pages: The Cool Bean

Released at Least 23 Years Ago: The Thief

This School Isn’t What it Seems: Charmed Life

Letter “Z” in the Title: Margot Mertz for the Win

More Than 450 Pages: Winterkeep

All the Nature Vibes: What Looks Like Bravery

Epistolary or an Unusual Writing Style: The Reunion

Featuring Travel (Time Optional): To Say Nothing of the Dog

Spooky Vibes: Nine Liars

Cozy Read or Cover: The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen 

Won an Award: The Thief

Fairy/Folktale You Haven’t Heard of Before: The Magic Fish

No Romance: The Cats of Tanglewood Forest

Let’s Play Sportsball: If Only You

It’s a Trope! (Your Favorite): The Fiancee Farce

Your Favorite Genre: The Queen of Attolia

Set in or Inspired by the 1700s or 1800s: Of Manners and Murder

Main Cover Color is Your Least Favorite Color: The Librarian of Crooked Lane

First in a Trilogy: Royal Blood

2022 Debut Novel: Every Summer After

[lizziethereader]

Nice! I can’t believe you accidentally got so far with the beat the backlist bingo - that takes a lot of planning for me, haha (and even now there’s prompts I just don’t know if I can fulfill...) - very impressive!

Weekly Bookish Question #259 (November 17th - November 20th):

In case you are or have been participating in any, how is it going with the reading challenges this year?