2022 Beat the Backlist Challenge

This reading challenge, hosted by Austine @ Austine Decker.com, is returning for its 6th year in 2022! Designed to help you tackle all the books you keep meaning to read and still haven’t, this challenge is flexible enough to work for all kinds of readers. Last year, I read 72 books for this challenge, making a serious dent in my backlist. I’m pledging to read 70 books again in 2022.

Guidelines

• The book must be published in the previous year or earlier (for the 2022 challenge, anything published in 2021 or earlier counts).
• You have to start and finish the book in 2022.
• Any format, any genre. Re-reads count, and you don’t have to own the book. It’s open for the entire year so whenever you feel like jumping in, you can!
• And that’s it!
• The challenge runs from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022.

There is no formal sign-up for Beat the Backlist this year. Whether you want to make a Goodreads shelf, declare your participation on social media, make a blog post, share an instagram story, or say nothing at all, you’re welcome.

The only request is that if you do post somewhere online about the challenge, please give Austine a link back so more readers can learn about BTB!

Tracking

1. The Academy by Robert Dugoni
2. Third Watch by Robert Dugoni
3. Before She Disappeared by Lisa Gardner
4. Breaking Point by Allison Brennan
5. Morning Glory by LaVryle Spencer
6. The Bad Boy Experiment by Reese Ryan
7. Down a Dark Road by Linda Castillo
8. The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell
9. Little Girl Gone by Amanda Stevens
10. My Sister’s Grave by Robert Dugoni
11. In Dark Company by Linda Castillo
12. Abandoned by Allison Brennan
13. Dark Roads by Chevy Stevens
14. Her Final Breath by Robert Dugoni
15. Rock Chick Renegade by Kristen Ashley
16. Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter
17. Too Far Gone by Allison Brennan
18. A Gathering of Secrets by Linda Castillo
19. The Third to Die by Allison Brennan
20. In Plain Sight by Linda Castillo
21. Cold-Hearted Rake by Lisa Kleypas
22. Storm Warning by Allison Brennan
23. In the Clearing by Robert Dugoni
24. Tell No Lies by Allison Brennan
25. Marrying Winterborne by Lisa Kleypas
26. Take Me Higher by Pamela Clare
27. The Trapped Girl by Robert Dugoni
28. It’s Raining Men by Rich Amooi
29. Nothing to Hide by Allison Brennan
30. Shamed by Linda Castillo
31. Devil in Spring by Lisa Kleypas
32. The Pact by Linda Castillo
33. Close to Home by Robert Dugoni
34. Free Fall by Lisa Clark O’Neill
35. Cut and Run by Allison Brennan
36. Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano
37. Hostage by Clare Mackintosh
38. Educated by Tara Westover
39. A Steep Price by Robert Dugoni
40. Hello Stranger by Lisa Kleypas
41. The Sorority Murder by Allison Brennan
42. No Way Out by Allison Brennan
43. Outsider by Linda Castillo
44. Devil’s Daughter by Lisa Kleypas
45. Northern Escape by Tonya Burrows
46. Disappeared by Linda Castillo
47. Cold as Ice by Allison Brennan
48. A Cold Trail by Robert Dugoni
49. My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing
50. Chasing Cassandra by Lisa Kleypas
51. In Her Tracks by Robert Dugoni
52. A Deeper Fear by Allison Brennan
53. Fallen by Linda Castillo
54. Blacktop Wasteland by S. A. Cosby
55. Devil in Disguise by Lisa Kleypas
56. Orphan X by Gregg Andrew Hurwitz
57. Don’t Make a Sound by T. R. Ragan
58. Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano
59. Buy a Bullet by Gregg Andrew Hurwitz
60. It Started with a Dog by Julia London
61. The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary
62. An Invincible Summer by Mariah Stewart
63. See Her Die by Melinda Leigh
64. The Nowhere Man by Gregg Hurwitz
65. The Girl in the Ice by Robert Bryndza