Hello hello, everyone!

If you’ve seen the slider on the home page of the blog, you may have noticed the same banner pictured above. That’s right, folks, do I have the reading challenge for you. Beat the Backlist is to knock off some of those older titles on your TBR that tend to get pushed aside in favor of new or unreleased titles. You can read all about it by clicking here or the image above.

Now, the challenge itself is pretty open. YOU set how many books you want to read. YOU pick the books. It’s designed for you to feel like you succeeded whether you want to read 5 books or 100. BUT that also leaves room for lots of fun throughout the challenge, including something very dear to my heart: Harry Potter.

I’m a proud Slytherin, personally, but I know readers from all four houses and now it’s time for a little friendly competition. During the challenge, you can declare what house you will be reading for and by completing any of the challenges below, you can earn points for your house.

At the end of each month starting at the end of January, I will display a cup for the house currently in the lead in the sidebar with which month they won.

THIS CHALLENGE IS COMPLETELY OPTIONAL. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DO THIS IN ORDER TO DO THE BEAT THE BACKLIST READING CHALLENGE.

This is just for a little extra fun and depending on how things go I may host a few house-themed giveaways to go along with it.

THE POINTS

Post Challenge TBR/goals (on blog, Goodreads, social media, etc) = 20 points

(note: simply adding your blog URL to the link-up does not count for this - see example here)

Read 10 pages = 1 point

Write review = 50 points

Cross-post review to a retail website (Amazon, B&N, etc) = 15 points

There will be other opportunities to earn points during Twitter chats, random hashtag days, and other small events to be announced throughout the year.

HOW TO SIGN UP

This challenge is for anyone participating in the Beat the Backlist challenge so:

ADD YOUR TBR/GOAL POST OR GOODREADS SHELF (whichever you’ve decided to do) TO THE LINK-UP BELOW

*OPTIONAL* FILL OUT THE FORM FOLLOWING THE LINK-UP TO ALSO COMPETE FOR THE HOGWARTS HOUSE CUP

 

If you would also like to join in the mini House challenge, fill out the form below!

Check back here at the beginning of January for a Google form that you can add your books/pages read, review links, etc. to start earning points. Links will be shared on the NovelKnight media pages so if you want to make sure not to miss it, you can follow through any of the pages linked in the sidebar, or by email.

Want to be even more awesome?

Add any of the icons below (or your own) to your blog and link back to either this post or the general challenge information!

Can’t wait to see which House wins!