It’s no secret that I have a lot of books. Not as many as some, but enough. More than enough. Probably enough that if I read 100 books a year for the next 5 years, and didn’t get any more books during that time, I still would have some left unread.
This has been the general state of things for years, though; it’s nothing new.
However, my backlog of review copies has left me feeling decidedly guilty. Every month books come to me that I don’t get the chance to read. Sometimes I just can’t read that quickly. Sometimes health stuff gets in the way. There are a variety of reasons. And oftentimes, I end up putting those books on the back burner because other books are coming out soon and I really ought to focus on them instead.
Or so my mind tells me.
So these books that have passed their publication date often end up staying on that back burner. Sometimes I pick a couple off and remember, yes, I need to read that, no matter what, but for the most part, I still end up so focused on future books that the past books get left behind. And I feel guilty, because publishers and authors sent me those in good faith, hoping at least some review would come from it, and I let them down. I feel like I didn’t follow through, even though I made no guarantee that I’d get to read and review any of them.
That’s why I’m declaring 2017 to the the Year of the Backlog. I’m going to make some dents in that mountain!
I’m still going to have a little focus on upcoming books. Probably one a month. But everything else will be reviews of books that were published in 2016 or earlier. (Plus the remainder of the SPFBO books, of course). Taking everything into account, even if I only read and review 1 book a week, that will mean by the end of 2017, I’ll have cleared 44 books of my backlog, and while that isn’t many in terms of the whole giant mountain of books I have, it’s something. It’ll help get some weighty guilt off my chest. It’ll give me a fantastic and worthy excuse to stop focusing so much on what’s going to happen and let me focus a bit on all the good stuff that has already happened, all the books that came out in previous years that I missed or didn’t have time for or what have you.
Anyone with me in this challenge? Or will I be chipping away at Mount TBR alone?
Bibliotropic 
I think this is an awesome idea! Although I might join you on a smaller scale, like maybe one backlog book a month. My anticipated list for books coming out in 2017 is already a mile long so I wouldn’t want to miss out on those books. Ah what a dilemma!
Yeah, this is definitely going to result in me missing some good titles. But on the plus side, it’ll also mean having to be way more careful with any review copies I do accept, because I know there’s much less chance of me getting to them before 2018, so hopefully it’ll keep my To Read list from just expanding as much as I try to shrink it.
I’m also hoping to chip away at the books that got left behind. Good luck! I look forward to hearing about all of the great ones you almost missed. :)
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