Backlog Readathon

Backlog Readathon

Have a ton of unread books on your shelves? A mile-long TBR list? Need to round out your seasonal reading goals?

Join the Backlog Readathon, coming back in August!

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The next readathon will take place Aug 25–31, 2025, to close out the summer*. The goal is simply to read a little bit more than you might usually, and perhaps wrap up any summer reading challenges or beach reads.

* For those of us in the Northern hemisphere!

The readathon wrapped up! You can share what you read on the form through Jan 12.

How to participate

  1. Assemble your TBR list: if you like to plan your reading, create a stack or list of books you’d like to read during the readathon. Maybe plan some fun snacks or cozy reading vibes as well?
  2. Read! Between Aug 25–31, 2025, in your local time zone, just read some books. You might like to set a daily reading goal, or perhaps want to set aside a particular stretch of time to enjoy your stacks.
  3. Chat on social media: we’ll post actively on Bluesky and Mastodon. The hashtag is #BacklogReadathon. Consider introducing yourself and your plans for the readathon on social media.
  4. Share what you read on the Google form. For the inaugural readathon in December 2024, this form will close after Jan 12.

Q&A

  • Does _____ count as a book? Yes! All genres, words or not words, ISBN or self-published fanfic…anything that feels like a book to you counts as a book. All reading—whether you do so with eyes, ears, fingers, etc—counts as reading.
  • What is the code of conduct? The Contributor Convenant covers how we’d like community members to show up, but please take note that our ability to personally enforce it is quite limited on social platforms.
  • Is there a Discord? Book bingo? Challenges? This readathon is just a thing we’re trying out for fun (we = actually just one person), so we’ll keep it simple for now: a casual daily prompt on social media. Feel free to share your own ideas on social media.
  • Tell me more about this form! We’ll use the form submissions to tally up the collective number of pages and books we’ve read or made progress on. The form requires you to sign into Google, so that you can make edits.
  • Who made this readathon? That would be me, Melanie Richards! I’m just a person who loves to read and who perpetually has a case of tsundoku.