Read What You Own 2026

@Peridot1 I didn't even get that far with Golden Hill before DNF'ing it. I realised it was just not my cup of tea after just a handful of pages. Sometimes a book is just not meant to be, but someone else will probably love it.

I've been on NetGalley since lockdown and have in the past fallen down the hole of requesting more than I can read .
I'm now auto approved for quite a few and get send invitations and for awhile that also made me accept too many .
I now only request my favourite authors or if one in a series I've read gets released .

@WinterFrogs - have just looked at Bookworm by Lucy Mangan. It sounds right up my street. Very tempted to buy it. Which is not what I’m supposed to be doing!

I finished Vince and Joy by Lisa Jewell. Quite enjoyed it.

Have just started one of the books DS gave me for Christmas- Golden Hill by Francis Spufford. Might be my first DNF of the year. Not enjoying it so far. Thought I would like it as it’s set in New York in 1746. One of the reviews on Good Reads sums up just how I’m feeling about it 66 pages in.

My first RWYO for 2026 was The God of the Woods by Liz Moore. It was a 3 read for me. I found it interesting *but not gripping, just a bit flat and mediocre. It certainly didn't leave me 'gasping for air' (one of the reviews on the back cover😂)

Haha I did think "should I mention it"

They do approve quite a lot of requests so let my downfall be a warning...or an encouragement!

Finished Bob The Robin by Tony Putman today.

It was a charming little tale of the author's growing friendship with the robins living in the garden where he works as a gardener. He spent the longest time with one he called Bob - several years, taking photographs and building a following on social media. The photographs are delightful.

Currently re-reading Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell ahead of (hopefully) going to see the film soon.

I've just cleared my kindle of all the rubbish i downloaded over a year ago on one of the "fill your kindle days" I felt like it had got overwhelming and I was never using it as a result. Still have over 50 physical books ive brought some as far back as 2020

..still sticking to my original pledge. I just signed up. That is all😆

I have looked at NetGalley😜I might have actualy 'more than looked!'

Thank you.
I'll try this.

@Raven08start by goal setting. I once went a 2 year period of no reading at all (mental health) I started back with a goal of 50 pages a day, absolutely forcing myself to do it. I was back in no time.

I wish I could get my reading mojo back 😕
I used to read every day.
My attention span is just shot 😕

I am already there! My favourite place on Mumsnet

No, we dont. If you'd like to join us on the 50 bookers, you'd be very welcome 😁

I've read it now , a very different book , in a good way , but in my opinion a disappointing end .

I finished In the Shadow of the Mountain, by Silvia Vasquez-Lavado, the first Peruvian woman to summit Everest. Very interesting but quite harrowing. Been on my bookshelf for a couple of years and now in the donate pile.

I'm now onto a library book - I'm assuming we don't record anything that is NOT RWYO on here?

@AliasGrape – I’m the world’s worst for buying kindle books and then realising that they are book 2 of a trilogy!

I’ve finished The Feud in the Chalet School, book 48 in the series and onto book 49.

You're all flying!

Finished The Women by Kristen Hannah.

My other aim I forgot to add earlier is clearing my Netgalley backlog and getting my score up. It's a website where you get free copies of book to leave a review. However when I joined I had no idea they'd say yes to the majority of my requests and I got swamped.

@AliasGrape I enjoyed the first. Then Kindle lied and said blueyedboy was the second. It isn’t- though it is set in the same universe but should really be read after the second. I have now read the second and own the third, which I will read some day

What I’ve just bloody realised is that I had the first on my kindle all along! I hadn’t read it, but it didn’t come up when I filtered by unread and I’m not sure why. I’m not sure if I want to go back to it now, I didn’t enjoy Different Class quite enough to feel like I have to read everything in order, and I’m not sure how much having read the second has given away - there is a previous scandal/ case referred to which should have clued me in to the fact that there had been a previous book but I kept thinking that would be expanded upon at some later date.

Perhaps I’ll go back later in the year, apparently there’s a third too!

Read Love Forms by Claire Adam. Thanks to @MamaNewtNewt I’ve been able to do monthly Collections and so I can only do what’s in that Collection for the month. It really helps focus and No Buy.

Finished a third book Different Class Joanne Harris

Been on my kindle since 2018. I didn’t realise it was the second in a trilogy so was a bit annoyed as might have preferred to read in order, though in reality that probably would have been another one that sat there unread for years! I really struggled to get into it for a long while, but ultimately I was staying up into the early hours to finish - it gripped me around the 50% mark. Some good misdirection and a twist I didn’t see coming but one that made you go ‘oh, of course’ when it happened.

I’ve just finished Factfulness by Hans Rosling which I started last year and which was a definite bold. I’ve decided to DNF another non-fiction book I started in 2025 The Romanovs The Final Chaper by Robert Massie as I thought this was about the last months of the Imperial family, but it’s actually about the identification of their bodies decades after their deaths. At 23% I’m finding it dull and a bit grim. I have two non-fiction books in my 2014 purchases folder and RNG has selected The First World War by Hew Strachan.