Read What You Own 2026

@ÚlldemoShúlI haven’t read any Dorothy Koomson books, but maybe others could recommend.

I’m making my way through my library books, as well as another book borrowed to help DD with a school project, so just getting back to RWYO. However my aunt and DM have given me a pile of books so I’m not doing as well in keeping on top of things as I hoped…

In the meantime I’ve finished Keep Laughing by Chris McCausland, picked up from a charity shop this summer so not strictly (see what I did there) under my own RWYO rule. A good read, but it will be passed on.

I am doing a terrible job of reading my RWYO. I keep buying /borrowing new books and reading them instead .
I set myself a challenge of reading 26 books I already owned in 2026 and am on book 22. Which doesn't sound too bad ... Except I have read over 100 books so far this year (I had a couple of long illnesses). That means I have read over 80 new books!

Currently reading "And the Mountains Echoed" which is a RWYO (a charity shop find) and it is a great book but distressing in places so I am balancing it with reading Dr Thorne by Trollope which is very gently enjoyable.

Another slump here - I feel like I haven’t finished anything in ages until today, when I finished Kala by Colin Walsh which is so far from what I expected to be, it’s been on my kindle for years and I think I’d mixed it up with another book in my head.

Hoping that’s slump over but we’ll see.

Away for work and managed to finish another RWYO on the way down Super-Infinite by Katherine Rundell which I very much enjoyed. Not sure what’s next.

Currently reading The Eights by Joanna Miller.. enjoying so far

@SnowFrogJellyI really enjoyed The Eights.

I’ve finished This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page

Two RWYO books for me - The Stone Circle and The Lantern Men by Elly Griffiths

Next two Ruth Galloway books. I enjoyed the central crimes in these, but I’m finding the Ruth / Nelson cycle pretty irritating now and wish Ruth would get some self respect and Nelson some morals.

I liked some early Dorothy Koomson books and liked them, but recent reads have put me off her books for life. I know someone else on the 50B thread had a similar reaction to one of her recent books.

I have been rereading a lot of books that I have owned for decades, but unfortunately they all fall apart when I'm about halfway through, and chunks of pages come loose, which is very inconvenient.

I was listening to some old editions on A Good Read and someone chose The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazard. I read it back in the 80s, when it was first published, and back then I nearly gave up on it. However, I persevered and ended up loving it.

Funnily enough it had been chosen by Geoff Dyer, and he said exactly the same thing. He had abandoned it for years, but went back to it later and loved it.

Anyway, I am enjoying it but want to give the heroine a good shake and tell her to stop mooning over the spoilt man child she's in love with.

A couple of old books finished here too; not as old as @TonTonMacoute’s : Drop the Dead Donkey 2000 by Andy Hamilton and Alistair Beaton and The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. Not keepers so two more for the charity bag.

I finished The Summer Book by Tove Jansson last night, another one that’s been hanging around on my kindle for over a year, maybe more than two. I meant to read it during actual summer, but it was pleasant enough.

Another one which I think is RWYO, I have no recollection of buying it so I'm assuming it was a good while ago. Technilcally 'listen to what you own' as it was on Audible - Mrs Quinn's Rise to Fame - Olivia Ford, narrated by Juliet Stevenson. This was enjoyable, a little predictable and a little slow in parts, but a good comfort read/ listen especially right now when our whole house has been struck by the back to school lurgy.

Just read The Stars are Fire by Anita Shreve, nothing outstanding but I did like it.

Managed to read three RWYO books. Full reviews on the 50B thread.

The Central Park Five by Sarah Burns, The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths and The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths

Finally finished another book which was Rebecca a reread that's been sitting on my Kindle for 7 years. Just excellent, so atmospheric.

Daphne DuMaurier has never let me down and Rebecca is brilliant.

I just finished The Puppet Show by MW Craven which I thought was very good.

I've just finished In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote. Extremely well written and thought provoking.

Just finished, and really enjoyed, Jojo Moyes, The Giver of Stars.

Just finished The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood. I thought it was very good and found it intriguing. But it was a bit too esoteric for me to love.