Read What You Own 2026

[ÚlldemoShúl]

This is a brand shiny new thread for those of us who want to continue reading what we own in 2026.
My aims for 2026 are:

• At least half my reading will be from books I already own on 1st January 2026
• I will buy less than a quarter of my reading new including kindle deals😱 and book club books
• I will wait when prize lists are released to see if the books appear in the library within a week. I will not read full longlists unless I love the sound of each and every book on it.
• For the first two months I will only read what I own- focusing on the older books on my kindle while allowing myself to read newer (but already owned) physical books

What are your RWYO aims for 2026?

I’ve just finished The Postscript Murders by Elly Griffiths.

@TimeforaGandTI’ve been eyeing up Practically Perfect by Katie Fforde as one of my next reads.

@SilverShadowNight- I have all her books (except the most recent) and although you know there will be a happy ending, I do enjoy the journey and like the fact that they are not particularly modern. They are easy reading between more challenging books!

@SheilaFentiman The Sunne in Splendour is one of my favourite books. I love her Welsh trilogy as well, plus her Simon de Montfort trilogy. Less keen on the others, but she is a brilliant historical writer.

Thank you! I will look out for some of her others.

Just finished Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham which was an excellent, if difficult read. Full review on the 50 bookers thread.

Finished The Road to Lichfield - Penelope Lively which I bought in May 2024. Review on 50B thread.

I’ve managed to finish two books (The Summer Queen by Elizabeth Chadwick and The Pearl by John Steinbeck) full reviews on the 50 bookers thread. I also did another sweep through of my Kindle TBR Mountain and with everything I’ve read, DNF and DNS I’m down from 1207 to 979!

@MamaNewtNewt - that is one helluva TBR mountain! Makes me wonder what I am worrying about......

Congrats @MamaNewtNewtmy kindle mountain is similar. I haven’t reduced it as much but I’ve made a dent in it. Finished two classics I’ve had on my pile for a while-The Leopard and I,Claudius- liked both- will post full reviews on 50 Bookers.

@TimeforaGandT I’m just here to make everyone else feel better about their TBR lists. I haven’t even included physical books or audio books in the that total…

@ÚlldemoShúl oh I love I, Claudius and have Claudius the God on my TBR mountain.

I loved it too- and I also have Claudius the God- I bought both in 2 for 1 audible sale years ago- read by Derek Jacobi. Terrific. Looking forward to the second.

My personal Mount ToBeRead is 90% paperback, 10% hardback. Why do I keep starting series that are gigantic tomes??? I just don't have the shelf space for my book addiction.

I read the first two of the Napoleon and Wellesley quarter by Simon Scarrow this week at about 600 pages each.

I'm currently 500 pages into an 1100 page leviathan by Brandon Sanderson (The Way Of Kings) which is the first of at least five. It counts as RWYO because I was given it on my last birthday.

Well done @MamaNewtNewt - that is definitely a good reduction! I also love I, Claudius and Claudius the God. When I get through my TBR mountain- I am hoping to have time for re-reading old favourites.

I have a kindle TBR mountain too in the 1000s @MamaNewtNewt.

I have finished 3 more RWYO- The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, Soldier, Sailor by Claire Kilroy and How to be Invisible by Tim Lott.

Finished Carrie Soto is Back - Taylor Jenkins Reid which I have owned since beginning of 2025. Review will go on 50B thread.

I have finally, finally finished The Children’s Book - having to use an audible credit so that I could do a mixture of kindle and audio and that way make progress when ironing or walking back from the school run etc.

Time was I’d have inhaled this in a week, but my attention span is not what it was, and for some reason this one tripped me up that bit extra too. It ultimately rewarded the time taken though, I went from debating DNF to really loving it by the end.

Well done everyone else making amazing progress! I do feel tempted to reward myself with something trashy and frivolous, and probably new. A little palate cleanser from childhood trauma, abuse and the horrors of WW1. We go away tomorrow for a family wedding and then a few days holiday in a caravan by the sea (in the rain it looks like!) so I fancy some mindless romance or otherwise something just ‘nice’ !

@AliasGrape go on treat yourself! (I am a terrible enabler 😊). I finished another RWYO that I bought back in 2013! It was called Toward Yesterday by Paul Anthony Jones and the central concept was interesting (a science experiment causes everyone to wake up 25 years in the past, in the bodies they had then, including everyone who had died in the intervening years) but the author didn’t execute it very well unfortunately.

I've recently finished The Future Homemakers Of America by Laurie Graham. I DNFd this a couple of years ago, only got a few pages in then gave up. It came up again on my random number generator so thought I'd give it another go and so glad I did, I could hardly put it down.

This follows a group of US forces wives whose husbands are stationed on a UK base at the start of the story, around 1950 or so. Their lives diverge as they then move around to different places and the decades pass. A bold for me.

I am hoping to tackle my unread physical book pile this month. Some have been unread on my shelves since the 90s. I am going to try 50 pages for each book and DNF if it doesn't grab me.

I remember liking TheFuture Homemakers of America @InTheCludgie.

I have DNF The Wych Elm by Tana French - it was becoming more and more of a chore just to pick it up.

As I’ve said on 50 Books, I recently finished The Grapes of Wrath. This has got to be a record for this thread because I’ve owned a copy since the 90s. Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy it

Finished two more: Spitting Gold by Carmella Lowkis, a Victorian-era gothic heist, and The Usual Suspects by Ernest Larsen, an examination of the 1990s film. Reviews to follow on 50B in due course.