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?

Inspired by this thread I'm trying to put kindle books into folders but it keeps on going wrong! It doesn't seem to be an easy process, at least on my laptop. What am I doing wrong??

I've got around 100 on my kindle
28 on my tbr pile

I’d like to join, just finished my last library book so now RWYO begins in earnest. I’ve sorted my books out and have several (dozen) which I read years ago and kept for some reason but I don’t know why. I’m going through these first, and trying to not buy any new books apart from book club reads till my birthday in the summer. It’ll be an eclectic mix! Some will be kept but I’m hoping to get rid of at least half the books I read this year. Eek.

Welcome @RomanMum

I have bought my first book of the year - the latest Michael Connolly, which was on my wishlist, for 99p.
I have also finished my first book of the year Wolf Hall which I loved- slow read but 5 stars for sure.
This is not the ratio I’d bee planning so hopefully no more of my wishlist comes up on kindle deals for a long time!

Both on my kindle tbr pile!

Finished The Names by Florence Knapp. Highly recommend, I thought it was brilliant

I’ve read Hamnet - wasn’t that fussed but I also have Silence Of The Girls on TBR

Kindle is down from 140 to 78. I’ve cleared a further pile of physical books too (at least 20).

Also created shortlists of Fiction, Non Fiction and Modern Classics on my kindle and will do a shortlist from my shelves too!

Finished the first of my 26 in 26 list, The Shipping News by Annie Proulx which I very much enjoyed.

Only on kindle since last July so not one of the longer lurkers!

Both Hamnet and The Silence of the Girls are also on the list!

I dnf hamnet.
I loved her earlier stuff

The Silence Of The Girls was my book of the year when it came out. I love Pat Barker's writing. The other two in the series were good as well

Wolf Hall is a great way to start a year @ÚlldemoShúl - it's such a fantastic book.

I’ve DNF one book, and deleted 11 others from my kindle. Have technically finished 4 books this year so far, but I had started two last year.
@ÚlldemoShúlI saw your post and bought the Michael Connolly too 😆

Bugger, I've now bought the Michael Connolly as well. In my defence I nearly bought it at the airport last week so I'm telling myself I have saved lots of money by getting it as a kindle bargain

Have you read one of her earlier books Blow Your House Down? Its probably one of my top 5 books. Based loosely around the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper it is a fantastic portrayal of women in desperate circumstances. Its a hard read but I loved it

Yes, I think I've read most things she's written, including Union Street and Blow Your House Down from the 80s and the Regeneration trilogy from the 90s. Her prose is just so beautiful, it's completely immersive.

The Regeneration Trilogy is one of my to be reads. I have started 2 folders on kindle so far..one for crime and one historical. Will prob create 2 more and I have deleted 20 books so far...still not bought owt. But tis only 4th Jan!😉

I have also finished The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing. Read it many years ago. I usually have 3 or 4 books on the go and read different ones depending on mood. Do you all do that or stick to one?

Finished two books this weekend -

Winter by Val McDermid. Really enjoyed this small collection of essays about winter, from her childhood through to present day.

Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent - heartbreakingly sad but incredibly well written. I thought maybe it would be similar to Room by Emma Donoghue but it was far better.

I loved the Regeneration trilogy but hadn’t heard of the book based on the Yorkshire Ripper killings, off to check that out.

I have now gone through my physical books and excluding the books I’ve already read and just including those I intend to read I have 215 (118 fiction and 97 non-fiction - mostly history) and then 92 graphic novels so 307 in total. I’m pretty chuffed with myself for not buying any kindle books so far this year, even though I have an Amazon voucher to spend. One thing I did notice when going through my kindle TBR pile was that a lot of the books I had bought and not read are now included in kindle unlimited so I could have read them for free if I had left off buying until I was going to read them.

@Boudy I’m the same as you, I have to have a number of books on the go to suit my mood. Otherwise I’d have a lot of books just getting dropped for no reason other than me not being in the mood.

My aim is to organise my bookshelves in the next few few weeks - I will have one bookshelf of TBR and one of books I really want to keep. I will only read from the TBR shelves or the library - with the exception of the £10 credit I still have at Waterstones. I'm being very careful about that £10!

I haven't yet settled on my first book of the year - I've read a few pages of a few different books but nothing has grabbed me. Hopefully with being back in the work routine this week with my normal reading pattern it'll kick off. I have the first two Lincoln Lawyer books on order at the library just now also.

Well done @MamaNewtNewt brilliant start! And well done @ÚlldemoShúl

@Boudy – I usually have a few books on the go. At the very least, one kindle, one physical book and one library book. I generally read different types of books at the same time, so one NF, one murder mystery/crime procedural and one something else so that I don’t get confused.

I treated myself to a new Kindle/Amazon Fire thing this year. What's been really helpful for me is that I don’t know how to find the Daily Deals, or any deals for that matter. And I don’t need to know. Because I really had a good go at reducing my Kindle stash over the past few years, I’ve only got around 18 and all of them are from April 2025 onwards. I’m very pleased with that. @BeaAndBen I only (?) had about 100 unread books on my Kindle and that gave me anxiety!
I do have a couple of authors that I’m happy to buy their latest releases, Marion Todd and Lynn McEwan. However, I do feel that the price of kindle books has been ridiculous. I remember everyone talking about the latest Strike book and the price of that was a nonsense.

I also have all the Chalet School books on Drop Box. My plan is to finish the Chalet School set this month. Only another 10 to go, so no problem at all. I’m on holiday for two weeks later on this month and when I go on holiday in January, all I do is eat, drink and read. I’m also determined to finish HHhH which has been lingering and I’ve just not managed to get right into it.

@Tarragon123 Love the Chalet School books!

This thread is just adding to my wish list 😂

I've never read them. Where would you suggest I start?