50 Books Challenge 2026 Part One

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the first thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2026, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

If possible, please can you embolden your titles and maybe authors as well of books you've read or going to read? It makes it much easier to keep track, especially when the threads move quickly at this time of the year.

3 Undoctored - Adam Kay
Another of Adam’s memoirs following his decision to leave medicine. I quite enjoyed This is going to hurt and his Christmas memoir, but this didn’t hit the spot. Felt like he was trying too hard to be funny at the same time as talking about some really serious issues. Some parts were so graphic it was disgusting and he swears constantly. Swearing doesn’t bother me, but it felt like every other sentence. Not one of my favourites and glad when I got to the end.

I've started the year with North Woods by Daniel Mason. It is very good. Lives up to the hype.

Oh no, @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie hope you were able to get some rest last night. Take care of yourself.

I'm so sorry about your wrist @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I broke my ankle before Christmas and enjoyed reading The Art of a Lie while I was laid up but I think you may have read that already?

I adored the Wolf Hall trilogy. I didn't read them for a long time as dense historical fiction isn't really my thing, but I found her writing so modern and clear, and character driven, unlike anything else I had read. I have to say I found A Place of Greater Safety much much harder to follow and engage with though so I'm not a consistent fan.

2 Bitter Orange, Claire Fuller
Came for the 99p deal, stayed for the interesting plot structure and content.

I'm a sucker for an unreliable narrator, an unsettled vibe and the opportunity to play armchair psychologist with the characters. Evocative writing which took me straight to Lyntons and that summer.

I hope you’re feeling better soon Remus.

Happy birthday MamaNewtNewt, what a lovely book haul!

Will be interested in your thoughts @DontGoJasonWaterfalls as I read Turton’s The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle last year and enjoyed it.

oh dear Remus, hope you're not in too much pain. Wrists are so tricky, very difficult to live one handed. Agree with audios - might you like the gay vampire book I recommended at year end - Bury Your Bones in the Midnight Soil?

@StrangewaysHereWeCome I read Burnt Sugar in its Booker year I think and did find it an odd little book. IIRC all the characters were rather awful.

@LadybirdDaphne I'm also in the not close to finishing anything gang. I think commuting soon this week may help me!

I loved the Wolf Hall books. Got the first one for Christmas when Dd1 (now 16) was a baby and remember trying not to lean this massive hardback on her while breastfeeding!

I've just spent 20 minutes this morning catching up on the thread instead of reading my actual book! D'oh!

I haven't read Hilary Mantel and don't intend to, but when people say things like they envy those reading it drag for the first time I wonder if might try one day! However I am not especially interested in the Tudors and I have the idea I'd need to work at reading it. It's a very long book for that!

Thanks so much everyone. I read a pretty dreadful Susan Scarlett last night about a ballerina. Classic Noel Streatfeild, but with a couple of truly dreadful characters thrown in.

I don’t like listening to books, so will have a search for kindle books I can read one handed. It’s my dominant hand that’s buggered, so I definitely won’t be able to manage the huge Dark Tower hardbacks! I will have a look at everything people have suggested.

Hope you're feeling better Remus. What a pita that it's your dominant hand.

I finished So Long, See you Tomorrow. Essentially the story of how the lives of two boys are disrupted through no fault of their own. Beautifully written and highly recommended. I think I put it in bold last time as I thought that was how we distinguished the titles but I've since realised bolded books are recommendations - so good job I enjoyed it!

I've now started Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves, which I picked up at a NT second hand bookshop. Enjoying so far but only a few chapters in.

It’s both.

Always bold a title when you mention/review it, but ONLY bold a title in a list of books you’ve read, if you loved it.

Hope that helps!

Sorry to hear about your ankle @GrannieMainland How are you doing now? I don’t think I’ve read that book. Will have a look.

OK, thanks - will try to get it right!

I've got some fab recommendations from this thread already btw, so glad I joined. Thank you all.

1. The Parallel Path, Jenn Ashworth
A non-fiction account of walking the Coast-to-Coast path. The walk took place during a heatwave, but the emotional weather isn't exactly sunny. The author reflects on how worn out she is by the experience of lockdown, receives letters from a terminally-ill friend, and shortly after the walk, is diagnosed with a brain tumour (successfully treated). It's not gratuitous misery - sometimes life is just like that - but not the cheeriest start to the year.

In pursuit of cheerfulness, I'm going to DNF The Gathering, by Anne Enright and have started Chinese Parents Don't Say I Love You: A memoir of saying the unsayable with food

@Iamnotaloggrip it will all make sense when we change threads!

@RazorstormUnicorn my thoughts exactly on Wolf Hall etc but I am slightly tempted by the audio version slightly maybe 🤔 one day …. Watch this space 😊

@Iamnotaloggrip this thread has given me a wish list that is gigantic so thank you all 50 bookers as I would never have come across lots of books if it was not for this thread even non-fictions which I have delved into

Bought Remote Sympathy by Catherine Chidgey and It’s Not A Cult by Joey Batey in Waterstones this morning.
I wouldn’t normally pick out a book set around a concentration camp, as The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas irritated me and it would be hard to top The Zone Of Interest for the sheer unremarkable horror, but Chidgey has proved herself capable of handling disquieting subjects imo so I’ll give it a whirl.
INAC is written by an actor in a show I don’t watch and he’s quite young, so normally I would have passed it by, but a quick flick through showed some zippy dialogue, it’s set in the NE and it involves old gods and the capacity of humans to make a religion out of very little, so I’m in
New Catriona Ward on pre order for Feb and a book of ‘working class’ folk horror stories coming in a few days. Made a nice dent in my book voucher stash!
I am loving The Benefactors so huge thanks to @EineReiseDurchDieZeit (I think!) and whoever else recommended it (sorry, I am rubbish at remembering who has recommended what).

I’ve finished a few so far this year.

The Evolution of Gerald Durrell: Biography of an Author and Wildlife Conservationist - Mary Sanders Pollock

I’m a big Durrells fan so will always read a new biography. This one isn’t very
long, and focuses on Gerry’s development as an animal conservationist (so doesn’t focus much on his family, or growing up in Corfu). An interesting new angle, but probably not the one to go for if you really want to know more about him personally.

By Horror Haunted - Celia Fremlin

A collection of unsettling short stories, some with a supernatural angle. I really enjoyed these although they’re more psychological than horror. Some could have done with being a little bit longer to flesh things out a bit.

Moondial - Helen Cresswell

I listened to this childhood favourite on Audible. I always loved the book and the TV adaptation that was done in the late 1980s. It’s the story of Minty who has to go and stay with an elderly relative while her mum’s ill, and ends up getting caught up in a ghostly/time travel story at the local stately home. This is set at the real Belton House in Lincolnshire (and the TV show was filmed there) and I’ve always wanted to visit to see the real Moondial. One day!

Havoc - Rebecca Wait

I really enjoyed this darkly funny story of girls at a down at heel boarding school in the 1980s, who start suffering from an unexplained twitching illness. Thanks to MaterMoribund who recommended this on the previous thread. Definitely worth a go if you’re a fan of school-set books. This is the first I’ve read by this author but I’ll be trying others.

I’ve also read a couple of Lois Duncan YA books - I was a big fan of her as a teen. She does a good line in thrillers and supernatural books, although a lot are quite dated now. One I read was about some children being kidnapped and the plot would fall apart now with mobile phones and other modern technology. Still enjoyed them though.

@MaterMoribund it was me recommended The Benefactors recently but it was recommended to me first by a few on here, if I’m right @Stowickthevast @elkiedee and @GrannieMainland but I might not have that right

6 . Helm by Sarah Hall

Helm by Sarah Hall is a novel built around the Helm wind, the violent and distinctive weather phenomenon unique to Cumbria. Hall uses it as a structuring force, weaving together geology, folklore, history, and human lives, rather than telling a single, sustained story. That approach is clearly intentional, but it’s exactly the kind of book I don’t like: lots of disparate threads, uneven in interest, that never fully come together or resolve. By the last 30% I was skimming, and if I had to point to one book that perfectly captures my personal reading antipathy, this would be it. I absolutely hated it. It reminded me of Cuddy by Benjamin Myers and everything I hated about that. Someone on here and I’m very sorry but I can’t remember who absolutely loved Cuddy so this would be right up your street.

I really admired Burntcoat by the same author, so I won’t give up on her just yet.

Please don’t take offence those who recommended it, it would be very boring if all our tastes aligned. It just didn’t float my boat.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit I’m the Cuddy superfan. I did love Helm too, you’re right about that. I am actually kind of proud to have recommended a book that exemplifies someone’s ’personal reading antipathy’ #lifegoals

Ooh I loved Stranger With My Face back in the 80s! Didn't Lois Duncan also write the original I Know What You Did Last Summer ?

Yes she did Viking. It’s a long time since I’ve either read the book or seen the film, but I think the film was quite different to the book.

I also loved Stranger with My Face, such an interesting idea!