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.

Thanks @Southeastdweller and Happy New Year to all.

I’ve put aside my morals/good taste and have bought The Hallmarked Man. I suspect that I - and all of you - will regret this bitterly.

@HowAboutNowJane do you use a kindle as many of us on this thread look out for the kindle daily / monthly deals where lots of books are 99p?

I've tried the 50 books thread before but struggled to keep up. If I go back 30 years I would have read well over 50 books but that dropped off in the 2000s.
In recent years I've tried to prioritise reading a bit and I read 37 in 2024 and 37 in 2025. My target this year will be 40.
I've also set myself a target to re-read a few. I can count on one hand the number of books I've read more than once in 50 years since leaving school so there must be plenty of old favourites to choose.
Currently going through a phase of historical novels set in the Far East.
I started A Town Like Alice by Neville Shute last night.

My first time here! Last year I read 35, but that included War and Peace so I am proud of myself nonetheless as that’s been waiting for decades! I am part way through

The Roundhouse by Louse Erdrich and
Katabasis by RF Kuang

so these will be my first of 2026. I’m going to aim for RWYO this year as much as I can! Happy reading All!

@NotWavingButReading although the thread is 50 Books, some people manage 20 books, others 220 and the rest of us are somewhere in between.

I loved A Town Like Alice and it set me off reading the rest of his books. If you haven’t read it, I’d recommend Pied Piper.

@NotWavingButReading Great name! Great book choice.

I am in! Currently on long term sick and starting to get bored as my energy isn't great so cant get stuff done. I have started today The Lucky Winners and I have 4 or 5 other unread books that I will collect up and make a start on. I am excited to do it this year and reduce my phone screen time.

Happy New Year everyone x

This is my first read of 2026 - finished it last night and decided to keep it for today 😊

1. A Dry Spell - Clare Chambers

This was the only one of Clare Chambers’ adult novels I hadn’t read - it was her third, published in 2000, and follows the pattern she’s used several times: we’re introduced to a group of present-day characters, then go back in time to find out how they’re linked, returning to the here and now for the resolution.

In this case the focus is partly on married couple Jane and Guy - she, unhappy, lacking libido and perpetually tense as she struggles with challenging small daughter Harriet; he, a school head-teacher who’s not quite sure why their lives are so unfulfilled. Alongside them we meet Nina, late-30s single mother to James, who’s just about to head off to university. The past link between Guy and Nina is the wildly-unpredictable and disaster-prone Hugo, who dragged them both into a disastrous scientific expedition to the Algerian desert back in their younger, crazier days.

I admired the way Chambers wove her disparate plot strands together but some of her characters are mightily irritating - at numerous points I wanted to give good shakes to most of them (I discovered only later that a lot of the events in the desert section were based on fact - they happened to Chambers' future husband, who kept a diary of his experiences on a very similar expedition). However, this was an easy read and her style is very likeable.

Happy New Year!
I'm not sure what I'll read first.
I'll start with Chapter One of Les Mis.

Happy new year 50 Bookers and thanks for the new thread @Southeastdweller
I’m RWYO for the first 2 months this year and like @SheilaFentiman I count that as books I own today.
Welcome to all the new people.
I’m finishing off 4 books from 2025 Wolf Hall (loving so far) Tracy Borman’s Thomas Cromwell (helping me understand Wolf Hall) Project Hail Mary (audio- great fun) and Milkman by Anna Burns (audio- trying to read more Booker winners this year)
As always I have taken on far too many buddy reads/ readalongs too and therefore am supposed to be starting the following this month- Les Miserables, The Odyssey (audio), Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.
Biting off more than I can chew as usual but they are all books I own!

Happy New Year and welcome newbies.

Set my goal at 30 because I know that’s achievable and means I will read what I fancy rather than reaching for smaller reads.

Ull you aren’t on the tag list but I picked up the Mahfouz as part of my bumper voucher spree so might try and might try to get to it since it’s rare I read the same books as those on thread usually.

@NotWavingButReading A Town Like Alice is high up in my kindle library as I opened it just last week as a potential read, so will try to get this in as well.

@AgualusasL0ver i read the first three chapters this morning - it’s caught my interest which is a good start.

Happy New Year 50 bookers 🍾.
Welcome to all newcomers. Dont be intimidated. I was a bit when i joined a few years back 😳. Count what you like (audible, children's, rereads ...) You can make your own rules, or even not count at all. It really is a lovely welcoming bookchat thread. I have never made the magic 50 (got close a couple of times) and in 2025 managed ... 18 (which included a children's book and a football autobiography).

Currently, trying to finish a couple on borrowbox. A Felicity Cloake travelogue that I am totally ambivilant about (i forget it is there, which says it all really) and the rather indescribable The Other Black Girl that i have been reading on and off for so long i have lost the thread of. It may be a DNF.

Thank you @Southeastdweller for organising the thread.

Happy New Year to all 50 Bookers!

I came across this thread last year and hoped, at the very least, that I could convince myself to read more, which I did more than I expected. During the summer, I lapsed and fell off the thread, not reading for about 3 months.
Whilst I wasn't a great contributor, the reading and the camaraderie on here helped me to navigate some difficulties, and for that I'd like to say thankyou.

My total books read was 101. That is so much better than the 10-15 of previous years. This has included genres that I normally would stay away from, such as sci-fi, but I actually greatly enjoyed. Having also started using Audible, I have found this form of book helpful, but having a narrator you like could be make or break.

My first book for the year is The Consolation of Maps by Thomas Bourke. I am signed up to both Les Mis and the Odyssey read alongs also. Both of the read-alongs are for books I have wanted to read. The Count of Monte Cristo was so much fun.

My aim for this year is to read more from the recommendations in this thread. Fingers crossed!

Happy new year all. Finished on 48 books last year, a record for me and I’d like to aim for 50 again this year.
I’m going to attempt again this year to read more than I buy, failed miserably last year, and knowing I would try again this year splurged out on books the tail end of the year 😬
will def cut back on the 99p kindle deals unless there are any on my wish list on there.

Thanks for the new thread southeast. Happy New Year all and welcome to all the newbies.

I have a rather academic Gerald Durrell biography on the go, and started Havoc by Rebecca Wait last night. I also have Moondial on audible.

Excellent 🤣

1 . The Lamb by Lucy Rose

In rural Cumbria, a mother and daughter live an isolated life, punctuated by inviting “strays” into their home.

I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say this is about cannibalism because this is clear very early doors.
I balked at some of the descriptions.

The writing at the beginning is excellent as is the writing at the end but it sags completely in the middle.

A character named Eden just turns up, without any proper backstory or motivation and just joins in, you know, as you would. I didn’t believe it or the romance angle, it was just tosh.

A shame, as there was a glimpse of something there.

Happy new year all! I’m going to join again this year if that’s ok - I’ve been on and off these threads for years but don’t think I joined last year, or if I did I quickly drifted away.

I’m absolutely terrible at making time to read these days, I also read a lot of absolutely mindless romance drivel which I’m not sure anyone would be particularly interested in my thoughts on! I used to be so high brow (not really, but at least a little more varied!) but whether it’s motherhood, perimenopause or both I just don’t have the brainpower these days.

That said - I did rally somewhat towards the end of last year, more with audiobooks than text admittedly, and I hope joining the thread again will help motivate me too. I miss reading I really do.

No idea what my first pick will be, I’ve got a kindle stuffed full of unread stuff, shelves full of physical books I’ve not so much as glanced at in years, and a load of audible credits mounting up so there’s no excuse really.

Hi All,

HNY. I didn’t join last year as life was busy and I wanted a year of not reviewing everything I read. But I missed you all and am looking forward to getting stuck in again.

I got a few Christmas books The Correspondent and The Artist. I read the former and very much enjoyed. I’m now on a book buying ban til the spring but have got back into the library in recent months.

Ive started the year with The Lamb by Lucy Rose which is a horror about a mother and daughter in Cumbria with a penchant for cannibalism. It’s really weird and I’m not sure if have started it had I known what it was about. But I’m gripped.

Thanks @Southeastdweller and hello to old and new 50 bookers!

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit snap on first reads - I suspect I’m in the middle saggy bit so looking forward to it picking up. The author is so young and I agree the writing is fab - looking forward to seeing what she does next.

What a coincidence @Palegreenstars!

Happy New year everyone, I'm in for this year. Clown Town is also on the daily deals today for those of us with a Jackson Lamb addiction

HNY all.
Just got The Hallmarked Man - Robert Galbraith for 99p on Kindle.
Im only in to see if Robin and Strike get together. Let me guess, they won’t!