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.

I’m in and starting the year with a book DP got me for Christmas

So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell (hope I’ve done that right?)

Only a couple of chapters in but enjoying it so far. And it’s beautifully cloth bound which just makes me happy for reasons I can’t exactly define!

Thank you! I've started with The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams. Managed 55 last year after not reading much apart from on holiday for best part of two decades. Transformed my life getting back to it. Irritated I didn't finish last thirty or so pages of poetry book last night, feel like I wanted to complete, but wasn't to be.

Great to see so many new 50 bookers joining. I think my first book will be The Proof of Innocence - Jonathan Coe.

1. Whale Fall by Elizabeth O'Connor

Set in 1938 on an island off Wales it tells the life of an 18 year old girl looking after her father and younger sister.

I enjoyed this. It was well written and structured but I'm not quite sure why everyone was raving about it. It felt like a historical echo to Outrun by Amy Liptrot.

Next up is Nesting which they're reading at a new book club I've been meaning to join and that I own on Kindle so will count for RWYO. My online book club is reading Gabriel's Moon by William Boyd so also need to start that.

Happy new reading year everyone.

• Stolen Focus - Johann Hari

Read most of this in 2025 but I count from when I finish. This is quite an interesting book about the impact of social media on focus, but I understand the author is not 100% to be trusted on some of his sourcing.

Can I join? Love reading and tried to read more last year rather than scrolling. Managed about 12
books I think, maybe a few more. Could definitely still do less scrolling.

I will try Maggie O’Farrell - Hamnet. I enjoyed The Marriage Portrait last year.

I just gave up on Holly Bourne’s So Thrilled for You. Normally like her books but couldn’t get on with that one at all.

1 The Christmas Appeal - Janice Hallett I’d picked this up thinking it would be an easy, festive read as I’d enjoyed The Appeal and I was right - read it in a couple of hours this afternoon snuggled on sofa with DD who is not feeling great. It was entertaining enough.

Good to see everyone. My only real goal is to read two physical books I own per month. I also have a rather wistful desire to end the year with fewer unread kindle books - currently a shameful 335. Some of those are DNF, so I need to categorise them properly.

@Currantsinthecake Have not read Hamnet but will absolutely look forward to watching the film when out.

I love this thread. I'm rubbish at reviewing myself but my wishlist is growing exponentially as I read other people's reviews 😆

Happy New Year everyone, and thank you as always to @Southeastdwellerfor setting up the threads.

I went through my TBR list on Goodreads last week and culled a load of stuff that no longer interests me. Then I reserved about 10 library books from said list which will be collected on Saturday.

For now I am reading Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal of Being in Love which is fan fiction published online on AO3. It is lighthearted and good fun.

Happy New Year everyone! This is my first time joining and hope I can keep up. I managed 43 books last year and hoping for 52 in 2026.
Started Butter by Asako Yuzuki this morning and it's already making me hungry.

Ooh, I really want to read that, @TimeforaGandT. Looking forward to hearing what you think.

Good evening everyone and happy new year! I haven’t read the thread yet but just popping over from last year’s and I can’t believe how busy it is already.

Last call for the 2025 roundup. it’s Thursday today, I will be doing the summary on Monday, so if you haven’t contributed your favourite reads to the 2025 roundup thread and would like to, please do so over the weekend. Thank you!

@Iamnotaloggrip I read the William Maxwell book at the end of last year for book club. it was so simple but yet beautifully written.

@CurrantsinthecakeI'm listening to the Holly Bourne book. I'm not loving it, it's a bit obvious, but I'll probably get through it having it on in the background while working.

Checking in for my third year on this lovely thread. Total for last year about 104 but I haven’t quite done the final tally- I will put it on the last thread of last year in the next day or two.

happy new year!

Can I join please?

I'm in two book groups and always read those books, so that's 24 a year. But last year I read very little else. My aim this year is to read a book a week, so I should hit my target of 50.

DH and I are currently slumped in the living room both reading novels. He is reading a Stephen King novel about Kennedys assassination (22 11 63?) and I'm reading The Glassblower by Tracey Cavalier.

1. Trio by Johanna Hedman

Set in Stockholm and based on a complex relationship between Hugo, Thora and August. There are political elements and the book also looks at privilege/wealth.

Well written but not necessarily something I would recommend. 3/5.

For my second book, I am going to read The Safekeep - Yael Van Der Wouden

I have somewhere around that number too. Mine is complicated by having “family library” books on there for the kids, some stuff for my mum and books I don’t intend to “read” eg cookbooks. But it’s somewhere between 300 and 350 😀

Happy New Year 50 bookers old and new! I have three books on the go that I started last year so they might be my first of this year. I'm comfort reading Anne's House of Dreams because I've got a stinking cold and am feeling sorry for myself (and because I like its description of New Year).

It’s fairly good, but because everyone has raved about it - the lady in the bookstore said it was the best book she’d ever read - I’ve got high expectations and I’m not so sure…

Thanks for the idea of a slow read! I’ve now picked Les Mis. I did War and Peace last year and I want to do something similar this year thanks!

I was really disappointed by the Safekeep and I think it won the prize because of the subject matter rather than writing quality. I liked all of the others on the shortlist more!

@RomanMum - thanks for your reminder and your masterly spreadsheet skills. After my epic large font fail when posting from the app, I need to go on my laptop to post my list so I don't have a repeat incident.

@Terpsichore - I will try not be too slow with my read of The Proof of Innocence and letting you know my views.

2 . The Book Of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey

In a dystopian alternate universe, a set of triplets lives in a Home governed by three “mothers” but what’s going on and why are they there?
Lots of people raved on this last year. I admired this, I respected it; I thought the concepts were excellent and the storytelling first rate, but I always felt outside of it, I didn’t love it, and I don’t know why.

Quiet day today, lots of reading time and now I’m going to settle down with Traitors!