26ish books 2026

[Tinkhasflown]

A shiny new thread for 2026.

All welcome and note 26 is just a number. Everyone can set their own target and you are welcome here even if you only read 2 books a year.

I personally count the larger novel style books I read to my children and audio books I listen to. Others don't and there are no rules.

I look forward to all your suggestions again this year.

hello! Would love to join, I dropped off the list last year after a MN cleanse but missed this thread.

i read 44 books last year (finished Wild Dark Shore yesterday but will count that in 2025) which I know is super annoying on the 26 thread but the 50 thread moves so fast and full of people actually reading over 100!

i don’t tend to have an aim but roughly the same this year would be good. I often direct audiobooks as part of my work at a voice director but I don’t count work books in my count.

for those that are reading The Safe keep you have a a treat in store! I read it a week ago and it’s brilliant. I have two books to read for work but a long journey this evening so kicking off my year with some Icelandic literature which I read a fair amount of

Thanks for the new thread @Tinkhasflown

For the first time ever, I managed 25 books in 2025 but only because I discovered audible!
Starting this year with Table for Two by Amor Towles
One of my favourite authors, it’s a set of short stories and it’s already shaping up well.
I’m also finishing The North Woods which is an unusual and beautiful read.
Happy New Year book lovers!

Keen to join if that's ok. 26 seems like a nice number.

I'm currently a few chapters in to The Dictionary People by Sarah Ogilvie, so that will be my number one.

@MonkeyTennis34I absolutely loved The North Woods and also love Amor Towles books. I haven’t read that particular one though so will have to add to my to read list.

Last year i only managed 18 books. I did have a few DNFs and a few little curve balls that life seems to send your way from time to time…

Going to try for 20 this year.

@MonkeyTennis34 North Woods was my favourite read last year- amazing book! Enjoy.

last year I read 30 which was the most I ever read since having DC! Set myself a target of 24 this year which may well be ambitious as work is due to be a bit nuts over the coming months.

Welcome! The 50 threads are wild - I considered joining but then read that someone was on 240 and that’s not for me! Also they move so fast so I think you are best here with us !!

Hello.

I would love to join please!

Ive always loved reading since I was a child! In previous years due to a long commute I would read a book a week. But in 2025 I switched to working full time from home and that plus far too much mindless scrolling means j barely managed about 10 I think. And I am really missing reading.

I am going to aim for 2 books a month I think. I have deleted all the apps from my phone that I was wasting far too much time on!

I have started the year with re reading a "Shopaholic" book, in honour of Sophie Kinsella. I used to love these. In more recent years I'm more of a crime/detective fan but I thought this was a nice cheery way to start the year!

@Citygirlrurallife That sounds such an interesting job! How did you get into that? Via a drama linked degree perhaps? I love an audio book, currently halfway through audio of "Winter" by Len Deighton and it's riveting. Although I started it before Christmas it will count as one of this year's books 😀

@Philandbill I’m a director of actors - trained in theatre, worked in immersive experiences and a bit of telly and film but mainly voice directing these days. Audiobooks for about 12 years

Ok, have to ask but ignore of course as I'm taking the thread off track, what makes a good audiobook actor? I'm remembering Finty Williams comment that her mum Judi Dench wasn't very good at it. 😀

Hello! I'm excited to join this thread as something a little more wholesome than the AIBU lurking. Have currently got The Haunted Wood and Stoner on the go, so one of those will be my first reads for 2026. I've got 30 books as my target this year.

Hello! Am I welcome to join, please?
I’m usually a pretty slow reader, but started Flesh on New Years Day and finished it this morning. It’s the Booker winner. I’d recommend it for a quick read (fairly long in terms of pages, but full of dialogue so very fast to read). It was unusual, I didn’t think I enjoyed it as a read it, but can’t stop thinking about it now.

Love this thread! Both the Safekeep and Shy Creatures are favourites of mine.
My first book of 2026 is Ian McEwan's new one, What We Can Know.

I really loved both of those! Stoner is such a quiet, understated classic.

Someone who does their prep!! I think audiobooks are as subjective as the written version to be honest and I think narrators styles need to change to suit the tone of the book. We work to very tight deadlines so from my perspective someone who hasn’t prepped or read the book and self corrects constantly isn’t very good. You need insane stamina as you’re expected to read 6-7hours a day several days in a row and complete 80-100 pages a day

Hi all, looking forward to joining you on this thread this year.
I’ve just been reading through the 50 books thread and thought it was a tad too ambitious for me. 26 is much more achievable. I set a goal for 25 last year and ended on 31.
this year I’m planning on doing the A-Z challenge.
I’ve started the year on our book club read what a way to go by Bellie Mackie (hope that works) I read how to kill your family a couple of years ago and it enjoyed it for a funny light read.

I can’t decide if I should include this in my A-Z challenge though. I was planning on reading in order

I’m aiming for 30 this year; managed to complete 27 in 2025. Started book 1 - The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch - a few days ago in December.

The 50 book challenge is definitely too ambitious for me!
I noticed that they organised meet-ups…maybe something us 26ers might consider later this year?

Welcome back everyone and a big welcome to all the new joiners.

@CitygirlrurallifeI remember you from previous years’ threads, and often think about the mechanics of audiobook production when I’m listening to them. You’ve already answered a couple of my questions, I’ve always wondered how long it takes to record a book and how actors prepare, but I would love to know how much ‘direction’ is involved during the reading. Do you often need to ask for a re-read on specific sentences to make sure they are conveying the right tone or meaning? Do they read from a heavily-marked up script? The ones who can remember loads of different voices/accents are hugely impressive. Do the authors have much say?

Sorry, I know this is sightly de-railing the thread!

Lovely to see lots of new people joining. I tried the 50 books thread last year and found it way too fast for me, although the regulars were very friendly and welcoming!

@MargotMoon I’m very happy to answer if others don’t mind the de-rail!

every audiobook is different but very basic prep is to read jt (!!) and make notes on any pronunciations you don’t know particularly if said by characters in specific accents or dialects and if quoting real people in non-fiction. They and I then make notes on characters, what clues are given in the text as to age, gender, tone, accents etc. sometimes an author is quite involved and wants to give further notes but producers try to leave those creative decisions up to us. How accented you make characters totally depends on the tone and genre of the book - we lean more into defined voices for YA or books where there are say 5 female white voices all from middle class London in their twenties and you need some differentiation for clarity! I’ll also make notes on page lengths to plan breaks.

I always try to have a call with my narrators ahead of time to go over any questions for the author or pronunciations, any creative decisions we need to take, talk about any difficult/triggering material and how to help them handle that. Also I work a lot with authors and green narrators so I spend a lot of time before session guiding and helping them.

they usually read off their own marked up pdf as it will have notes they can skim ahead and see. You want to stop as infrequently as possible really so that fluency is kept consistent and different publishing houses have different expectations on what you let pass (substituting a for the for example) and which ones want every word spoken exactly as written. I’ll get a narrator to go back if they read the words incorrectly or if a phrase doesn’t quite make sense or we need to change the text to suit audio or if we find a typo etc. performance wise I don’t stop them much during recording, only if it really stands out or consistency drops (a character suddenly sounds different or the pace doesn’t align with the pace of the storytelling etc).

in my experience authors are as involved as they want to be. They will have a say/final decision on who does the narrating - often given a shortlist by the producer. I’ve had everything from authors who literally don’t care about the audio to ones who want to listen to it before it gets published (not recommended!!). Fantasy novelists have to be very involved because of course they’re making up words, names, places, accents etc so knowing how they hear these things in their heads is very helpful especially if part of a series with multiple narrators.

series are a totally different beast and require a huge amount of prep.

I will also add that not everyone uses a director! A lot of audiobooks are produced cheaply by asking the poor narrators to record on their own at home and manage the engineering (and sometimes editing!)

@Citygirlrurallife really interesting thank you. I love audio books and do wonder about the production.

That’s very interesting, thanks for the insight! I feel sorry for the ones having to do it on the cheap without any of that input or support that you/others provide 😕

I'd like to join please. I'm really good at reading in school holidays but during term time (teacher) I struggle. I would like to keep it up though this year.
Currently reading:

1. Last one at the Party by Bethany Clift.

It was recommended on here and I'm really enjoying it.