50 Books Challenge 2026 Part Two

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the second thread of the 50 Books 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.

The previous thread is

Oh yes the royal jelly Dahl one has really stayed with me too!

May I recommend “The Footsteps that Ran” from Lord Peter Views the Body to Dahl short story fans?

I also read a lot of Roald Dahl, and other childhood favourites were the Narnia books, Little Women and the Anne of Green Gables series (still on the lookout for those kindred spirits all these years later).

The school reading books I particularly remember were Sheila K. McCullagh's Tim and the Hidden People series. I was an early reader and I think I would have been 4 or 5 when I read them. They were fantastically creepy. My mum got me second hand versions (at some expense!) a few years ago and I still love them. Very simply written but created an amazing atmosphere.

I think I started reading Agatha Christies when I was 8 or 9 and over the course of my teenage years bought every single one second hand (I had a rule that they had to be £1.50 or less!).

Oh yes and (edited to add) as a young teenager I read quite a few Jeffrey Archer books. My favourite was First Among Equals (I was a bit politics obsessed) which followed 4 (male, obviously) politicians throughout their careers. I learned a lot about Parliament from it!

I was an early and good reader, as I assume were most on this thread, but I don’t think I would have understood Agatha Christie aged 9. I’d have been able to read them, but doubt I’d have got much from them, as my knowledge of people and the world was so limited.

I’m enjoying The Wizard of Earthsea well enough, but the central character is very one dimensional and hard to warm to and I haven’t really noticed anything at all to show that it’s a non- white protagonist, other than she says this in the introduction. It’s all a bit ‘nothingy’ so far.

I’m reading The Ethical Slut

Welcome to MN, sazz69

It's really helpful on this thread if you bold book titles when you post.

One thing that did resonate with Lucy Mangan's experience was having absolutely zero memory of learning to read at all - my mum always maintained I could pretty much read by three so I was mightily offended on starting primary school at (just turned) 5 and being told a book I’d chosen was too hard for me!

Does anyone remember Flambards on the telly, I think it was on on Sunday afternoons, I sobbed my heart out

I don't, but I remember there was a children's TV adaptation of Who, Sir? Me, Sir? which I think is why K.M. Peyton is a familiar name from my childhood.

8) Gabriel's Moon by William Boyd
Recently reviewed on here, I loved it.

Gabriel is a reluctant spy, drawn into helping M16 at the height of the Cold War in the early 60s.

Good plot, great characters. Very interesting period in history.

William Boyd is a great writer and I should really read more of his work.

@Terpsichore I was an early reader and it caused a kerfuffle when I went to school. I remember being accused of having memorised books, etc, and faking it.

When I was diagnosed with autism a few years ago they said hyperlexia is quite a common trait.

10 Strong Poison, Dorothy L Sayers

Rather nervous to review this as I know LPW is a thread favourite. I can see that he's potentially loveable but I don't love him yet. I enjoyed the writing here but was dissatisfied with the murder reveal which seemed a bit cheat-y.

DNF The Nakano Thrift Shop,
Hiromi Kawakami

A RWYO. Very understated. Didn't grab me. Life is short and there are other books that I do want to read.

11 Easy Connections, Liz Berry

FW: rape

After the conversation about our teenage library reads, I found this on the Internet Archive. It's been one of those books that's stuck in my mind for decades since I read it in early(ish) adolescence. I remember being intrigued and nonplussed by it when I read it, and wow - I remain nonplussed.

Cathy is an unusually talented artistic 17yo, spending the summer staying with her brother before taking up her place at art school. One day while out painting she accidentally trespasses on land owned by Dev, a charismatic and notoriously wild rock star. Initially attracted to Dev, Cathy becomes wary when he and his friends refuse to let her leave. Eventually, convinced that she's a groupie who's deliberately sneaked onto his property, he rapes her.

What follows from there is just weird. Dev starts to stalk Cathy, who discovers that she's pregnant. Everyone, from her brother to her boyfriend to the doctor she goes to for an abortion, tells her she should marry Dev (because he's famous, or rich, or the father of her child and therefore it's morally right, or because apparently he LOVES her, can't sleep, is going crazy yada yada). And the author doesn't shy away from showing Cathy's pain and everything that she loses as the situation escalates, but yet Cathy does NOTHING, barely tells anyone what's happened, moons over her connection with Dev even while she hates him and feels sickened by him.

I honestly don't know what this book was trying to do. God knows what I thought of it when I was 13. It ends without resolution as there's a sequel, which I only vaguely remember. Not sure I want to read it tbh.

It's not obligatory to like Wimsey :->

@VikingNorthUtsire Lord Peter really irritates me - and once he meets whatshername he’s even more irritating. I really wanted to love them and I did read them all (I think) but they’re definitely not my favourites.

I could never really get into Dorothy Sayers either despite being a huge Christie fan - another one who bought most of them as a teen.

11. Rapture - Emily Maguire. RWYO. This is about Agnes of Mainz, a motherless girl, brought up by her father in the 9th century surrounded by books and religious discussions, and it's loosely based on Pope Joan. I really enjoyed this, and after I finished, realised that it meets Ben Reads Good Feb-Roo-ary challenge as the author is Australian. May end up being a bold.

Oh and another one I forgot to add:

12. Vigil - George Saunders. Latest book by George Saunders, basically revisits the purgatory of Lincoln In The Bardo. This time the head of an oil firm is dying, and the book is narrated by 22 year old ghost/spirit Jill, who is tasked with helping him transition to death. Various characters turn up, some more amusing than others, but ultimately this feels like LITB lite, it's pretty slight.

Nightmare hall were my absolute favourites!

This is good to know. I'm still on the fence.

@InTheCludgie @MrsALambert mine was Freeze Tag

I loved a bit of Point Horror - I remember Freeze Tag was one of the best!

6 The Country Set - Fiona Walker Enormous, badly-written but fun; first in a trilogy of horsy Cotswolds bonkbusters à la Jilly Cooper. Not really worthy of a longer review but I enjoyed it!

I don’t remember freeze tag. Feel like I need to revisit these

11. The Lock Up - John Banville

RWYO. DI Stratford and Dr Quirke (pathologist) investigate the death of a young radical Jewish woman in 1950's Dublin. Her German acquaintances come under suspicion and it becomes apparent that her death may be the tip of a much larger iceberg. Quirke drinks (a lot), Strafford bites his tongue and there's more extra-marital sex than I would have expected in 1950's Ireland given the lack of options for young women in those days. Quite an outlandish plot but with a twist at the end.

@VikingNorthUtsire I loved Easy Connections and Easy Freedom as an early teen, and snapped them up a few years back only to be absolutely staggered at the rape storyline. It seemingly didn't bother me when I first read them.

@Welshwabbit I am forever in your debt! I absolutely adored the Tim and the Hidden People series at primary school but have never been able to remember enough details to track them down. Lo and behold, I looked at the internet archive and there they are. Thank you SO much!

ETA they go for a cool 2000GBP on ebay...

I remember watching Tales of the Unexpected on TV, I had no idea it was based on Roald Dahl stories! I’ll have to read them now.

I also read the Anne of Green Gables series, and have just found the eleven books in a single kindle book for 49p! I only remember there being six or seven, but I think I borrowed them from the library, so maybe there were some they didn’t have.

I did read a few Agatha Christie books, but they weren’t really my thing. I also read the Earthsea Trilogy more than once, and would like re-read them, and there are some other Le Guin books on my list too.