50 Books Challenge 2026 Part Four

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the fourth 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 as this makes it much easier to keep track of books or authors that may appeal (or not appeal) to everyone else.

Some of us bring over our updated lists to the new thread. Again, this is up to you.

The first thread of the year is here the second thread here and the third thread here

If I remember correctly which is unlikely as I read it about 15 years ago, I found the middle class hand wringing and pearl clutching tedious. It existed across characters and scenarios as well not just one

Yes, I get what you say. For me I find stuff to enjoy in Craig's books but if you didn't love Hearts and Minds I wouldn't recommend trying again with another book, because these issues are a thing with her work

Managed to DNF both Thank you, Jeeves and The Code Of The Woosters by PG Wodehouse in the last day. Couldn’t get into it. Not for me

@elkiedeeI found it quite negative and cliched as well. Depictions of comprehensive schools and the NHS spring to mind

Yes, probably true too. Even at her best I think she's sometimes judgy in her writing, looking back, and I read H&M as long ago as you I think.

I enjoy readings of Wodehouse on the radio but I'm not sure I'd like it so much in print. Wodehouse doesn't seem like me, values and class wise. I'm a different kind of late 20th century middle class leftie (not liberal really), born into two political academic clans (mum's family and dad's family), including a lot of historian/translators. And my maternal family is Irish diaspora (via New Zealand) so PGW is mocking the early 20th century "gentry" from the inside so I am wary of the value gulf. Funnier aloud perhaps but I am an accidental PGW listener on the radio. It's funny because it's on.

Thank you for the days..... loving this conversation but I need to get ready to go out this afternoon for a bit .... I should have left the house already - wanted to go to shared reading at the library but I'm probably not going to make it at all - but I have to go and sort out library books as this library still fines me. Islington and Camden don't but there is a bus fares vs fines trade off, so swings and roundabouts. That is, it's cheaper to pay up to 4 x 40p or even 8 x, than it is to pay a return fare to the library. But 2 days overdue, then the return fare is cheaper. And I usually have Shiny New Books waiting for me at the library, even if I'm struggling to sit still and read them right now.

@elkiedee I find I don’t do well with comedic type novels. I imagine it would be better read out, but I still find the farce silly rather than amusing.

I’m Irish diaspora too, but part of the first generation on both sides of the family to attend university. Reading was very much encouraged on my maternal side though, even without a pre-existing advanced education

Yes, Pillars Of The Earth, discussed upthread a propos the Enjoy Reading list from Hay

I need to start this series. I have series novel character friends or people I like who I love to engage with regularly, a real range from US women PIs, Uk detectives, all Elly Griffiths' main characters, not forgetting DI Rebus or Sister Agnes (see Alison Joseph) - and I would love to "meet" Jane Kerrigan, I think.

I’ve read 17 books on the Hay List - it’s good to see some more comic books & a wider range of genres but I wish they had curated a list linked to the festival’s history. I’m enjoying the debate re Ken Follett but you are not persuading me to read them.

Re the anti-dedication - I don’t think it reflects well on either author or publisher, as, as well as being unpleasant, there’s a lack of literary quality in the insults. The only pair of feuding authors I can remember off-hand are Voltaire & Rousseau, & I can’t help thinking that unless you can match Voltaire’s writing style or Rousseau’s genius then you probably should keep your feuds out of print.

@elkiedee- I completely agree re needing a new plot for sequels to classics. That’s part of the problem with them, as the originals often feel complete so it is hard to tack a sequel on & readers also have their own feelings about what will happen next to the characters. This wasn’t helped in The Other Bennet Sister in that it seemed to contradict what we’re told at the end of P&P. The other problem for me though aside from it feeling a bit lazy for authors not to invent their own characters is the style* as inevitably any classic author will have their own distinctive style. With Jane Austen, there are so many challenges here given that the narration to so distinctive & celebrated for its irony, the characterisation is so strong particularly in how the characters speak and the books are both funny yet you still feel with the characters - it’s such a hard act to follow. I’m glad that you like Mansfield Park too & agree that there is so much to discuss. I‘m not convinced by it as an A-Level text though as it - but then I was quite shocked to see that P&P *is now a GCSE text (I think it is a much better A-Level text).

Not sure why so much of my last post is in bold - computer gremlins at work.

I have read 19 on the Hay list and some others I very much doubt would bring me any pleasure!

I have never read Follett, as it doesn’t really appeal. Last year the hotel we were staying in (Corfu) had a bookshelf but the vast majority of books were in other languages. Anything in English disappeared almost immediately - except for a massive Ken Follett tome which stayed there untouched for the whole 10 days! Poor Ken.

I’ve read 22 or 23 on that list (not sure which Jeeves book I’ve read.) Some very odd choices I agree.

I have read about 15 of the Hay list which is a bit of an odd mix.
I'm a fan of Ken Follet, both his sagas and the stand alone thrillers but my favourites are the Century trilogy. Yes I know it's history for idiots and not all accurate, but I enjoy them and a bit like the Cynthia Harrod-Eagles books it's a gentle way to learn some history.

@NotWavingButReading I agree with you completely. They are a little bit Dummies Guide to History but Follett and Harrod Eagles have done a lot to give me an overview of major historical events. I can then go on to read more deeply and accurately about eras I am interested in but they are pretty good at painting a broad picture.

I really enjoyed reading Emma Donoghue's The Paris Express about the ill fated Paris Express of 1895. Donoghue brings to life real and imagined passengers and puts them all in the different carriages of the train, also focusing on some of the crew. It's a nice slice of late 19th century social history.

I must say I think Donoghue is very underrated amongst current female writers - Irish or otherwise. She creates vivid stories with a cracking pace and her characterisation is excellent.

The Paris Express sounds good.
I must look it up. * *

I've read 17/39 on the Hay Pleasures list. It kind of makes sense, it's basically a list of very popular genre writing with the odd random literary novel that became widely read, but much as I love one Hundred Years of Solitude I would never recommend it to someone who wasn't already a keen reader of literary fiction

I'm actually shocked at the ambivalence towards Wodehouse, I love a bit of J&W to cheer me up. I do think it benefits from being read aloud, the plots are silly but the sentences are divine.

I’ve read 19 from the Hays list, and I quite enjoyed Pillars of the Earth when I read it a year or two ago and intend to read more of the series.

@Piggywaspushed I’ve only read one Emma Donahue- The Pull of the Stars and it was bold for me. I keep meaning to read more.

@FruAashildIt’s the slapstick/ farce aspect of Wodehouse (and Three Men in a Boat and any Shakespeare comdies) that I can’t get on with. Perhaps the humour is culturally so English that I as an Irish person can’t get it? Not sure but I’m with @EineReiseDurchDieZeiton this one.

I’ve just finished The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout. This book is unconnected to her previous ones and centres around Artie, a middle-aged History teacher and the secrets he and others in his life have kept from one another. Artie is a sympathetic (though sometimes irritating) character and the book is melancholic- focusing in on loneliness, the distance between us all and divisions in society- including the reelection of Donald Trump. It’s getting rave reviews but I think I’ve read too much Strout over the last couple of years and it just felt too similar to all the others- like there’s a formula in the way she writes. I’m probably being unfair and I’m sure I’ll be in the minority on this one.

Finally finished The Commuter by Emma Curtis fusty few chapters ok, middle was awful and last 3 chapters better. It too me sages because I couldn’t be bothered.
Now it’s done I’m on Wuthering Heights and then Dracula

@ÚlldemoShúl also culturally Irish so there could be something in that. Wodehouse for me has an element of class based humour and is also of its time..so that’s possibly why I don’t identify even when you say to yourself “OK these are the parameters in play here” I can’t remember ever really laughing heartily at a book though eg I didn’t laugh at Hitchhikers Guide really not enamoured with it at all and felt like a defective blasphemer

The book I most regret reading is a Ken Follett one - Never. Not because the plot was unbelievable but because of the plot is too bloody believable with current world events and that's terrifying.

@elkiedee @Stowickthevast – I am also a Summer of 69 baby, however I assumed that you two were younger because of your DC. DD is 33 this year and I am desperate to be a Nana.

I pay a subscription to The Independent, The National and The New York Times. I used to subscribe to The Guardian, but they pissed me off over, what felt to me, the constant plugging of Katie Price. I wrote to them to say if they kept platforming an animal murderer, I would cancel my subscription. They did, so I did.

14 for me from the Pleasure List!

Waves to @BlueFairyBugsBooks

Yeah I generally don’t get on with comedy books or movies either to be honest. There is an honourable exception of Terry Pratchett though.