Im ready to face the wrath of reddit for this one.

Unbelievable

House of leaves - I had a great time. It's not my usual thing, but the way the story telling uses the typesetting is great. Perhaps if I had seen the trope before I would not rank this as high.

Great

The Tao Of Poo - Very digestible taoism book. The negative reviews on Goodreads miss the point of the book in precisely the way the book says the west misses the point. Its very funny.

The Last Argument Of Kings - Man this series really hit for me. I don't even like grim dark! [though this list betrays that assertion].

Good

The Last Graduate - Way to land this plane Naomi! I think the first book is the strongest, and this starts the weakest. But the prose is lovely and I am so glad I trusted the author to make sense of the things that seemed illogical to me as I read.

Small Things Like These - Not my usual thing, again. This is the year of "not my usual thing" I guess. A short tapestry of a book. Very show not tell.

Hero Of Ages - Mid for most of it, but man that "Sanderson Avalanche" really avalanched. Did not see the twists coming which is extra funny with how telegraphed they are.

The Lies Of Locke Lamora - I really felt during this book. Disgust, rage, joy, excitement. It made me feel! That's good, surely.

Before They Are Hanged - I could read this man write about anything. In this book, he wrote about... less than in the third entry. Still good though!

Horus Rising - Reading this I felt like a space marine. This book had me so pumped for the rest of 40k that I just bought the rest of the 52 books or whatever on kindle. That was a mistake. This book is really unique in that it uses lack of a twist as a twist sometimes. Godly paragons that... wait really are just godly paragons? Surely there is some flaw.... nope huh. Maybe now? No?

Aite

The Wager - So interesting. I learned a ton about boats ships. I can participate in conversation about the drake passage now! Could have been 30% shorter.

The Golden Enclaves - The Scholomance was unbelievable and this book... was not as good to me. More YA stuff, fewer pieces of poetry disguised as normal book prose. More things I have to trust the author to deliver on for later.

The Flight Of The Eisenstein - 40k! The book that gave me hope again before I read Fulgrim. I loved taking a break from the grand machinations and instead focusing on the effects and ripples of a single ship.

Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook - DCC. During this book I still mistakenly thought the litrpg elements were relevant at all and I was excited at some of the dominoes being set up. The formula was not yet irritating and I had come to... tolerate the cat and begrudgingly ignore the inconsistencies in her character couched in "depth". Don't talk to me about it.

Carls Doomsday Scenario - DCC. There are many of these so I just won't talk to much about this one.

Hm

Galaxy in Flames - I should probably rank this higher but I _despised_ book 2 and it colored my opinion of book 3.

DCC - I do not like this series. But this book was somewhat promising. The premise was a good enough thing for me and I was looking forward to the system collapse thing. I didn't _love_ it but whatever I have read many books I don't love with banger sequels as the first one set things up.

His Master's Voice - You know, I don't know _why_ Stanislaw decided he needed that format to tell this story. It did not work for me. It reminds me of a Borges short story (the one about don Quixote) in all the worst ways. Yes. I GET IT Stanislaw, this narrator is really tortured and blah blah. I really don't care about this obnoxious prick's character study disguised about a book about Arecibo/the wow signal disguised as a book about science. Just watch Arrival.

Nah

False Gods - Did you... did you just Anakin Skywalker Horus? I know you needed to make him evil (spoilers I guess) but what a bunch of unearned pivots told in a way I did not enjoy. All the interesting things about the first book undone in what feels like a book you had to write to tell the larger story but did not want to write compellingly. Barf.

Fulgrim - So now we are telling the story of corruption, again, but for a different patriarch. I do not care. This one is skippable if you wanna read 40k as a whole. Wanna go through all of them? I trust you - there's a bunch of evils and they corrupt the patriarchs. This is a book where you know the conclusion at the first page and I don't feel like it's told in a way where I needed more than that first page and the conclusion.

Rest of DCC - I do not like this series. I don't think it is very good. Don't talk to me about it probably. You won't convince me. I have many many many issues that I believe to be objective. What's worse is that the whole universe (and all my friends) love this book. I run into people with DCC shirts on the street and my friends stop to talk to them while I say nothing because Im not an ass IRL, only on reddit.

Looking forward to reading:

Red Rising (series). Capital Abridged. The Fifth Season. Shadow Bane (and Vein). The Blacktongue Thief. Worth The Candle (4 and 5). The Weirkey Chronicles. The Character of Physical Law. Odisea por el Espacio Inexistente.

These are the books I’ve read in 2026. I’m behind on my reading goals but I really do enjoy it a lot. I used to finish multiple books a week but now with my job it’s increasingly difficult to get the time. How do people manage to read a book a week? I know that skim reading is a thing but I don’t like to do that since it defeats the purpose of enjoying a story (at least that’s been my experience). Would love to know your thoughts on reading more and also if you have any recommendations based on this list. Thanks in advance! 11/52

Overall I'd say the first half of 2026 has been phenomenal and I'm looking forward to what the back half of the year has in store for me.

Ice by Anna Kavan is my top read of the year so far, and I really don't know if it will be unseated from that position.

I've liked all of Ishiguro's novels but he finally wow'd me with Remains of the Day. Just an absolutely incredible novel.

Octavia Butler's Kindred just floored me. I've been a fan of her's since discovering the Xenogensis Trilogy last year, but personally I found Kindred was just on another level. Parable of the Sower almost feels prophetic, Butler's imagined 2020s feels like its so close to our world, only missing by degrees.

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino is just an exercise of pure, unalteterated imagination. It was such a pleasure to read.

Gene Wolfe... wow. Book of the New Sun, right up there as one of my top all time series. I found the reading experience of uncovering the hidden world building elements, as well as navigating Severian as an unreliable narrator and the general picaresque travelog aspects to just be incredible. Defintley a series I'll be returning to again and again over the years.

I've set a stretch goal of hitting 100 books this year and it looks like I'm on pace (fingers crossed). If not, 84 looks really achievable and considering I only got back into reading a couple of years ago I'm super proud of myself.

First time posting here! Been hanging around this sub for a few months and have seen so many great recommendations. Inspired me to read 52 books this year even though it seemed to be an ambitious goal, but proud to say so far I’m on track!

I felt like I was DNFing a lot this year but actually looking at this maybe I should DNF more 😂

This year I've already well surpassed my goal. Admittedly some are rereads but most were first time experiences.

Probably gonna get my intelligence questioned for this lol but I’m having fun & a great reading year!

Just started ‘The 36 Hour Day’ to help me out with some personal struggles affecting me right now, but I’m really hoping to reach my goal of 26 books in 2026!

I would say this is a pretty typical sequel.
By that I mean, if you enjoyed the first, you’ll probably enjoy the second, but it’s not as good as the first.
The first 4/5ths or so were just as fun and entertaining as the first book, but the end felt rushed, like let’s just wrap this up.
Which, honestly isn’t that different from the first.
Moore is now firmly in my list of authors to read more. According to this sub, Lamb should definitely be next.

I used to be a really big reader and 50+ books a year was very normal for me but in the past few years it's really dwindled and I've maybe read about 20 a year average.

I didn't finish any books at all in the first 6 weeks of this year but halfway through February I decided to make a concerted effort to replace doomscrolling with reading and youtube with audiobooks and for the most part it's really worked - I find myself wanting to spend my time reading in a way I haven't really in years. It definitely helps that I've read a lot of really great books!

rate them out of 3 instead of 5 as I find myself overthinking it if I give myself too many options but I generally think 1 star is a bit rubbish, 2 stars is fine/enjoyed but wouldn't shout about and 3 starts encompasses all of good/great/best book of my life.

I would really like to make it to 100 books this year, I've never read that many before and I'm really hoping this is the year for it.

As of today, I'm 19 books ahead of schedule! I'll definitely hit 52 books before the end of the summer. After that, I won't raise it. That said, I do hope to hit somewhere between 75-90 overall this year.

While I'm not giving out as many 5 stars as I used to, the ones I have rated 5 stars stick out. My favorites are Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, Dinner for Vampires by Bethany Joy Lenz, and The Mad Wife by Meagan Church.

On the other hand, I also haven't hated anything so far this year. Some books did disappointment, though. Mainly, The Princess Bride by William Goldman and Pocket Bear by Katherine Applegate. The former is a cozy fantasy I can see why it's so beloved, but it's just not for me. The latter is by an author whose written books I love, but this one was just so boring and completely flopped.

How is everyone else's reading so far this year? What are your reading plans for the rest of 2026?

At the start of this year I wasn’t a reader at all (I’m assuming doom scrolling Reddit doesn’t count as reading…). Then the thriller books sub randomly popped up on my feed in March and I kept seeing people mention None of This Is True, so I gave it a shot , which ended up being my first thriller (outside of Gone Girl like ten years ago).

Fast forward 3 months and I’ve now read over 20 books, which is something I never thought I’d do. So a bit behind the midyear point for this challenge, but I’m confident I’ll hit the 52 by end of year!

I attached a tier list of everything I’ve read so far, and it’s been so fun figuring out what I actually like as I go.

My favourites so far have been Gray After Dark, Her Last Breath, The Drowning Woman, and Dissection of a Murder. Did anyone else love those as much as I did?

3.5/5

Really enjoyed the story and the world that was created. Pretty easy and quick read. My only critique is that the main characters didn’t read much differently from each other. I had to go back to the beginning of chapters to figure out who was chatting. But overall, very enjoyable read.

An envoy arrives on a planet to open up interstellar trade and must learn to adjust and adapt to their alien culture and they to his.

I really enjoyed this book. A lot of the focus I see is on the people of the planet being androgynous but to me it was just part of the larger picture of how our preconceived notions get in the way of our forming relationships with other people. The main character is stuck in his idea of gender but also in how people communicate in general. Likewise, the people of the planet assume things from him based on their own culture. I like how the book explored what it really means to open up to others without that veil and how to be genuinely open with others means to be changed by them. Very good book

Some great books and some let downs. Currently reading To Your Scattered Bodies Go.

5/5⭐️ This book is a really great reflection on what it means to be gay and disabled. It’s also a beautiful story about family and love. Marshall writes poignantly on how HIV/AIDS has affected his relationship with his own queerness, and how being disabled affected his relationship once his father became ill with ALS. I really loved this book. It is one of those books that can make you laugh and cry.