TBR: 26 in 2026

Hello 2026! I still don’t think it sounds like a real year, but whatever, it’s fine. It’s time to share with you my 26 in 2026!

I had so much fun doing this challenge last year, and ended up reading 21/25 books which is not bad at all. This year, however, I am determined to read all 26 books on this list, so I’ve been very specific about the books I’ve chosen. You may remember that last year I split my picks into different categories; I’m doing categories again this year, but with a twist. The requirement for every book on my 26 in 2026 list is that they have to be from my owned tbr. 

One of my goals every year is to read down my owned tbr. I don’t remember how many books I started with on my owned tbr in 2025, but we ended the year with 114 unread books from my personal library. Honestly, that’s not that bad of a number considering the amount of books that I did haul in 2025. Ideally, by the end of this year, even with all the books that I know I will end up purchasing or be gifted, I can end 2026 with under 100 unread books from my personal library. Hence the requirement for this year’s challenge being books that I already own.

Now that you know that bit of information, let’s get into the tbr! Grab your favorite beverage, get cozy and let’s go through my 26 in 2026!

Okay, as I mentioned earlier, there were a few books on my 25 in 2025 that I didn’t get to. Luckily for me, the four books that I didn’t read I own, so it worked for them to be on my 26 in 2026. These are all books that I’m still really excited about, but didn’t get to last year, and I think the reason why is because each of them intimidates me in some way.

In the case of Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors, I actually had an ARC copy of it before it was released and I had started reading it, but the subject matter was not something that I was in the right headspace for, so I set it aside. And then, knowing that it dealt with some very heavy subject matter just made me anxious to pick it back up. I know the subject matter isn’t going to change, so I’ve just got to pick the right time to read this one, but I do still really want to read it because I’ve heard nothing but fantastic things about it. 

I do think it’s a bit odd to say that a literary mystery that is 490 slightly intimidates me when one of my favorite books of all time is around 1,200+ pages depending on the translation, but it’s true. I cannot tell you why The God of the Woods by Liz Moore intimidates me, but something about it does. It could also be because I hit that weird slump where like reading in general felt intimidating and then seeing a mystery close to 500 pages made my brain hurt and probably psyched me out a little bit. However, I’ve been really curious about this one and I am going to read it this year, mark my words!

I’ve started to read more fantasy and I think that’ll make A Song To Drown Rivers by Ann Liang less intimidating to me. Granted, this is still different from the fantasy that I usually go for simply because it’s historical fantasy, but it’s also Ann Liang so I’m sure that I’m going to enjoy it. I do think my best bet will be to do an immersive read and this physically and with the audiobook. It’ll also be important to pick the right time to read this since if I read too many fantasies in a row/in close succession, I will start to get bored. I would love to read this in either January or February. 

When They Burned the Butterfly ended up being a weird case of timing, and that’s why I didn’t get to it last year. I had the ARC and actually started reading it when I was on the flight home from Disney World at the end of October, but that was the flight from hell and I was too stressed to read something that required any actual source of brain power, so I read like 2 chapters and then had to stop reading because I was going through it. Then I had the craziest week when I got home and things didn’t really slow down and I went through a phase of struggling to read via ebook and it just never got read. I am really excited to read it though because I love Wen-yi Lee’s writing style so much. I own the audiobook of this, but I’ve been meaning to pick up the physical copy as well (last time I went to the bookstore they didn’t have it 😭) because I’d love to do an immersive read of this one as well. 

Well, since I just mentioned multiple books that I found oddly intimidating, let’s talk about the next category: books I find intimidating. 

I picked up The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa last year, and it just kept staring at me from my shelf going “read me, read me, read me” and I was like “Girl I want to, but something about you makes me nervous!” Truthfully, I think what it is is that something about this premise makes me think it might send me into a weird existential crisis. Partially, I think that comes from me being very concerned about the state of the world and people willingly giving up their minds to use AI and ChatGPT for literally everything nowadays, so the idea of people living in a world where people called “the Memory Police” can control what you can and can’t remember is starting to feel a little too on the nose. However, because of that, I think it’s an even more important story to read. I am really interested in it and want to read it, I just think this might be one that I need to read slowly and also have a completely different, super happy romance novel or something on the side to help me avoid a bit of a doom spiral.

A bit similarly to The Memory Police, I think the reason why Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower intimidates me is because it’s feeling a bit too close to home right now. The first line of the summary is “In 2024, with the world descending into madness and anarchy” I mean…there you go, is that not what our world has been since 2020? That thought alone freaks me out. However, I’ve always wanted to read something by Octavia E. Butler and I want to read more sci-fi/dystopian literature even if it can intimidate me, and I’ve decided that after trying out some more sci-fi/dystopian in 2025 and really loving it, it’s time for me to really dive in. Also, this book was published in 1993, which is the year I was born, and that makes me more curious to read it.

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski is definitely the book on this list that intimidates me the most, but damn I really want to read it. I love weird books, and people are always saying that House of Leaves is freakin’ strange, so sign me right up. I bought a copy of it in 2025 and have flipped through it a bit just to see and like every page I flipped through had me saying some variation of “what in the hell?” So obviously, I think I’m going to have a great time. I’m super intrigued by the format of the story, and the fact that there’s text written in circles, text you have to use a mirror to read, scribbled handwritten sections, etc. etc. etc. It makes me nervous and intimidates me, but oh boy am I excited to read it!

I always say that I want to read more non-fiction and then honestly, I’m just kind of bad at it. It can be a topic that I’m incredibly interested in and I’ll still put off the book for months, so this year, I wanted to add a non-fiction section to this list to really push myself to read more non-fiction. I’ve been very intentional with this list and have chosen books on topics that I’ve either been interested in for all/most of my life, and one that I think is incredibly important to read in our current political climate and something I want to continue to educate myself on.

Now, I’ve been obsessed with the story of Anastasia and the Romanov Family since I was 4 years old and the animated film Anastasia (the greatest animated film of all time) was released. I was literally watching documentaries on the History Channel about the Romanov’s when I was 8 years old because I was just so curious, so this year I want to finally read my copy of The Last Days of the Romanovs: Tragedy at Ekaterinburg by Helen Rappaport. I’ve researched a lot about the Romanov’s final days and their imprisonment in the Ipatiev House, but it’s been years since I really sat and read about it (this was the kind of research I was doing in my free time as a 10 year old). I read Helen Rappaport’s second book in this Romanov’s series, The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra and thought it was so brilliantly written, and researched. It was a captivating non-fiction, so I’m really looking forward to reading The Last Days of the Romanovs. 

Next I’ve got 3 theatre related non-fiction on this list, and they all tie into the personal curriculum that I’m setting for myself for The Anti Brain Rot Reading Challenge hosted by @thisstoryaintover. I’m planning on doing a theatre/shakespeare curriculum, so I thought it was time to get the following non-fiction read.

If you know me, then you know I absolutely love analysis, and I love lyrical analysis with musical theatre. During lockdown, I taught a class via Zoom where we focused on a few different musical theatre composers and watched/listened to a handful of their shows and did a compare/contrast of the shows and how their styles changed/didn’t change throughout the years and it was one of my favorite classes that I’ve ever taught. I had gotten a copy of Musical Theatre Script and Song Analysis Through the Ages by James Olm for Christmas a few years ago, and I’m looking forward to reading it and looking at how musical theatre has changed throughout the decades. 

I am a Stephen Sondheim girlie and I always will be. It’s hard to express how much I love Sondheim’s works; I feel like he had such a special way of writing that really touches you at your core and sticks with you. I won a copy of How Sondheim Can Change Your Life by Richard Schoch through Goodreads just before it came out at the end of 2024, but haven’t picked it up yet, and I really feel this one calling to me now, so I can’t wait to read it, have a breakdown over Sondheim, and then listen to all of his shows again.

I’m obsessed with Shakespeare. If you’ve been here for 2 seconds you can figure that out, so obviously, I had to pick one of my Shakespeare non-fiction reads to add to this list. I have a lot of them, and want to read them all, obviously, but one that I think is going to be really interesting is Shakespeare and the Gods by Virginia Mason Vaughan. Shakespeare makes many illusions/references to the gods Jupiter, Diana, Venus, Mars, Hercules and Ceres throughout his stories, and in this book, Vaughan will go into their historical context, their role in medieval and early modern mythography, and each chapter concludes with a focused reading of one or two plays that the god appears or serves as an underlying motif and I think that sounds incredibly interesting. 

For the last non-fiction on this list, I chose One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad. The world is pretty much a dumpster fire at the moment and lots of bad things have been happening, but we cannot turn a blind eye to the genocide that is happened in Gaza, and has been happening for years upon years. This topic is one I care deeply about and want to further educate myself on, and I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about this book. I own the audiobook, but I also want to get the ebook from the library and do an immersive read for this one.

I think that every reader can relate to getting a new book that you’re incredibly excited to read and then not reading it for years after you got it. I have…a lot of those, so it just made sense that I make a category for books that have been on my tbr for a year or longer.

The Love of My Afterlife by Kristy Greenwood is one that I’ve had on my physical tbr for a very long time and I have really wanted to read it but I’ve been putting it off for who knows what reason. I’ve heard a lot of really good things about this one, and I love that it has a magical realism/speculative element.

In 2025 I read Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister and loved it, so I knew it was time to read Wrong Place Wrong Time. I think the premise for this one is absolutely amazing and adds an extra exciting element to this murder mystery. I found McAllister’s writing to be so compelling, so I’m expecting this story to be really well executed and I’m really excited to read it!

I talked about why I’m excited to read I’ll Be Waiting by Kelley Armstrong in my Winterween tbr post, so I don’t think I need to really get into it here, but I’m really interested in this one and since I’m planning on reading it for Winterween, I’ll be starting this very soon!

Okay, so this one comes with a bit of extra reading that I need to do before I get to it, but another book I’ve had on my tbr for over a year is Marple: Twelve New Mysteries, which is a collection of short stories reimagining Miss. Marple by a variety of authors. However, I haven’t actually read any of the Miss Marple stories, so I want to read the 12 Marple stories before getting to this one. 

At one point I had started Tripping Arcadia by Kit Mayquist but had to put it down for one reason or another and haven’t read it since, and I think it’s time that I finally get back to it. I’m very intrigued by the gothic vibes and the themes of legacy, inheritance and the dangerous power of wealth. It also says that this one is great for fans of Mexican Gothic, which was a very successful read for me. 

It’s actually kind of criminal that I haven’t read Masters of Death by Olivie Blake yet. I picked up my copy from Books Are Magic in New York in I think 2023…I’m actually embarrassed by the fact that I haven’t read it yet, so I knew I had to add it to my 26 in 2026. I am actually planning on getting to it this month because it will fulfill one of the January prompts for Kayla’s Buzzwordathon, so if you don’t see this book in my January wrap up please yell at me.

To be totally honest, I’m pretty sure that The Takeover by Cara Tanamachi was a cover buy because the cover is purple and I always want more purple books on my shelves. It sounds fun; I love a good enemies to lovers romance, so I’ve told myself that I’ve got to read it this year. 

And for my last category, we’re going with books I wanted to read in 2025 but didn’t get around to. All of these I really wanted to read, but life and other things got in the way but I’ll definitely be reading these in 2026!

I still can’t believe I haven’t read Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry yet. We all know I’m an Emily Henry girl! It took a while for my pre-order copy to arrive and in that time I kept hearing negative reviews, which made me anxious and then I just kept putting it off…however, a lot of those reviews were saying xyz about how there was less romance than they thought it would have and that’s actually what I expected from the beginning so I think this will actually meet the expectations that I have. I’m for sure planning on reading this one within the first quarter of the year.

So many of my favorite content creators read Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum and absolutely loved it, so I immediately purchased it but didn’t end up reading it in 2025 which is a real bummer! It sounds like such a lovely read so I’m definitely looking forward to reading it. In the summary it says “The Hyunam-dong Bookshop evolves into a warm, welcoming haven for lost souls – a place to rest, heal, and remember that it’s never too late to scrap the plot and start over” and I think that sounds so lovely!

Last year I took a chance on Ready or Not by Cara Bastone, and ended up really enjoying it, so I bought a copy of her 2025 release Promise Me Sunshine and it’s been sitting on my shelves for a while now. The concept of Promise Me Sunshine really does call to me; I love books about people starting over after grief and loss and they typically explore the way grief is a never-ending process and the ways in which we learn to live with grief and let it be part of us without controlling us which is something that I really enjoy exploring in literature. 

2025 saw me finding a new favorite author in Emily St. John Mandel, and while I read both Sea of Tranquility and Station Eleven in 2025, I didn’t get to The Glass Hotel before the end of the year, so obviously, I had to put The Glass Hotel on my 26 in 2026. Based on the synopsis I think this book will explore a lot of interesting ideas and I know that the writing will be stunning.

The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark was one of my Book of the Month picks and I’m planning on reading it for Winterween so I’ll be reading it this month! I’m really excited by the concept of this book, and I’m just itching to get started!

I had actually started Katabasis by R.F. Kuang really quickly after purchasing it and was definitely enjoying it! I told myself that I would read it slowly and then live and other things got in the way and I felt like I didn’t have the brain power to pick it up again, but I kept thinking about it. I’m trying to decide if I want to start over (I think I got about 70ish pages in) or just pick up from where I left off because I vividly remember what happened in before I stopped reading (which is quite a feat considering there are books I read literally last month that I can’t remember very well). Regardless of if I start from the beginning or pick up where I left off, I am planning on finishing Katabasis this year and am really looking forward to it. 

I’ve talked about The Rest is Silence a bit on the blog, so if you’ve read a few of my posts then you know what this is, but if not, this is the sequel to Smile and Be a Villain by Yves Donlon, which was one of my top reads of 2025. Smile and Be a Villain is a prequel retelling of Hamlet, and The Rest is Silence seems to start where Hamlet starts. I was so utterly obsessed with Smile and Be a Villain and Donlon’s portrayal of Hamlet, Ophelia and the other characters, as well as the magical elements and the lyrical prose. I’m absolutely dying to read this one and really do want to start it soon.

Phew and there we go! My 26 in 2026, aka my priority tbr for the year. I really am super excited to read these books and have this help me towards my goal of reading down my owned tbr.

I’d love to know if you have read any of these books, are planning to read any of them, or have a 26 in 2026 list yourselves! Let me know in the comments.

Until next time 💜