Is it weird that I already know what I am going to read in 2026?
still very ambitious and maybe a bit unrealistic reader with TBR pile ALWAYS growing...
I don’t know about you, but I am a serial browser for the new books. Any recommendations for posts, videos, or articles out there—chances are, I've read them and picked up a title or two.
Every so often, hand on heart, it’s more like once a week, I check The New Yorker’s ‘The Best Books We Read This Week’ section, nonfiction in particular and walk away with a title or two. And I do the same with The New York Times’ book review, and so on..
To find the books to read is easy. Finding enough time to read all the books you and I want to read is a daunting challenge.
It’s a challenge that won’t be overcome anytime soon, which brings me to the sole reason for this post and a brief explanation of how I already know what I’ll be reading in 2026.
I always have my TBR list ready, listing all the books I'm reading, along with the month in which I plan to read them. I go as far as to break the reading plan into individual weeks. There are times when a new book appears on my radar, has been recommended, or I don’t feel like reading the book I have ‘scheduled’. So I move it down and down again in the year until the book eventually drops off onto the following year’s TBR.
This is my current TBR pile for the upcoming year.
January ‘26
February ‘26
March ‘26
The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins and the fight for women in science by Kate Zernike
Silenced Women: Why The Law Fails Women and How to Fight Back by Jennifer Robinson
Enough: The Violence Against Women and How to End It by Harriet Johnson
Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
April ‘26
Selfie: How We Became So Self-Obsessed and What It’s Doing to Us by Will Storr
The Status Game: On Human Life and How to Play It by Will Storr
Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion Paperback by Jia Tolentino
May ‘26
To be decided?
June ‘26
July ‘26
Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World, by John Vaillant (Knopf)
Nomad Century: How to Survive the Climate Upheaval by Gaia Vince
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate Naomi Klein
Blue Machine: How the Ocean Shapes Our World by Helen Czerski
It’s Not That Radical: Climate Action to Transform Our World by Mikaela Loach
Adventures in the Anthropocene: A Journey to the Heart of the Planet we Made by Gaia Vince
The Uninhabitable Earth: A Story of the Future by David Wallace-Wells
We Are Eating the Earth: The Race to Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate by Michael Grunwald
August ‘26
To be decided?
September ‘26
October ‘26
Empireworld: How British Imperialism Has Shaped the Globe by Sathnam Sanghera
Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain by Sathnam Sanghera
November ‘26
To be decided?
December ‘26
This is weird in the best possible way and I love it. Go you bookworm! Committing to a TBR plan down to the week really brings your ambition to life and shows your dedication. It takes visualization to tangible level!
Are there any titles of the years that you keep coming back to year after year?
I live in Denmark atm, where the surf is.... lacking. Let's say, lacking. Being in the water is still a blessing, but I moved here from the Pacific side Mexico. I kitesurf now instead to scratch the itch (and avoid the twitch), which means I revisit passages rom William Finnegan's Barbarian Days multiple times a year. It takes me back.
Thanks for sharing your 2026 list and an insight into your fabulously weird creature comforts.
Wow, this is quite impressive. I recently wrote a post about my bookshelves and the fact that I realised I have over 160 books that I have not read (and I just read 12 books in 2 weeks on holiday, so I am really putting in the work), but the rest of the year, I manage about 1 book per week, which means I will be reading what I have until mid 2028. And that does not take into the account the fact that I have my eye on at least 20 or so new books or books that are coming out in the next couple of months (I blame Substack and all the amazing writers here who keep publishing new books).