#read2026 — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #read2026, aggregated by home.social.
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I just finished The Ending Writes Itself, my 14th book of 2026! This was book number 11 off my physical TBR, leaving 24 to go!
The Ending Writes Itself, by Evelyn Clarke, is a gruesome, thrilling story of the horrors of publishing--where the only way to break out is to kill. For me, it was a 4.5 star book.
Ever since reading Yellowface (R.F. Kuang) I've loved reading books about authors, and this takes that idea and turns it up. The cast shows you such a wide variety of problems, it's hard to ever say who you're rooting for. And Clarke plays every moment amazingly.
The only disappointment for me was my own problem--I read this book a little too much looking for V.E. Schwab in it, and the voice blends so well with Cat Clarke that it's hard to really see that. Otherwise, I loved this.
#reading #books #bookstodon #read2026 #XenophonVos2026TBR #XenophonVos2026Reads
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I just finished Katabasis, my 13th book of 2026! This was book number 10 off my physical TBR, leaving 24 to go!
Katabasis, by R.F. Kuang, is the story of two graduate students' journey into hell while they rediscover who everyone they know truly is. For me, it was a 4.5 star book.
While Kuang references so many complicated texts and logical paradoxes, she does a very good job here of explaining in a way that simultaneously feels right for experts in their field to be discussing in this manner, but also easy to understand, especially when very few of the mentioned concepts were ones I knew already.
The way the story is revealed is also very nice for me, especially coming out of Hail Mary which had a similar timeline, if for a different reason. It doesn't feel like you're having to hold on to a small detail for very long before it's relevant at any point.
#reading #books #bookstodon #read2026 #XenophonVos2026TBR #XenophonVos2026Reads
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Last Wednesday I finished Project Hail Mary, my 12th book of 2026! This was book number 9 off my physical TBR, leaving 25 to go!
Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir, is a thrilling story of humanity's strength in the face of near peril. For me, it was a 4.5 star book.
This book does a really good job of having extremely emotional points. There are twists and turns that hit extremely hard, and it wraps up in such a nice way. It also goes really well with the Artemis II mission recently.
#reading #books #bookstodon #read2026 #XenophonVos2026TBR #XenophonVos2026Reads
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Last Friday I finished Babel, my 11th book of 2026! This was book number 8 off my physical TBR, leaving 28 to go!
Babel, by R.F. Kuang, is a surprisingly accurate Historical Fantasy about colonialism, violent resistance, and national identities. For me, it was a 5 star book.
I don't know much about history, so when I read the foreword of this book and saw that it was talking about the few minor changes Kuang made to the dates of events for this story, I was surprised at how accurate it ended up being.
It's also amazing to me how applicable it is to the modern world. Like Down and Out in Paris and London, everything it talks about is so present in our world today, even if it's not in exactly the same ways.
This goes right next to Down and Out in Paris in London on my "read politically" shelf.
#reading #books #bookstodon #read2026 #XenophonVos2026TBR #XenophonVos2026Reads
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Hilbert, by Constance Reid.
A great book, showing David Hilbert's passage from a bold young and ambitious mathematician to an old man surrounded by the ruin of the mathematics department in Göttingen in the 1930s. This helped me place a lot of names of contemporaries, and I can appreciate Minkowski's truncated career much better, I had no idea how big a deal he was in this whole circle, nor that he died early. The author treats the mathematics very well even though she's not trained in it, and from a modern standpoint it helps me connects back from post-1930s work to the previous generation's revolutionary developments.
Electronic version: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-0739-9
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The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, by J.R.R. Tolkien (edited by Christopher Tolkien)
This is Tolkien's adaptation/telling of the matter of the Volsungs and the aftermath with the Huns, to bridge a most unhappy lacuna in the main source text for the Icelandic Poetic Eddas. It's a synthesis of several sources, both in Icelandic and later Germanic tradition, but given as two long English poems in the traditional fornyrðislag meter that the Eddas are written in: 8 short lines in a stanza following alliterative rules (essentially cutting the lines of Anglo Saxon alliterative poetry at the caesura to make twice as many). To read this after Chistopher's edition of Heidrek's Saga was a nice pairing. There's plenty of extra apparatus in this book, including material from Tolkien's lectures on Old Norse material. The comment that the Norse poet's intention was to hit you in the eye is indeed accurate. One the material got going it was very gripping. Anyone wishing Tolkien was more like modern fantasy authors and wrote violent and morally grey characters can get their fill.
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The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise, by Christopher Tolkien. This was the published version of Christopher's graduate thesis (he did a B.Litt. degree, roughly equivalent to a research masters in literature) that did a critical translation and edition of the titular Norse Saga. This recent re-issued edition includes an earlier paper he presented on the Battle of the Goths and Huns.
I've not read old Norse material before, so this was a first for me. Definitely enjoyed it. You can really see the academic skills that helped with the subsequent slow and painstaking editing of the History of Middle-earth over more than a decade.
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J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion, by Rhona Beare.
Beare was an academic, a lecturer in classics in Newcastle here in Australia, and when younger had a correspondence with Tolkien in the 1950s and 60s. One of her questions led to the correction to the 2nd edition of Lord of the Rings to remove the bridle from Glorfindel's horse.
This rare small item shows her knowledge of (possible) medieval and ancient sources and parallels for Tolkien's writing, and a gentle introduction to her personal approach to analysing Tolkien. A fun read from an expert rather than a YouTube potted summary.
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I also finished Down and Out in Paris and London today, my 10th book of 2026! This was book number 7 off my physical TBR, leaving 28 to go!
Down and Out in Paris and London, by George Orwell, is a surprising partially-true account of Orwell's time with little money in the titular cities. For me, it was a 3 star book.
While Orwell tells some interesting stories, the nature of the book just doesn't bring the entire story together enough to be extremely intriguing to me.
Despite this, I found it interesting to look at both how different being poor is in modern America to how the book describes it, but also how similar. The homeless of this novel and of today are forced to be mobile, their existence in certain areas are illegal, which means they can't hold down a job because they can't stop moving, and they can't stop moving because they can't hold down a job.
As Orwell proposes, there are simple solutions to some of the problems we see with poverty, but people who have never been poor think of the homeless as monsters, think of begging as a sin, think of the unemployed as lazy, when the root of these problems is more those thoughts than anything else.
It's a great book, just not a great one for me. If you're interested in social change, I would absolutely recommend.
#reading #books #bookstodon #read2026 #XenophonVos2026TBR #XenophonVos2026Reads
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I just finished Into the Wild, my 9th book of 2026!
Into The Wild, by Jon Krakauer, is the nonfiction, slightly speculative story of Chris McCandless, who wandered into the Alaskan wilderness in spring of 1992 to never return alive. For me, it was a 4 star book.
I don't normally read nonfiction, and I wouldn't have read this if not for my AP Lang class requiring it. Despite this, the way this book was written made it feel not so much like facts, but a story that Karakauer immerses the reader in. The story feels as true as anything else I've ever read.
The story of Chris McCandless is one I don't entirely know how to feel about. Throughout the book, Chris is framed as a fool with poor planning skills, who was lucky not to die before he did. In class, we talked a good deal about this. But despite what my classmates seem to think, I do think he was well prepared for his most notable journey. He wasn't trying to live the rest of his life, he was just trying to prove that he could and come out to better prepare after some time.
Overall, I think the framing and pacing of the class helped me really enjoy this book. I'd love to read more like it, if anyone knows a good similar book.
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I just finished Automatic Noodle, my 7th book of 2026!
Automatic Noodle, by Annalee Newitz, is a sci-fi dystopic cozy story about a great restaurant built out of the remains of a horrible one by robots. For me, it was a 3.5 star book.
While the story was fun, there were points where it felt like the author restated certain things just a few too many times, and it made me feel like the book was trying to play down. It was also a very formatting-intensive book, with moments of text chats and spelling changes which complicated it a bit for me, who was listening to the audiobook.
#reading #books #bookstodon #read2026 #XenophonVos2026TBR #XenophonVos2026Reads
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Last night, I finished The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, my 6th book of 2026! This was book number 5 off my physical TBR, leaving 29 to go!
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, by Stephen Graham Jones, is a thrilling tale of a Blackfeet Indian turned into something more and his path for revenge. For me, it was a 5 star book.
I loved the way Jones tells this story, through three different medians of natural language in a way that makes it feel like I'm being told this story by the real MC, and the story perfectly captivated my throughout. I would recommend it for anyone who loved Historical Fiction and mild Horror.
#reading #books #bookstodon #read2026 #XenophonVos2026TBR #XenophonVos2026Reads
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Jane Austen's Emma. Read aloud with the Mrs. Having seen the 90s and the recent film adaptations, I had a general idea of the story, but getting Austen's prose is of course far superior. Mrs Elton is as rude and insufferable in her proper regency presentation as ever. Mr Woodhouse's hypochondria never fails to elicit a chuckle.
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Jane Austen's Emma. Read aloud with the Mrs. Having seen the 90s and the recent film adaptations, I had a general idea of the story, but getting Austen's prose is of course far superior. Mrs Elton is as rude and insufferable in her proper regency presentation as ever. Mr Woodhouse's hypochondria never fails to elicit a chuckle.
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Jane Austen's Emma. Read aloud with the Mrs. Having seen the 90s and the recent film adaptations, I had a general idea of the story, but getting Austen's prose is of course far superior. Mrs Elton is as rude and insufferable in her proper regency presentation as ever. Mr Woodhouse's hypochondria never fails to elicit a chuckle.
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Jane Austen's Emma. Read aloud with the Mrs. Having seen the 90s and the recent film adaptations, I had a general idea of the story, but getting Austen's prose is of course far superior. Mrs Elton is as rude and insufferable in her proper regency presentation as ever. Mr Woodhouse's hypochondria never fails to elicit a chuckle.
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Jane Austen's Emma. Read aloud with the Mrs. Having seen the 90s and the recent film adaptations, I had a general idea of the story, but getting Austen's prose is of course far superior. Mrs Elton is as rude and insufferable in her proper regency presentation as ever. Mr Woodhouse's hypochondria never fails to elicit a chuckle.
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I just finished What Kind Of Paradise, my 5th book of 2026! This was book number 4 off my physical TBR, leaving 28 to go!
What Kind Of Paradise, by Janelle Brown, is the thrilling story of the daughter of a self-described Luddite in the late 1990s, fighting a violent battle against technology. For me, it was a 4 star book.
The book in general was great. The storytelling device felt great, the story itself was gripping, and it felt very real. I think my only problem with the book was that it just didn't hit as hard for me, who wasn't alive in the era of the story. But I would absolutely recommend it for anyone who does reminisce on that time!
#reading #books #bookstodon #read2026 #XenophonVos2026TBR #XenophonVos2026Reads
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I just finished The Bombshell, my 4th book of 2026! This was book number 3 off my physical TBR, leaving 28 to go!
The Bombshell, by Darrow Farr, is a thrilling novel telling a realistic story of the bourgeois daughter of a French politician advocating for the incremental autonomy of Corsica, an island controlled by France, when she is kidnapped by a radical nationalist group and held for ransom, only to eventually convert to their cause. For me, it was a 4 star book.
The premise and execution of the story were amazing, and I felt myself gripped to each and every detail. From the first chapter, I was hooked on her story, but it was the end that spoiled it. It felt like Farr had taken Severine's story, one which advocated for radical change, and forced it into one that would advocate for peace and incrementalism, the very thing they advocate against in the beginning, the reason for her Father's politics. The ending took Severine's radical and thrilling story and then tacked on Ramona's piece as a concession to someone who didn't want a political statement.
I would still recommend it despite that. I feel smarter on the whole.
#reading #books #bookstodon #read2026 #XenophonVos2026TBR #XenophonVos2026Reads
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I just finished Tress of the Emerald Sea, my 3rd book of 2026! (I'm on a roll!) This was book number 2 off my physical TBR, leaving 27 to go!
Tress of the Emerald Sea, by Brandon Sanderson, is a fantastical fairy tale flipped on its head, in which the love of a duke must adventure to save him for an evil sorceress. For me, it was a 5 star book.
#reading #books #bookstodon #read2026 #XenophonVos2026TBR #XenophonVos2026Reads
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I just finished The Lamb, my 2nd book of 2026! This was book number 1 off my physical TBR, leaving 30 to go! (I also used the Libby audiobook in tandem)
The Lamb, by Lucy Rose, is a gruesome story about cannibalism, motherhood, and daughterhood. For me, it was a 3.5 star book.
While the story was amazing, the language used and some of the choices of things to describe felt like it was poorly written. This is Rose's first novel, and I'm sure she will improve, but I do think it slightly shows.
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I just finished The Picture Of Dorian Gray, my 1st book of 2026! I read this from my Creative Writing teacher's library!
The Picture Of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde is a literary classic in which a man who is granted his wish of eternal youth as a painting ages in his stead uses his wish to live a life of luxury while also engaging in sin, reflected in the portrait. I rated it 4 stars.
The book had a slow start, which made it hard to get rolling, but around halfway into the book, when the premise is realized, it became a very interesting study of what one would do with the ability to live such a dual life. It's left me very intrigued as to how the story could continue.
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I have a 31 book physical TBR coming into 2026. In 2025, I read that many books and absolutely could have read more. So this year, I am not going to buy myself a single new book until everything I have on my shelf right now has been read.
For this, I am not going to include Book Of The Month books, which I subscribe to, as purchasing a book, but will add to my TBR.
I also will hopefully continue to receive books as gifts which will add to my TBR.
So this will not be a greatly easy task. Come with me as I read down my 2026 TBR to 0!