Each year, a few of us here like to make some book-related resolutions: personal goals or hopes for our reading habits for the year. Whether it’s a list of specific books, or a plan to read more of a certain type of book, or even just reducing some piles on the floor, here’s what we’re aspiring to in 2026!
Jenny Bristol
This year, I plan to follow the pattern that I’ve been keeping up with since 2020, to read at least the same number of books as the last two digits of the year. So, since it is 2026, I plan to read at least 26 books this year. I hope to finally finish The Life Impossible by Matt Haig, as well as Flow by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, which is a fascinating-if-dry look at the flow state. I have a couple of Lex Croucher books to still read, and Lex has a couple of new ones coming out this year that I hope will end up on Libby. Maybe I’ll finally re-read Atomic Habits, but we will see where my whims take me.
Mariana Ruiz
I am still chipping away at the entirety of Stephen King; it is a huge task, as the man continues to write, and I am always distracted by other new reads. I am so happy to have him on my TBR list that I don’t mind, though. Someone once said that a huge list of books to read encompasses not only what we want to know, but also means that we plan to live a long, fulfilled life.
World Kid Lit is a fascinating collective of translators of children’s books from different places. They have been one of my sources to learn about new, upcoming titles for a couple of years now. By enhancing diverse voices and books in translation, we open a new window for our understanding of different cultures and different views of life. It’s always a good thing to know more details about the world. By including these voices, I have gained a profound understanding of the world and will continue to advocate for them in the future.
I also hope to keep reading amazing comics and graphic novels, both for children and adults. And I want better, bigger bookshelves, pretty please.
Jonathan H. Liu
Having kept up with my plan to weed at least one (unread) book a week in 2025, I’m planning to keep that up in 2026 with the ultimate long-term goal of clearing the floor space in my office, though at this rate it may take me a decade! Perhaps time to step up the pace, but for now I’ll still say one per week. Maybe this year I’ll keep a list or at least a count of all the books I remove just to have a more accurate count.
My yearly reading challenge goal, which I track through Storygraph, is 150 books in a year. While that number may seem absurdly high, I’ll note that I set a high number because I include graphic novels and middle grade books, which are often shorter, faster reads.
In terms of specific books, I still have this stack of comic book memoirs and biographies that has been accumulating for quite some time, so I’ve finally started to dive into those in the past week. If I can get through all of those in 2026, that’ll be one large box on the floor taken care of!
I also have a stack of AI-themed books (both fiction and non-fiction), continuing the thread from these two columns from 2024 and 2025. I imagine AI will continue to be a prominent topic of discussion in the coming year, so I’m curious to see what sorts of stories are being told about it and how they have changed based on the current status of real-world technologies.
Robin Brooks
My main 2026 resolution is one of mixed emotions. I’m going to be moving away from GeekDad as the main place I review books. After a long time of trying to keep up with books publishers sent me, in the Autumn of last year, I suddenly found reading and reviewing had become a chore.
Instead, I puttered around in a new space I’ve set up called PotsandPlots for my reading and occasional (very amateur) gardening. I want to use this space to explore why I read what I read, and the links and themes between the books that I choose. I want to dig into the piles of books sitting around the house and clear my backlog without worrying about books I’ve been sent to review. I’ve loved my time writing at GeekDad (and I’m sure I’ll still pop in with reviews from time to time), but because it has so many great contributors talking about all manner of geeky stuff, and my reviews will no longer focus on new releases, I feel chronicling my own rambling reading journey will be best done in a dedicated space.
Nevertheless, I do still have some reading resolutions.
I want to read Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland. In truth, I want to watch One Battle After Another, as it has many good reviews, but I like to read the books that films are based on before watching them, so I need to try Pynchon again. (I read a couple of his books years ago, and have never, until now, been tempted to do so again.)
Lots of people seem to rate The Count of Monte Cristo as one of the best books ever, and one everybody should read. It’s forever coming up on magazine lists, and has been on my wishlist for a while (as well as The Earthsea Quartet). I received a copy for Christmas, so I aim to read it in 2026. This may feed into a wider project—A Year of Reading Massively. I have lots of books that are 600+ pages that sit unread. This is because trying to keep up with reviews didn’t allow the time to read them. I’m hoping taking a step back will give me the freedom to read more behemoths. Samantha Shannon, Eleanor Catton and who knows, maybe Gravity’s Rainbow wait in the wings.
Quite where I shall fit this reading time in, I’m not sure—a perennial problem. As well as the books I already own, I have a virtual list of over 100 books. I tend to be a paperback reader, and arriving in the first few weeks of the year are Death and the Author by Nnedi Okorafor, Pagans by James Allister Henry, and Ray Nayler’s Where The Axe Buried. So many books and so little time! My predicament is perfectly captured (not for the first time) by Tom Gauld in this week’s Guardian Books.
