JANUARY 1 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2026
CONTINUED FROM 2025 READING DIARY PART 2
Reminder: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases via the Amazon links included below – not that anyone read this except for me, but that’s ok – this diary is really just for me.
Book 1: King Sorrow (2025) by Joe Hill was my last book started in 2025. I had heard great things about this, and having enjoyed Full Throttle, one of his short story collections last month, I decided to give this a go. It took me a few days to get into it due to some lack of reading time mostly, and then… I was totally and completely hooked! (Read between December 31, 2025 & January 9)
Book 2: The Strength of the Few (2025) by James Islington is the second book in James’ Hierachy series. I really enjoyed the first book, The Will of the Many (2023), and felt ready to reenter that world – correction – those worlds. It was slow going for a few days, but a break from work is coming up. After a few chapters, I decided to refresh my memory by rereading the last few chapters of first book and I skimmed through some summary/recap videos, one of which oddly was full of fake details. And this was an odd reading experience as I did enjoy it once I refamiliarized myself with the characters, the world, and recent events, yet my reading pace was excruciatingly slow. Looking back, it wasn’t the content of the book as there were really no lulls in the narative and each of the plot strands held my interest equally well. And there were more than a few “Wow”! moments through reveals and actions, and sadly one death in particular. Now that it is all said and read and done, I can certainly say I am looking forward to the next two books in what is envisaged as a quartet. (Read between January 9 & February 6)
As I reflect on the above slow pace, a few things come to mind: I have continued working through the winter vacation and I have also recently felt burned out from teaching too much. Also, my poor little heart has been a little bit broken as January became February. Another reason is perhaps I need a break from long books as this and the last two books I read were 736 pages, 887 pages, and 928 pages. What I need is a shorter book from an author who has proven their worth to me, and the next book fitted that bill perfectly.
Book 3: How to Stop Time (2017) by Matt Haig was the right choice although I went into the book totally blind just having found the title interesting and also having loved the two other books by him that I have read: The Humans and The Midnight Library. And it was just the quick and very nearly unputdownable book that I needed to both get my reading mojo back and help me get closer to reading goal of 50 books this year; I’m still behind, but I can catch up. Thank you Matt! (Read between February 6 & 8)
Book 4: Revenant-X (2024) by David Wellington is the second in his Red Space sci-fi horror trilogy. The first book, Paradise-1, was an action-packed page-turner with cliffhangers ending most of the relatively short chapters. Hence, I expect to finish it in relatively quickly. This is strange, I do have good memories of the first book, but I struggled for most of the first half of the sequel. I found I just didn’t really care for the characters, and the robot was a little annoying. Having said that, as I passed that magic 55% mark, my interest returned as I prepare to race towards the finish. And I read that last 45% within 24 hours. Although that won’t be in my top 10 books I read this year, I will certainly finish the trilogy just to see what happens next when the last book is released. (Read between February 8 & 13)
Book 5: Sea of Tranquility (2022) by Emily St. John Mandel was next as Station Eleven was one of my favorite books last year. And this did not disappoint. It’s just beautiful writing with characters I care about. Almost everything that my previous read wasn’t. And around 30 hours after starting it, I’m past half-way. And I finished it quick smart. In some ways, it was everything that my previous read wasn’t: characters I cared about and a rather unique plot with a moving twist/reveal at the end. (Read between February 13 & 14)
Book 6: Lives of Bitter Rain (2025), a novella from Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Tyrant Philosophers series is next as I just realized he has several books out this year, and the number of his books that I haven’t read is both growing and concerning. Hence, I think I will focus on his books in the short term. (Read between February 14 & 15)
Book 7: The Heart of the Reproach (2025) by Adrian Tchaikovsky is a short story set in the same world and in same city and in the same creepy and odd part of that as the first book, and that will be the setting of the final book, which I am now looking forward to with much anticipation and glee! (Read February 15)
Book 8: The Testaments (2019) by Margaret Atwood is the sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, which I read in 2019, and I was surprised to realize so much time had passed as a lot has happened since then both in the real world and the hundreds of books I’ve read since, yet my memories of that book, including some specific scenes, live vividly in my memory. And this will be abother such book. I don’t know why I waited six years to read this! And it was particularly interesting to read it as I dive deeper into the world of the Moonies – too many similarities, unfortunately. (Read between February 15 & 20)
Book 9: Reaper Man (1991) by Terry Pratchett is his eleventh Discworld novel and the second to feature the character of Death, the grim reaper. This is my thirteenth Discworld novel out of a staggering total of 41. I want to savor this utterly nique, hilarious, and insughtful series, so I tentatively plan to read about two a year. At that rate, I’ll finish all of them by about 2040. (Read between February 20 & 25)
Book 10: Iron Gold (2018) by Pierce Brown was next and it took me two months to read it due partly to work and some other related activities. And although I enjoye dit, I found myself forgetting the backstories of some of the minor characters. That would have been solved by some quick research and more time spent reading. I’ll certainly be continuing with the series sooner rather than later. (Read between February 25 & April 24)
Book 11: Hole in the Sky (2025) by Daniel Wilson was next as I felt in the mood for a short first contact novel, and I loved Robopocalypse and its sequel, Robogenesis. This didn’t quite live up to the expectations I had for this book, but it was the nice short book I needed to return me to reading more pages per day. (Read between April 24 and April 29)
Book 12: Children of Strife (2026) by Adrian Tchaikovsky is the fourth book in his series that began with Children of Time, winner of the 2016 Arthur C. Clarke Award and my first introduction to the to the Adrian’s extremely and unbelievably prolific writing. He’s so prolific, I think I need to spend the next month or two just reading his books. I read most of the book on Friday and Saturday, and on Saturday, I could hardly put it down. Now I need to look to see if there are any hints of a fifth book. My love of reading has now been re-Kindled. (Read between April 29 and May 3)
Book 13: Bee Speaker (2025) by Adrian Tchaikovsky is the latest and third book in another of his series, The Dogs of War series which so far consists of The Dogs of War and Bear Head. The first chapter provided a warm welcome back into these worlds. It took my almost two weeks because my reading and I guess life in general was disrupted when I was suddenly thrust into a domestic between of my ex-girlfriends and her crazy and abusive current/hopefully-by-now ex-boyfriend. Great book though! (Read between May 3 & 18)
Book 14: Twelve Months (2026) by Jim Butcher was next, and it marks a long-awaited return to Butcher’s Dresden Files series with the eighteenth book in the series. This is certainly a series which generally and gradually just keeps getting better. I’ll be sad when the series is complete, but since the final book will probably be the twenty-fifth book, I still have plenty of years of adventures and misadventures ahead of me. Once again, my reading pace was hindered by life events as a few weeks of stress was kickstarted by suddenly realizing my favorite ex-gf is stuck in an abusive relationship. A situation that could have quickly and easily been resolved if I were a wizard named Harry Dresden. I eventually finished 12 Months some 6 weeks after starting it. I am on vacation now, so my reading speed should increase with my next book; however, my ex is still having serious problems with a guy who can only be described as a crazed stalker. Alas, there’s really nothing I can do except be someone she can talk to. I enjoyed the book by the way! And I was just surprised to realize – through my trusty reading diary, that it had been three years since I read the previous Dresden Files book, Battle Ground (2020). It really doesn’t feel that long ago, but that does explain why I didn’t remember too clearly the exact circumstances of a character’s death that continues to haunt a grieving Harry. (Read between May 18 & June 27)
What’s next? As I type this, I have no idea, but the decision will be made within the next 5-10 minutes.
June 28 Newsflash: I bought a new Kindle, a 12 generation Kindle Paperwhite! My beloved Kindle Oasis has developed a few cracks (not my fault), and I felt its end was nigh. Sadly for the entire e-book reading world, the Oasis model has been discontinued, and my new Kindle just doesn’t sit as comfortably in my hand and I really miss the page turn buttons. I had considered buying a Kobo Libre Color, which does have similar page turning buttons, but I decided to save a few bucks and stick with Amazon. I kind of regret that. Having said that, my new Kindle is a little faster and it does have more storage than my Oasis. Perhaps my next e-book reader will be a Kobo, unless Amazon revises the Oasis.
Book 15: Platform Decay (2026) by Martha Wells continues the adventure of the loveable Murderbot in this, the eighth book in her series of novels and novellas. This was pretty short, but I still don’t quite have my reading mojo back. (Read between June 28 & July 8)
Book 16: A Short Stay in Hell (2009) by Steven L. Peck was next as I had heard great things about it. And being a longish novella, it can be read in one sitting although I read it in two. Wow, this may haunt me for a while! (Read July 8)
Book 17: The Hungry Gods (2025) by Adrian Tchaikovsky was next as I continue to try to read all of his published book – or at least reduce the number of his books that I have yet to read. Unfortunately, he can write faster than I can read. It was not a long book, but I am still yet to get my reading mojo back. It was enjoyable with a slight twist at the end that I saw coming from the forshadowing I picked up on. Not the best of his books, but it was quite captivating and moved along at a fast pace. It’s a book I really should have finished in a couple of days. (Read between July 9 & 15)
Book 18: Isles of the Emberdark (2026) by Brandon Sanderson was next, and it is perhaps my favorite of his standalone novels set in his Cosmere universe. (Read between July 15 & 24)
Book 19: Magician (1982) by Raymond E. Feist was next although I had no intention of starting another long series. This is the first book in his Riftwar Cycle, although ut was published as two books in the US: Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master. I opened it just to have a quick browse and the author’s introduction to this expanded/uncut edition made me curious. I finished the first chapter still unsure if I wanted to continue, but by the end of the third chapter I was hooked. I remember reading a summary of the saga some years ago, but I deliberately – apart from the author’s introduction – kept myself in the dark as to the story as much as possible. Obviously, there’s a war and some kind of rift, but that’s all I knew going in. And now I have fallen in love with most of the characters introduced so far and each time I turn on my Kindle it is with an excited feeling of expectation that has been lacking in some of my recent reads. Gee, I hope nothing bad happens to these characters. Well, some bad things did happen of course, but some good came with the bad. It’s always refreshing to read an accomplished author for the first time – to experience a unique turn of phrase and prose that’s their own. Magician was quite the epic fantasy with enough twists and turns to keep me engaged, and the writing just felt so smooth an natural. I’ll certainly read more in the future – at least the first trilogy. (Read between July 24 & August 12)
Book 20: The Best of Adrian Tchaikovsky (2026) by – obviously – Adrian Tchaikovsky was next as I felt in the mood for some short stories, and wow, as expected, there are some real gems amongst these – “Charlie’s Ant” being my absolute favorite so far as I pass the 75% mark. Numerous times, the premise or a single early sentence hooked me with most stories being read in one sitting. (Read between August 12 & …)
Book 21:
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CONTINUED IN PART 2, 2026
Book ??: Cujo (1981) by Stephen King as it’s time time read that one Stephen King novel I have yet to read. And after binging most of the Murderbot series and after the life, times, and music of John Williams, it feels like the right time to finally cross this book off my TBR (To-Be-Read) list. (Read between …)
