New year, new reading stretch, and a fresh reading list. Mostly to remind myself what I want to read and enjoy. And, at the very bottom of the reasons, to keep up with a reading challenge.

After finishing my 2025 reading recap, I remember briefly thinking that I had read really well last year. Better than expected. Enough to make me assume that 2026 might be calmer, maybe even boring, and, most importantly, less surprising as a reading experience. As if I had already gone through most of the good ones the year before.

That turned out to be a very short-lived thought. I knew it was naïve; there are millions of books out there, and countless great ones I haven’t read.

Fourteen Books Read in the First Month of 2026

My reading in the first month of 2026 didn’t have any clear plan. I’m still working through Clarice Lispector’s books, a continuation of a small commitment I made during last Christmas. I picked up Martyr by Kaveh Akbar from the library without much expectation. I also read Why the Poor Don’t Kill Us out of curiosity about the world we’re currently living in, hoping to understand it just a little better. Then, Embracing Alienation caught my attention because of its refusal to promise self-discovery. And after repeatedly encountering Mother Mary Comes to Me in bookstores, I finally decided to read the memoir, aware of how closely it’s shaped by political context.

This month, I read fourteen books. Surprisingly many, considering I didn’t set any goals.

Two Standout Reads I Found This Month

Not even a month into 2026, I had already found two best reads among the fourteen books I’d finished so far: I Who Have Never Known Men and There Are Rivers in the Sky. I caught myself feeling slightly foolish for ever thinking I could run out of good books in the first place.

I didn’t reading many novels where the dystopian setting feels this exposed. I Who Have Never Known Men offered that experience really well. Jacqueline Harpman’s writing stays intense, keeping me fully engaged as a reader. The figurative and literal settings left a strong impression on me.

On the other hand, There Are Rivers in the Sky came into my reading life almost by accident. I noticed it on a library shelf, not as part of my TBR and not something I had planned to read. It was one of those popular books that the loan can’t be renewed, and for most of the loan period, I barely touched it. I came very close to returning it unread. Out of curiosity, and a bit of guilt, I decided to read just a few pages. I found myself pulled into the story, drawn in by its layered narrative and strong characters. The writing felt confident and deliberate, and the story unfolded in a way that made it hard to stop. By the time I finished, I was already looking up other books by Elif Shafak and placing myself in the library queue.

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That’s how my reading year started. No careful planning of TBR list. Just instinct, curiosity, and whatever happened to be waiting on the library shelves.

Hopefully, next month will bring an even better reading experience.