Happy Monday! How was your weekend? The weather here in NH was gorgeous for late July. There were moments of absolute delight when I stood in the backyard playing with the kids and Dawsey. I don’t know what’s in store for the rest of the summer but my fingers are crossed that it will be more of the same! We’re expecting some rain next week – my favorite weather – and I hope the forecast holds up and that we’ll have a string of rainy days. If that happens, please know that I’m increasing my homemade latte intake and keeping my Kobo charged and humming!
Today’s post is a bit overdue but still relevant – a 2026 reading update. I shared my goals for the year in January and am here to let you know how things have been going. They’re all on track except for one, which I abandoned early in the year. I’ve included it in today’s post as a reminder but it won’t be on any future posts about my 2026 reading goals.
❒ 12 Female Prize Winners
This goal is exactly where it should be! It’s still working well to alternate months (January: Women’s Prize title, February: female Booker Prize winner, etc), so I’ll keep working at it and will hopefully finish both of these lists by mid-2027! As of today, I’m 77% through the Women’s Prize list (24/31 titles read) and 76% through the female Booker Prize list (16/21 titles read). If I keep up this pace, then it will have taken me around 2.5 years to get through both lists.
❒ 12 Translated Titles
Translated titles got off to a great start this year. This category has slowed down over the last few months but I’m hoping for a resurgence once the weather cools off and I’m feeling a little more ambitious with my reading life.
❌ Finish the International Booker Prize Winners
I decided against this goal once the year started. I might try this again another year but not in 2026!
❒ Quarterly Author Reading
Still on track with this one, too! I was hoping to read Song of Solomon in July but it looks like that might not happen. August? I’ve struggled with Woolf in the past but have enjoyed my time with her this year. I’m also slowly reading a collection of her journals (A Writer’s Diary), so that’s been fun. And of course, Morrison is my favorite author OF ALL TIME, so it’s been a rewarding challenge to revisit her fiction this year alongside a slow read of On Morrison by Namwali Serpell.
❒ Read 54,000 Pages
I was short on this goal in both 2024 and 2025 so decided to try again in 2026. I chose this number because I try to read at least 150 pages a day. I multiplied 150 by 360 (to give myself a little grace for holidays and illness) and came up with 54,000. I’m ahead of pace by just over 6,000 pages, which feels like a luxurious place to be in. But there were times when I was ahead by such an extravagant number in previous years and still fell behind by the end, so I’m not counting any of my chickens yet. Onward!
Slow & Steady Titles
I’ve fallen out of practice here and am already a month behind in Paradise Lost so I’m not sure what the rest of the year will look like for this category of goals. I know I won’t be able to finish all of them!
✔️ The Odyssey – Emily Wilson translation
✔️ Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
✔️ Swann’s Way – Marcel Proust
❒ The Origins of Totalitarianism – Hannah Arendt
❒ Prequel – Rachel Maddow
❒ Black Moses – Caleb Gayle
❒ You Don’t Know Us Negroes – Zora Neale Hurston
❒ Jim crow: Voices from a Century of Struggle – Tyina Steptoe
❒ Paradise Lost – John Milton (currently reading 1 section a month)
I’m feeling optimistic about the rest of the year despite how distracted and overwhelmed I’ve felt this summer. Here’s a bookish fall, right?!
Thank you to everyone who gave me knitting advice in my last post: I’ve decided to find yet another hank of yarn to try to finish this cowl instead of shortening the decrease rows! I only worked on it a tiny bit last week so maybe there will be something to share next Monday?
The Booker Prize longlist announcement is tomorrow and I’ve been counting down for weeks. I can’t believe it’s already time! Do you have any predictions? Hopes? I’ve stopped predicting because I’m terrible at it, but I hope Kin by Tayari Jones is on the list. I don’t know if its publication date in the UK falls within the right range but my fingers are still crossed!
I hope this week is a good one for you. Take good care!
The Cozy Burrow 
This is so impressive, Katie. I am awestruck!
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I am in awe of your reading goals and progress! And that you read 150 pages a day — wow. I love that reading is such a priority for you. Seeing your goals makes me want to do a Toni Morrison re-read. I haven’t read all of her work by a longshot, but Song of Solomon is one of my favorites. I reread it a couple of years ago. I think I’d want to revisit Sula, too, and Jazz. The Bluest Eye, maybe; same with Beloved. I own a copy of A Mercy and have never read it, so maybe that’s where I should start!
I also really want to reread The Odyssey in advance of watching the movie. The Emily Wilson translation seems like the way to go, although I’ve heard good things about the Daniel Mendelsohn version too. I know I should stop dithering about which translation to go with and just PICK ONE already!
Your Paradise Lost read intrigues me. I picked it up a few years ago to do a reread alongside a friend, and I just could not get into it. It wasn’t my favorite when I first read it in college, but I hoped that the intervening years would have made it easier to enjoy. Maybe I should give it another chance, though.
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