2026 Reading Plans
A preview of the year to come
This week’s post is the Substack equivalent of a film trailer, whetting your appetite with some of the books that will (I hope) be appearing in your inboxes in the coming 12 months. As previously, I have a few specific reading goals that I’ll be working towards, although you should continue to expect the appearance of miscellaneous random titles from the shelves of my home or local library too.
A Century of Crime
I’m starting Year 3 of my long-term goal of reading one crime novel for each year of the 20th century, in order. This continues to be an interesting way to explore some avenues that I wouldn’t normally travel down, although this year we’ll be entering more familiar territory as we journey through the 1920s.
You can see my progress so far here — I’ll post about my 1918-1920 reads next week. My favourite criminal artefacts from the 1910s were R. Austin Freeman’s The Eye of Osiris (1911) and Sven Elvestad’s The Final Days of Abbot Montrose (1917). There were a number of titles, though, that I did not enjoy at all. I’m relieved to have now reached a decade with a wider range of potential novels to choose from.
For the 1920s, I’ll be reading books by the likes of Freeman Wills Crofts, John Rhode, Henry Wade, S. S. Van Dine and Gladys Mitchell. At the current rate, I’ll reach my final goal in December 2033, by which point NASA may have sent humans to Mars.
Inspector French
I’m approaching the end of my chronological readthrough of John Dickson Carr’s Dr Fell novels, so I need a new Golden Age detective to take his place. I’ve decided to move on to the Inspector French series by railway engineer Freeman Wills Crofts. I’ve enjoyed a number of these titles in the past, as well as his non-series novels The Cask and The Groote Park Murder.
Between 1924 and 1957, Crofts wrote 29 novels featuring his methodical alibi-breaker Joseph French. I’ll skip some of the books that I’ve read within the last few years, but I will read (or re-read) at least 23 of French’s adventures, beginning in a few months with Inspector French’s Greatest Case and finishing sometime in 2028 with Anything to Declare, by which point the Jeddah Tower may have replaced the Burj Khalifa as the tallest building in the world.
Taming the TBR
Like any sensible person, I have a large number of unread mystery books (353 to be precise; yes, I have a spreadsheet). Some of these have been sitting neglected on my shelves for more than 5 years, through no fault of their own. These books have been the unfortunate victims of my tendency to get distracted by new acquisitions.
But I’ve decided 2026 is the year that some of these very patient books will finally get read. A few of the longest-waiting books in this category, which you might see reviewed over the next year, are:
Leo Bruce — Case for Three Detectives (1936). I’ve heard many good things about this book, so I’m looking forward to actually reading it at last.
John Dickson Carr — Fire, Burn! (1957). I’ve yet to read any of Carr’s historical mysteries. When I get to the end of my Dr Fell readthrough, this will help with any withdrawal symptoms.
Cyril Hare — An English Murder (1951). This is a classic Christmas country house mystery, which will be great to take on my summer holiday.
Anthony Gilbert — The Spinster’s Secret (1946). I own a few Anthony Gilberts, all charity shop purchases, but haven’t read any yet.
Charles Kingston — Murder in Piccadilly (1936). This is the British Library Crime Classic that has been sitting on my shelf for the longest. Reading it will help with my other long-term goal of reading all of them!
Vintage Mystery Scavenger Hunt
As a bonus bit of fun for the year, I’ve decided to take part in one of the annual reading challenges organised by Bev at My Reader’s Block (who makes my TBR pile look tiny). I’ve signed up for the Golden Age Scavenger Hunt — the aim is to find objects from Bev’s scavenger list on the covers of books you read (one object per cover), with the added restriction that they must be mystery books first published before 1960. You can read more about the challenge here and can follow my progress through the year here. And maybe you’d like to join in as well!
All of the above comes with the caveat that I may completely abandon all of these plans and read different books instead. But I generally enjoy having a few goals to follow through the year.
What about you? Do you have any goals or plans for the year’s reading? Are there any particular authors or books you’re especially looking forward to?
Love how anchoring reading goals to realworld milestones creates accountability without pressure. The Jeddah Tower comparision is clever because most multi-year projects fail from being too abstract, but giving each phase external markers (even architectural ones) makes progress tangible. I tried tracking a longterm data project against Formula 1 seasons once and the temporal checkpoints helped way more than I expcted. Curious if the alibi-breaking methodology in the French series feels dated or if solid detection logic ages well.
‘An English Murder ‘ is very good and highly recommended but it is set in a snowy winter, I think at New Year, so for a summer holiday read you can take it somewhere hot and cool down !
😊