(I wouldn't make any bets on that if I were you, but if we can't be optimistic at the beginning of a new year, when can we really?)
Listen you guys, I have like, my next four years of book lists mapped out. Ridiculous? Maybe, but I just have so many ideas for book lists and I can only put them into action one year at a time. This year's plan is to round up every book I ever put on a book list and make a new list out of all the ones I never got around to reading. Everything added up, that came out to twenty-one books, plus I added five more including the Shakespearean plays I want to read this year and, of course, a presidential biography. (Technically, the biography could be considered part of the round-up of books from past lists, but I'm not trying to put that kind of pressure on myself with the presidents. I know you probably don't care about this kind of nerdy minutiae or the inner workings of my mind, but this blog isn't just for you, okay? It's for me too.)
Anyways, when all is said and done, I have a starting list of twenty-six books for 2026, and you guys, I just realized it as I typed it out: 26 in '26! Truly a coincidence, but how serendipitous.
Here's the stack:
Walking with God Day by Day : Martyn Lloyd-Jones
President James Buchanan : Philip Shriver Klein
Merry Wives of Windsor : William Shakespeare
Titus Andronicus : William Shakespeare
A Barrel of Laughs, A Vale of Tears : Jules Feiffer
from my 2015 book list
When God Writes Your Life Story : Eric & Leslie Ludy
The Quiet Little Woman : Louisa May Alcott
The Red Badge of Courage : Stephen Crane
Adopted for Life : Russell Moore
from my 2019 book list
Crime and Punishment : Fyodor Dostoevsky
1984 : George Orwell
from my 2020 book list
The Age of Innocence : Edith Wharton
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland : Lewis Carroll
Through the Looking-Glass : Lewis Carroll
from my 2022 book list
Housekeeping : Marilynne Robinson
from my 2023 book list
The Case for a Creator : Lee Strobel
As I Lay Dying : William Faulkner
A Gentleman in Moscow : Amor Towles
Carry On, Jeeves : P.G. Wodehouse
The Chosen : Chaim Potok
The Starless Sea : Erin Morgenstern
A Red Herring Without Mustard : Alan Bradley
from my 2025 book list
Living Life Backward : David Gibson
Hannah Coulter : Wendell Berry
Brideshead Revisited : Evelyn Waugh
A Farewell to Arms : Ernest Hemingway
I'm really excited with how this list turned out, but it does feel a little daunting too. (Although can we all breathe a sigh of relief that David Copperfield didn't carry over into another new year?) With working full-time outside my home again, I've had to get really intentional with my reading time and there was definitely a period of adjustment with that, but I'm excited to tackle this list and finally check these books off my unread shelf.
Are you optimistic about fresh resolutions at the beginning of a new year? Or is it just another day? Any books you're especially excited to get to this year? Would you like to read any from my list with me?
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