I don’t like setting myself up to failed expectations around the new year, but I do think it’s fun to do a survey of the state of my reading, including some of the themes and categories I’m interested in reading in the coming year. And I do have some anti-resolutions: authors or types of books that I am consciously going to try to read less of in 2026!
Themes and Modest Goals
Series reading: While I might read books in a series on an extended schedule, over years, I like to have a selection of series that I am actively reading. I hate being without a book, and get a lot of titles from long waits or interlibrary loan; rotating through a few series ensures I never have to decide and always have a book available when I need it. I’m also a bit of a mood reader, so I like to have several options depending on my mood and capacity! After auditioning quite a lot of new series in the first months of last year, I feel good about where I am in my series reading: I’m persevering in my fraught relationship with Peter Robinson; I just started Ann Cleeves’ Vera (I’ll write about it soon!); and I have Jane Casey and Andrea Penrose to sprinkle in for lighter reads. This is a good stable of genres and authors to choose from. I wouldn’t be surprised if I finish at least one of these series in 2026.
Rereading: Ever since I read The Searcher a year ago and was reminded of how much I like Tana French, I’ve had a yen to revisit her Dublin Murder Squad books! I may also continue with rereading some of Michael Connelly’s Jack McEvoy subseries, since I am more or less caught up with Bosch and Ballard. I would like to finish my reread of Dorothy Sayers’ Peter Wimsey books this year. I haven’t mentioned it, but I’ve been similarly PD James over the last few years and while I don’t know that I’ll finish that project (her books can be so literary that I space them apart), I do want to continue!
History of Mysteries: My goal is to continue with Christianna Brand and with my ongoing read through of all of Agatha Christie. After rather disliking Anthony Berkeley’s The Wychford Poisonings last year, I want to give him another try: I liked the mystery but hated the characters and the tone (so. much. spanking!). I’d also like to get back to Ngaoi Marsh, whose books I mostly enjoy but who I fell off of mid series: I didn’t read any of her books last year! I may also explore some honkaku: at a minimum, I’ve already bought The Decagon House Murders, so I will certainly read that!
Cozies: For a long time, I’ve had a goal to find some cozies that I like. I’m not on very good terms with the sub-genre, but the world is hard and it would be nice to have some lighter reads in the stable. I sampled some in 2025 without much luck, but my goal is to keep trying!
Stand-alones and planned one-offs: I’m very much looking forward to reading another of Janice Hallett’s delicious epistolaries; I sampled The Examiner and am on the wait list for it at my library. Working in academia myself, I expect I'll either love it or have a lot of critique! I’ve decided one Hallett a year is probably reasonable pacing to keep these fresh. With a little trepidation, I intend to try Kemper Donovan’s ghost writer series (of course I know of him from the podcast, and the trepidation stems from being afraid I won't like it). One of the blogs I read often loves Perry Mason, so I’m going to give an Erle Stanley Gardner a try (I’ve already picked out my title and ordered it from the library!).
Anti-Resolutions: Who I’m Giving Up in 2026
Instead of making resolutions about what exactly to read, I am giving myself anti-resolutions: authors and categories I am giving myself permission not to read anymore! Though I may come back to them, I’m putting them back on the literal or proverbial shelf for the year:
Margery Allingham: There’s some stuff to like, but of the Queens, she is far and away my least favorite. I extremely struggled to finish the last book of hers I read. That was Death of a Ghost, which I thought at first was an improvement only to be disappointed. It exemplified one of the problems I have with Allingham: her interminable endings that just seem to stretch on and on and on.
Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus: A lot of authors who I like (and thus whose taste I theoretically trust), love these books. The fictional Ruth Galloway is always enjoying the latest Ian Rankin book. But I just couldn’t get going with the series in 2025! I like some aspects, but there are also elements in the early books that I find extremely repellent, especially in audio. The early part of the series, at least, is not for me. I might pick up the series a little later in to see if I like it better: maybe there’s a point where the author finds his stride.
Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club: Nothing against the man personally, he seems clever and nice. And nothing against fans of the series: I can see why you like them, there’s a lot of charm here! I just can’t get into these books. There’s an ironic remove between the characters and the narrator that I commonly encounter in British fiction. I don’t mind it in some cases (i.e. Mick Herron’s loathsome spies), but I just can’t connect with this series or its characters and I think I’m done trying. I do plan to try the movie adaptation, though.
Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct: Maybe!? These came so highly recommended that I am loathe to give up, and I haven’t even been able to finish book one! Usually I give series 2-3 books to find their footing, but every once in a while I dislike a book so much that I question the policy, and Cop Hater is a struggle. Even though it's extremely short. I do still want to give the series a fair shake since it’s beloved, but maybe not this year, and like Rankin, maybe I’ll try a later book in the series to see if the aspects I dislike have improved at all.
Literary mysteries: I have so many blog drafts of articles about literary mysteries that came out in the last couple of years, and I’ve held back on publishing them because they spiral out into sour rants. This is my anti-resolution that I’m most likely to fail because I am perpetually tempted back by positive reviews from prestigious outlets! But for my own happiness, I’d really like to take a year off from reading literary mysteries! Except for a few trusted authors, I can't think of the last time I truly enjoyed a new one. If I were to break down the genres and sub-genres is the books I don't finish, I think literary mysteries might top it. So no more! I'm taking a year off! Probably.
That does it for my thematic predictions and my anti-resolutions! If I'm still writing a year from now, it will be interesting to see how I do ... when I made art resolutions for 2025, I immediately forgot them, but I ended up doing most of them anyway! Maybe the biggest prediction of all: I expect this post to fall into the memory hole instantly, and anything I do to meet these predictions will be entirely by accident!
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