2026 Reading List
January
The Treason of Isengard is the seventh book in The History of Middle-Earth series, put together by Christopher Tolkien and is a continuation of The Return of the Shadow. In Picking up The Return of the Shadow and The Treason of Isengard, I had expected more of an abandoned or unfinished story like Beren and Luthien or The Fall of Gondolin but instead met a look at what The Lord of the Rings could have been. It has been incredibly eye-opening and insightful reading though the many different drafts and versions that the story went through before it even started to come together as the story that we know and love. It has also been quite inspiring in a way and has made me want to start writing a story of my very own. I had always thought the idea of writing a story to be fun, but I never thought myself capable of such a thing as I don't fancy myself to be a very capable writer. Reading the very first draft of the first chapter in what is now The Fellowship of the Ring, and realizing how bare bones it was and that Tolkien didn't even have any idea where it was going to go kind of showed me that I didn't need to be perfect right from the jump, and that it is a process and something to be shaped over time. The book has also given me tips on how to edit my own writing and how to work through that whole process by giving examples of what Tolkien did. This is a must read for anybody who likes Lord of the Rings and/ or wants to become a better writer!
February
The Saturday Night Ghost club was my original pick to read during February since February is a short month, and the book was also relatively short. Much to my surprise however, I was able to finish reading the book by the end of week one! It was a playful easy read, very different from what I have been reading in recent history. This book was originally purchased in October of 2025 but only got around to it now. The story is set in the 80s and is akin to all the coming-of-age stories that came before it. I wasn't invested in the book at the beginning as I thought it was rather cliché and coasting off all the 80s nostalgia we have today, but it grew on me, and I ultimately liked the journey the story took me on. I do not know if I will read it again, but I am glad I picked it up.
I am not a fan of reading murder mystery books, but I do enjoy a good murder mystery show. Years ago, now, I watches the show Midsomer Murders every night, and as it turns out, the very first episode of that series is based off this book, so I had to read it. I enjoyed the book more than I thought as I enjoyed how the author, Caroline Graham, described the world that she created and the characters and their motives. It is of similar length to The Saturday Night Ghost Club (just shy of 300 pages) but was a little harder to read. That could be chalked up to the fact that that the story was written in the 80s and takes place in a country that is not my own, so the vernacular was a little harder to grasp. In the end, I highly recommend picking up this book and watching the show!
Fuck Copyright © 2025