After seeing Gem @Gem’s Book Talk do this post in April, I had planned to do it as well, but life got away from me and so I’m doing it in May instead! It looks like a fun way to check in part way through the year, and since it’s technically about the first quarter of the year, I’ll be answering based on what I had read up to the end of March!
How many books have you read so far?
I read exactly 20 books (5,086 pages) from January 1st to March 31st.
Have you already found a book you think might be a 2026 favourite? If not, what was your favourite book you read that wasn’t quite five stars?
I give out very five stars so a lot of my favourites each year are 4/4.5 star books. If I had to pick a couple 4.5/4 star books from the first quarter that I think have a decent chance of making it to my favourite books of the year list, I’d probably pick:
- 너를 만나서 행복해 [Glad to See You] by Chow Hon Lam (Mini Review)
- Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie (Mini Review)
- Show Me Where It Hurts by Claire Gleeson (Review)
- Two Women Living Together by Kim Hana and Hwang Sunwoo (Review)
Any 1-star books/least favourite book of the year so far?
I don’t have any super low ratings from this period and most of the books I DNF’d are either from April or were DNF’d so early in that it just wasn’t for me rather than making my ‘least favourite book of the year’ list. A quick spoiler from quarter two though – The Witch by Marie NDiaye is currently my least favourite book of the year (I DNF’d @40%).
Most read genre so far?
My most-read genre for the first quarter was sci-fi (mostly thanks to reading quite a few Murderbot Diaries books), followed by fantasy, literary fiction and non-fiction (on 3-4 books each).
A book that surprised you?
When I picked up an ARC of The Forgetting Navigations by Marlee Jane Ward I had no expectations. I had heard nothing about it and I was picking it off the ‘read now’ list to build up my Netgalley profile. I ended up really enjoying it (check out my review here), which just goes to show that sometimes trying out things you’ve never heard of pays off!
A book that’s come out in 2026 already that you want to read but haven’t yet?
Herlands by Megha Mohan is my last remaining preorder from the first quarter that I haven’t got around to reading. It might need to wait until I haven’t got other nonfiction reading requirements though as this next month or two also has a couple nonfiction releases that I’ve preordered, plus I’m researching for my dissertation as well.
One goal you made that you’re succeeding at
This includes books I’ve read in April and May, but generally speaking I am absolutely smashing my goal of reading 52 books (excluding rereads) in 2026 and I’m doing well with my pages goal as well.
One goal you made that you need to focus on
I did very poorly with my book buying restriction in the first quarter of the year:
Book hauls from the first quarter of the year
I read or DNF’d 13 books from my owned active TBR (i.e. not research books, library books etc.) which means I should have only bought 6 books + 3 freebies (9 total) – this excludes books for research or books I’ve previously read. However, I ended up buying 17!!! So almost double.
I’m not going to put myself on a book buying ban, but I am decreasing the total number of books I can buy per quarter (regardless of how many books I’ve read) for the rest of the year and try and slowly make up for this slightly explosive start to the year.
New to you book content creators for that you recommend
I just went through the blogs that I followed in the first quarter of the year and picked out a few:
- Dini @Dini Panda Reads – I was definitely reading this blog earlier before this, but looks like I only hit subscribe in January!
- Nicole @Bookwyrm Knits – I discovered this blog whilst doing our Ancillary Mercy read along!
- Rachael @The Green Tea Librarian – I am obsessed with tea, so this blog name really sold me
And that’s it! What were your favourite or least favourite reads of the first quarter?
Keira x
Keira's Bookmark 