Every year in June, at the middle of the road, I turn back to take a look at the year in horror and the books I have read so far, and since time is nothing but a blur these days, we're there already, if not a little late. In order to do so I answer a series of questions that we used to sum up our reading year/half year over at the Shine and Shadow reading group on Goodreads. At this point I have some bad news, though... At the beginning of this year I quit my role as admin of the group, as people returned to their normal lives and spent less and less time on Goodreads (and no need to say, reading less and less) and the workload of the group became much bigger - because nobody did the work anymore. Also people just stopped communicating and that was really frustrating and annoying. So, I jumped off that train although I loved my reading group and talking with people about the books we read together. But hey... Things always keep on changing and I hope that I'll find new people to read books with.
As to what I've read this year: instead of going after new publications, I concentrated on reading the books I already own. I like to discover good books and think "wow, this has been here in my home for years", I like to cross out titles from my tbr that were waiting for me in the shelves. Also, I have been reading a lot of non-fiction, because a friend and I started the so-called "anarchist reads" where we read one important work from the anarchist canon once a month and meet up to discuss it, but that doesn't really flow into this chart of freaky books.
Anyway, let's have a look at how it went so far!
1. Best book you’ve read so far in 2026?
I have talked about this book before, the author is the only person I envy for her job, Caroline Bicks, the Stephen E. King Chair in Literature at the University of Maine, and she got access to King's notes and manuscripts for a whole year. For this book she focuses on five books, The Shining, Pet Sematary, Night Shift, 'Salems's Lot and Carrie and analyzes the early manuscripts, discusses the differences between manuscripts and final drafts, the editor notes, the wording, biographical background info etc. etc. Some of this was extremely interesting, sometimes funny too, like his early editor for Doubleday, Bill Thompson, who cut out most of the disgusting and extreme, and let's be honest, fun scenes in Carrie and even 'Salem's Lot, especially shortening scenes concerning rats. How dare he? Also, I forgot so many of these books, I definitely want to re-read The Shining and Carrie in the foreseeable future.
To me this was fun stuff I could keep on reading forever. I wish I could visit Bicks' lectures some day.
2. Best sequel you've read so far in 2026?
The only sequel I have read this year is Clay's Ark by Octavia Butler, so I guess it is the best one too. I'm still trying to finish Seed to Harvest, the collection of all the books in Butler's Patternist series, and this was book 3. The good news is that I only have one more book to go.
3. New release you haven't read yet, but want to?
4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year?
So, of course I'm anticipating an anthology, namely Lovecraft's Brood: Nineteen Tales of Cosmic Horror which is edited by my favorite editor Ellen Datlow and I don't think it needs any explanation why. My only problem is that all 19 short stories in this anthology are pre-published, so I might already know some of them, but we'll see.
Another anticipated surprise book is a sequel in the series "The Only Good Indians", and it's called Off the Reservation by Stephen Graham Jones. I didn't even know there would be a sequel to The Only Good Indians and I'm stoked.
5. Biggest disappointment?
Flesh by David Szalay. I understand the main character is supposed to be soulless, but this was up until the end, quite boring. It's boring in the way that it seems written by a horny fourteen year old boy who only ever thinks about having sex, and that's just boring. I wonder how it won the Booker Prize.6. Biggest surprise?
7. Favorite new author (debut or new to you)?
Drew Huff.
8. Newest fictional crush?
I don't have any fictional crushes.
9. Newest favorite character?
Celia Dent who is the main character in the feminist noir novel Evil Genius by Claire Oshetsky.
10. Book that made you cry?
Ganz unten: Mit einer Dokumentation der Folgen by Günter Wallraff made me angry and made me cry a little bit.11. Book that made you happy?
Clowns Vs. Spiders by Jeff Strand made me laugh a lot.12. Most beautiful book you've bought so far this year (or received)?
13. What books do you need to read by the end of the year?
None, really. I don't want to put myself under any pressure to read a book.
14. Worst book you've read so far?
15. Have you joined any Shine & Shadow reads this year? Which one has been your favorite?
I did and I read the very very dark book Otared by Mohammad Rabie. As I said in my review, it is an awesome book, but I wouldn't want to read it again.16. And just because I'm curious, share a personal accomplishment you have achieved this year! ❤️ (it doesn't need to be reading related!)
I am lately focusing on my day job as an assistant at the TU Berlin, as I accepted to go full time for the next two years because I'm doing the assistance of a newly launched academic project that deals with Decolonial Teaching Methods and it has been much fun until now. It's not really an accomplishment, but an improvement in my life and gives me the opportunity to attend lots of excursions and guided walks through Berlin and visit museums etc. Fun stuff.
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