Books in 2026 so far

1 August 2026

I know the literal middle of a year is at the moment when June ends and July begins (a six-month mark over the twelve months within a year). But I’ve always been feeling like the middle of the year is one month later: precisely at the end of July and the beginning of August. Don’t ask me why, though, it’s how I feel it and I don’t really know why.

All that to say that we've just crossed what I consider the middle of the year, and as I wrote at the end of my first post this year (written in French), I wanted to give myself more time to read in 2026. I had the same desire in 2025 and it went pretty well, which was a really pleasant feeling, after years of being almost incapable of doing it, because of my attention span which, over the previous decade, just melted away. Almost everyone has been suffering from it and everyone knows why.

For a few years now, I’ve been trying to get my attention back. I try not to rely on screens for this-and-that (especially my smartphone’s one, King of Evil) and I reintroduced screen-free activities to my daily life. For example: reading books/magazines and writing with a pen (fountain ones are the best) on actual paper. Isn’t it crazy that I feel good, even proud, for doing such ordinary activities? What kind of disease did we catch because of those bloody too-many-always-on-screens that have been invading our daily life for the last 15 years or so?

Anyway, that could be a topic for a dedicated post. The point is that over recent years, I've been making room in my schedule to read. I enjoy it, it feels good, it’s a nice way to escape, learn and grow.

I would like to take advantage of this article as a mid-year checkpoint to post a picture of the books I read so far in 2026 (in the order I read them), and so flatter myself a bit!

Books I’ve read in the first half of 2026

I’m not chasing after a specific number of books to read, and I’m absolutely not in a “the more books the better” sort of race. But I have to admit it has been a long time since I read that many books in just a few months.

Some notes about the books in that picture:

I read mostly fiction (seven books out of eleven), because it’s what I like the most. It stimulates my imagination, it’s one of the best ways to escape reality, and the abundance of what to read about is endless.
I started the year with Bel-Ami, by Guy de Maupassant. It pleased me so much that I read two of his short story collections. I simply love how he writes. I wish I could build such beautiful sentences as he does. I smiled a lot while reading him.
Musashi, by Eiji Yoshikawa, was a blast. Two volumes, 1,500 pages, and an epic journey following the most famous samurai (and his comrades) in 17th-century feudal Japan. My favourite read of the year, up to now.
I read two books by two politicians, out of simple curiosity. I edited them so they can't be identified, because I don’t want politics to stick its nose into my blog.
Azadi – 1079 Days Hostage in the Islamic Republic of Iran, by Benjamin Brière. I had heard of this guy’s story on the radio, but without paying that much attention to it, until a few weeks ago, when a long-time friend of mine, who surprisingly happens to know him, told me a bit more about his story and his book. What a poignant story that was.
More than a year after I received it, I finally took the time to read Things Become Other Things, by Craig Mod. I wrote two notes on my Microblog about it, while reading it and after finishing it.
Finally, two Japanese novels: Sweet Bean Paste, by Durian Sukegawa, and More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, by Satoshi Yagisawa, of which I read the first volume last year. I’m quite fond of these kinds of stories, set in the Japanese urban daily life. I find them comforting, soothing and they make me travel a bit.

The book I’m currently reading is Journey to the West, a classic of Chinese literature. I’m looking forward to seeing how the second half of the year will go, reading-wise, which will be the subject of a future post.