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The books I started reading in 2026
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items Lists of some of my best book collections… Must absolutely buy at least once in a life time unless you're a person from stone age.
Hands on the most recommended book by a friend of mine.
The 48 Laws of Power | Barnes & Noble®
One of the best productivity books I have collected. And one of the best books which made a huge change in my life. Literally a 180 degree turn.
Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results by James Clear
Yet another one of the best productivity books in my book self. Not gonna lie, I was out there buying these book with my parents and I was quite hesitant at first cause of the title of the book.
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
Another best book by “Mark Manson” following “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck”.
Everything Is F*cked: A Book About Hope
This is by far the most recommended book by adults around me, and honestly, it is still sitting inside my bookself intact, I havn't touched it at all. Hopefully I will read t by the end of this year. HOPEFULLLY.
Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach
This book is basically all about understanding a person through their body language, tone and behavior. It just feels like I gained a super human type mind reading technique power out of a manga series.
Read People Like a Book: Analyze & Predict
This book a clever little reminder that one's ego can literally destroy one's life by blocking their goals, relationships and decisions.
I love it that the author in this book argues that humility, self-awareness and disciple is better than arrogance.
I love it that the author in this book argues that humility, self-awareness and disciple is better than arrogance.
Ego Is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday
One of the best productivity book on Deep Work. This book emphasizes that completing one task within a short period in a focus mode are way more effective than doing multiple tasks all at once for a long period of time.
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success
Honestly another book that might be changing my life. SO GOOD!
Are You Mad at Me?: Stop Focusing on Others
This book genuinely changed how I think about my own scattered attention, it's less about productivity hacks and more about understanding how focus actually works. Honestly think the ideas on managing distraction would be a great habit to instill ear...
Hyperfocus: How to Manage Your Attention in a World of Distraction
Read this after a rough month of impulse spending and it actually reframed things for me. The big idea that stuck was that money decisions are way more about emotions and habits than math, which sounds obvious until you realize how much of your own s...
The Psychology of Money
This book kind of called me out in the best way possible. Five simple ideas, Vision, Change, Learning, Fear, Boldness, and somehow none of it felt preachy, just weirdly practical. Ten out of ten would recommend to any teenager who thinks "attitude" i...
Attitude: Vision, Change, Learning, Fear & Boldness
The "Thought Factory" idea in this one stuck with me way more than I expected, it basically explains why your brain won't just shut up sometimes, and the little exercises actually give you something to do about it instead of just "breathe more." Woul...
Mindful Thinking
What's it about:
Klara, an artificial companion, gets chosen by a family and quietly becomes devoted to their ailing daughter, watching human love unfold from the outside with a kind of pure, uncynical curiosity.
Read it if:
You're okay with a slow-burn, introspective sci-fi that leans more on mood and questions than plot twists or fast pacing.
My verdict:
3.73 average on Goodreads, and it's genuinely split, plenty of readers found Klara's voice hopeful and quietly moving, while others felt the pacing dragged and wished it dug deeper into its own ideas. Worth forming your own opinion on, since so much ...
Favourite line:
The moment Klara wonders whether loneliness is something every person carries, whether they realize it or not, stuck with a lot of readers long after finishing.
Klara, an artificial companion, gets chosen by a family and quietly becomes devoted to their ailing daughter, watching human love unfold from the outside with a kind of pure, uncynical curiosity.
Read it if:
You're okay with a slow-burn, introspective sci-fi that leans more on mood and questions than plot twists or fast pacing.
My verdict:
3.73 average on Goodreads, and it's genuinely split, plenty of readers found Klara's voice hopeful and quietly moving, while others felt the pacing dragged and wished it dug deeper into its own ideas. Worth forming your own opinion on, since so much ...
Favourite line:
The moment Klara wonders whether loneliness is something every person carries, whether they realize it or not, stuck with a lot of readers long after finishing.
Klara and the Sun
What's it about:
June steals her more successful friend Athena's unpublished manuscript right after Athena dies suddenly, then publishes it under a new, deliberately ambiguous-sounding pen name, and spends the rest of the book scrambling to keep the lie from unraveli...
Read it if:
You want a fast, uncomfortable satire about publishing, social media pile-ons, and who actually gets to tell which stories.
My verdict:
3.72 on Goodreads, and the reception is genuinely split down the middle — a lot of readers found it a gripping, can't-put-it-down takedown of the industry, while just as many felt the satire was too on-the-nose and the ending fell flat. Worth going i...
Favourite line:
There's a brutal moment near the end where another author basically tells June that nobody even liked the woman she stole from, they just wanted June gone too, it's one of the sharpest gut-punches in the whole book.
June steals her more successful friend Athena's unpublished manuscript right after Athena dies suddenly, then publishes it under a new, deliberately ambiguous-sounding pen name, and spends the rest of the book scrambling to keep the lie from unraveli...
Read it if:
You want a fast, uncomfortable satire about publishing, social media pile-ons, and who actually gets to tell which stories.
My verdict:
3.72 on Goodreads, and the reception is genuinely split down the middle — a lot of readers found it a gripping, can't-put-it-down takedown of the industry, while just as many felt the satire was too on-the-nose and the ending fell flat. Worth going i...
Favourite line:
There's a brutal moment near the end where another author basically tells June that nobody even liked the woman she stole from, they just wanted June gone too, it's one of the sharpest gut-punches in the whole book.
Yellowface
what's it about:
Journalist and novelist Omar El Akkad's short, personal book of essays on watching the war in Gaza unfold from the West, weaving his own life as an Egyptian-Canadian-American immigrant into a broader argument that Western liberal institutions have fa...
read it if:
you want a sharp, argument-driven work of political nonfiction that reads more like a personal reckoning than a straight historical or journalistic account.
my verdict:
4.56 on Goodreads, one of the highest-rated books in this list, and the vast majority of readers call it essential, urgent reading. That said, given the subject matter, it's also genuinely contested: some readers find the book's central argument abou...
favourite line:
the book opens around the idea that the people staying silent now will one day insist they were against it all along, once saying so finally costs them nothing, it's the line the whole book keeps circling back to.
Journalist and novelist Omar El Akkad's short, personal book of essays on watching the war in Gaza unfold from the West, weaving his own life as an Egyptian-Canadian-American immigrant into a broader argument that Western liberal institutions have fa...
read it if:
you want a sharp, argument-driven work of political nonfiction that reads more like a personal reckoning than a straight historical or journalistic account.
my verdict:
4.56 on Goodreads, one of the highest-rated books in this list, and the vast majority of readers call it essential, urgent reading. That said, given the subject matter, it's also genuinely contested: some readers find the book's central argument abou...
favourite line:
the book opens around the idea that the people staying silent now will one day insist they were against it all along, once saying so finally costs them nothing, it's the line the whole book keeps circling back to.
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
what's it about:
Sarah Knight's blunt, foul-mouthed take on managing anxiety, basically boiling it down to "can you control this? then plan. can't control it? then let it go," dressed up with a lot of humor and real-life examples.
read it if:
you want a self-help book that skips the gentle affirmations and just talks to you like a sarcastic friend instead.
my verdict:
3.41 on Goodreads, and reactions are pretty divided, a lot of readers found the humor genuinely funny and the "control vs. accept" framework useful, while others felt the advice was too basic and the jokes wore thin by the halfway mark. Might land be...
favourite line:
there's a bit where she basically reduces the whole book down to one gut-check question, can you actually do anything about this or not, that a lot of readers said stuck with them more than anything else in the book.
Sarah Knight's blunt, foul-mouthed take on managing anxiety, basically boiling it down to "can you control this? then plan. can't control it? then let it go," dressed up with a lot of humor and real-life examples.
read it if:
you want a self-help book that skips the gentle affirmations and just talks to you like a sarcastic friend instead.
my verdict:
3.41 on Goodreads, and reactions are pretty divided, a lot of readers found the humor genuinely funny and the "control vs. accept" framework useful, while others felt the advice was too basic and the jokes wore thin by the halfway mark. Might land be...
favourite line:
there's a bit where she basically reduces the whole book down to one gut-check question, can you actually do anything about this or not, that a lot of readers said stuck with them more than anything else in the book.
Calm the F*ck Down
what's it about:
A big, tangled group of Londoners, all with secrets they're avoiding, whose lives collide over one scorching heatwave weekend, with a whale stuck in the Thames somehow tying the whole city's mood together.
read it if:
you like sprawling, character-heavy literary fiction where the drama comes from what people won't say out loud rather than big plot twists.
my verdict:
3.74 on Goodreads, and it's a real mixed bag, plenty of readers loved the atmosphere and the queer, messy web of relationships, while others found the cast too large to connect with and the constant miscommunication frustrating rather than moving. Th...
favourite line:
there's a passage about a woman watching other people's babies from the bus and quietly wondering if she's let her real life slip past her, it's one of those lines a lot of readers said they highlighted immediately.
A big, tangled group of Londoners, all with secrets they're avoiding, whose lives collide over one scorching heatwave weekend, with a whale stuck in the Thames somehow tying the whole city's mood together.
read it if:
you like sprawling, character-heavy literary fiction where the drama comes from what people won't say out loud rather than big plot twists.
my verdict:
3.74 on Goodreads, and it's a real mixed bag, plenty of readers loved the atmosphere and the queer, messy web of relationships, while others found the cast too large to connect with and the constant miscommunication frustrating rather than moving. Th...
favourite line:
there's a passage about a woman watching other people's babies from the bus and quietly wondering if she's let her real life slip past her, it's one of those lines a lot of readers said they highlighted immediately.
Evenings and Weekends
what's it about:
Dolores is convinced the new office temp, Jake, is a serial killer, and instead of reporting him, she starts flirting with him about it, which somehow turns into an actual relationship neither of them saw coming.
read it if:
you want a genre-bending rom-com with dark, morbid humor rather than an actual thriller about catching a killer.
my verdict:
3.43 on Goodreads, and a lot of the mixed reception comes down to expectations, readers who went in expecting a true dark thriller often felt let down when it shifted into a more emotional romance halfway through, while those who embraced the tonal w...
favourite line:
there's a moment where the two leads get into a completely absurd, deadpan argument about vegetables that somehow feels more intimate than most of the book's actual romantic scenes, it's a good example of the banter that wins people over.
Dolores is convinced the new office temp, Jake, is a serial killer, and instead of reporting him, she starts flirting with him about it, which somehow turns into an actual relationship neither of them saw coming.
read it if:
you want a genre-bending rom-com with dark, morbid humor rather than an actual thriller about catching a killer.
my verdict:
3.43 on Goodreads, and a lot of the mixed reception comes down to expectations, readers who went in expecting a true dark thriller often felt let down when it shifted into a more emotional romance halfway through, while those who embraced the tonal w...
favourite line:
there's a moment where the two leads get into a completely absurd, deadpan argument about vegetables that somehow feels more intimate than most of the book's actual romantic scenes, it's a good example of the banter that wins people over.
Serial Killer Games
what's it about:
Naomi Alderman argues we're living through humanity's third "information crisis," after the invention of writing and the printing press, and looks at how those earlier upheavals can help make sense of the chaos, division, and misinformation the inter...
read it if:
you want a short, accessible pop-history take on why the internet feels so overwhelming right now, rather than a deep academic dive.
my verdict:
3.74 on Goodreads, and the split here is pretty consistent, most readers found the historical parallels genuinely interesting and the tone hopeful rather than doom-and-gloom, while a good chunk felt the book only skims the surface of a topic this siz...
favourite line:
there's a bit near the end where she reframes the goal as less about winning arguments and more about lighting candles instead of burning people at the stake, which a lot of readers picked out as the line that stuck with them.
Naomi Alderman argues we're living through humanity's third "information crisis," after the invention of writing and the printing press, and looks at how those earlier upheavals can help make sense of the chaos, division, and misinformation the inter...
read it if:
you want a short, accessible pop-history take on why the internet feels so overwhelming right now, rather than a deep academic dive.
my verdict:
3.74 on Goodreads, and the split here is pretty consistent, most readers found the historical parallels genuinely interesting and the tone hopeful rather than doom-and-gloom, while a good chunk felt the book only skims the surface of a topic this siz...
favourite line:
there's a bit near the end where she reframes the goal as less about winning arguments and more about lighting candles instead of burning people at the stake, which a lot of readers picked out as the line that stuck with them.
Don’t Burn Anyone at the Stake Today
what's it about:
Sav is a sophomore finally living her openly bisexual life, making new queer friends, and crushing hard on someone in her gender studies class, when her childhood best friend's engagement forces her to deal with trauma she'd been very successfully av...
read it if:
you want a coming-of-age story that's equal parts messy friend group chaos and genuinely heavy healing, with a crush arc that will make you cringe in the best way.
my verdict:
3.92 on Goodreads, and honestly I picked this one because the reviews are basically split into "sobbed the whole time" versus "nobody actually talks like this," which is exactly the kind of chaos I want in a book recommendation. It leans a little mor...
favourite line:
there's a scene where a friend teases Sav for downloading an app just to talk to a guy, calling it possibly the most bi-panic thing she's ever done, and it's such a perfectly chaotic best-friend moment that it made me want to read the whole book just...
Sav is a sophomore finally living her openly bisexual life, making new queer friends, and crushing hard on someone in her gender studies class, when her childhood best friend's engagement forces her to deal with trauma she'd been very successfully av...
read it if:
you want a coming-of-age story that's equal parts messy friend group chaos and genuinely heavy healing, with a crush arc that will make you cringe in the best way.
my verdict:
3.92 on Goodreads, and honestly I picked this one because the reviews are basically split into "sobbed the whole time" versus "nobody actually talks like this," which is exactly the kind of chaos I want in a book recommendation. It leans a little mor...
favourite line:
there's a scene where a friend teases Sav for downloading an app just to talk to a guy, calling it possibly the most bi-panic thing she's ever done, and it's such a perfectly chaotic best-friend moment that it made me want to read the whole book just...
Old Enough: A Novel
What's It About:
Two AI safety researchers argue, bluntly, that building superhuman AI with anything like today's methods ends in human extinction, not "might," but "will," and they spend the whole book backing that up.
Read It If:
You want your existential dread delivered with actual arguments instead of vibes. There's even a fictional "AI escapes and dooms us all" story in the middle that reads like very serious fan-fiction. Basically, read it if you want to feel appropriatel...
My Verdict:
3.91 on Goodreads, and honestly, I picked this one because half the reviews are "everyone must read this NOW" and the other half are "these guys wrote a scary bedtime story and called it science," and I needed to know which team I'd land on. There's ...
Favourite Line:
The authors compare humanity's odds against a superintelligent AI to conquistadors showing up with rifles against warriors who'd never seen a gun, the fight wouldn't even look like a fight, one side would just mysteriously win.
Two AI safety researchers argue, bluntly, that building superhuman AI with anything like today's methods ends in human extinction, not "might," but "will," and they spend the whole book backing that up.
Read It If:
You want your existential dread delivered with actual arguments instead of vibes. There's even a fictional "AI escapes and dooms us all" story in the middle that reads like very serious fan-fiction. Basically, read it if you want to feel appropriatel...
My Verdict:
3.91 on Goodreads, and honestly, I picked this one because half the reviews are "everyone must read this NOW" and the other half are "these guys wrote a scary bedtime story and called it science," and I needed to know which team I'd land on. There's ...
Favourite Line:
The authors compare humanity's odds against a superintelligent AI to conquistadors showing up with rifles against warriors who'd never seen a gun, the fight wouldn't even look like a fight, one side would just mysteriously win.
If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why AI Kills