What are you reading in 2026?

[abazaba]

Just wondering, but: I mostly (only ?) saw 'fiction' mentioned in this thread, but really no 'non-fiction' at all ? Would that be a correct statement ? And slightly cheating here because I did not read the following in 2026, but I did enjoy at least these:

• a handful of Stephen Hawking's books (with at least the notable exception of the books co-authored with his daughter Lucy Hawking, which are aimed at children if I understand correctly)
• "Astrophysics for People in a Hurry" by Neil deGrasse Tyson
• The "American Comic Book Chronicles" series from "TwoMorrows publishing"
• "The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer" by "Siddhartha Mukherjee", which got a 2025 update which I am considering to buy even though I read the original.

And I still have a copy of "On the Origin of Time" (which I believe was co-authored by Stephen Hawking) waiting to be read.

 

[prabe]

Just wondering, but: I mostly (only ?) saw 'fiction' mentioned in this thread, but really no 'non-fiction' at all ? Would that be a correct statement ? And slightly cheating here because I did not read the following in 2026, but I did enjoy at least these:

• a handful of Stephen Hawking's books (with at least the notable exception of the books co-authored with his daughter Lucy Hawking, which are aimed at children if I understand correctly)
• "Astrophysics for People in a Hurry" by Neil deGrasse Tyson
• The "American Comic Book Chronicles" series from "TwoMorrows publishing"
• "The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer" by "Siddhartha Mukherjee", which got a 2025 update which I am considering to buy even though I read the original.

And I still have a copy of "On the Origin of Time" (which I believe was co-authored by Stephen Hawking) waiting to be read.

I've picked up a handful of nonfiction books after people have talked about them in this thread. Mostly in the realm of history/anthropology stuff, some of where those overlap.

 

[Autumnal]

More than once, I've gone back and looked at these threads to reminisce about not only what I've read, but how I felt about it at the time.

Me too, my own reactions and those of others. I find it routinely helpful.

I'll be testing myself a bit, with a return to a book I love, The Infinity Concerto, by Greg Bear.

Bear is mostly known for his science fiction, but this is a fantasy, and I am considering using it, and a few other works, as inspiration for a game idea I have rumbling around the back of my head.

Oh man, I love this idea. Bear’s fantasies are
Among his best work, to might taste, and looting them seems like a smart move.

Just wondering, but: I mostly (only ?) saw 'fiction' mentioned in this thread, but really no 'non-fiction' at all ? Would that be a correct statement ? And slightly cheating here because I did not read the following in 2026, but I did enjoy at least these:

• a handful of Stephen Hawking's books (with at least the notable exception of the books co-authored with his daughter Lucy Hawking, which are aimed at children if I understand correctly)
• "Astrophysics for People in a Hurry" by Neil deGrasse Tyson
• The "American Comic Book Chronicles" series from "TwoMorrows publishing"
• "The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer" by "Siddhartha Mukherjee", which got a 2025 update which I am considering to buy even though I read the original.

And I still have a copy of "On the Origin of Time" (which I believe was co-authored by Stephen Hawking) waiting to be read.

It’s just one of those things: fiction is often quicker to read. And the site being what it is, it’s more likely that the other folks active in this thread will care about new sf, f, or horror than a bunch of nonfiction topics. On the other hand, we can surprise each other.

 

[prabe]

It’s just one of those things: fiction is often quicker to read. And the site being what it is, it’s more likely that the other folks active in this thread will care about new sf, f, or horror than a bunch of nonfiction topics. On the other hand, we can surprise each other.

There are also some kinds of nonfiction that are (or at least will seem) more obviously relevant to the interests of the people here than others. Books about ancient cities/settlements, for instance, as opposed to books about wind, or Prohibition.

 

[abazaba]

It’s just one of those things: fiction is often quicker to read. And the site being what it is, it’s more likely that the other folks active in this thread will care about new sf, f, or horror than a bunch of nonfiction topics. On the other hand, we can surprise each other.

Well I guess you are right that on a TTRPG focused forum it would be more common for people to read fiction rather than nonfiction. Unsure if I agree on the "fiction is often quicker to read" part though. I personally can be just as engaged with a nonfiction book, especially if I find the subject matter interesting. Oh, well.

 

[prabe]

Well I guess you are right that on a TTRPG focused forum it would be more common for people to read fiction rather than nonfiction. Unsure if I agree on the "fiction is often quicker to read" part though. I personally can be just as engaged with a nonfiction book, especially if I find the subject matter interesting. Oh, well.

Even though I don't read endnotes, I find that I read fiction much more quickly than non-. The difference is probably like 120-ish pages an hour for fiction and 100-ish (or less) for nonfiction, on average. Part of it might be that nonfiction doesn't select for readable prose quite so hard as fiction does, typically.

 

[Autumnal]

@prabe True. Or, looking at my stack of coming attractions, Vienna in 1913-14 versus two French postmodernists on Kafka and major versus minor modes of literature.

@abazaba Fortunately, threads are malleable. Talk about what’s interesting you.

 

[prabe]

@prabe True. Or, looking at my stack of coming attractions, Vienna in 1913-14 versus two French postmodernists on Kafka and major versus minor modes of literature.

Yup. I was picking books I've recently read, but that's not a major disagreement.

Last Call by Daniel Okrent
The Breath of the Gods by Simon Winchester
Four Lost Cities by Annalee Newitz
The Far Edges of the Known World by Owen Rees

 

[Autumnal]

I really liked both Four Lost Cities and The Far Edges Of a the Known World. Offline stuff distracted me from posting about them at the time, but they’re very much in the category of books I’d like more gamers to read, to enrich their sense of possibilities.

 

[prabe]

I really liked both Four Lost Cities and The Far Edges Of a the Known World. Offline stuff distracted me from posting about them at the time, but they’re very much in the category of books I’d like more gamers to read, to enrich their sense of possibilities.

I think I heard about one of them here and one of them from Brett Deveraux (A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry.) I'm guessing Far Edges was there and Four Lost Cities was here, simply because the former was much more written by an academic, and Deveraux is that. (No snark on anything.) I agree gamers should read more about the historical world, but I think gamers should read more nonfiction and go more places and do more things, like overall--the landscapes I've been in have shaped the natural physical world of my setting/s, and the man-made places have shaped the structures. I think "enrich their sense of possibilities" is a beautiful turn of phrase to describe what I've gotten out of going to Badlands and Big Bend and the Biltmore (just sticking to the b's).