What are you reading in 2026?

[jian]

Read The Honjin Murders, a classic 1947 locked room mystery by Seishi Yokomizo, one of the archetypal Japanese golden age detective writers. It’s a very good example of its type and clearly lampshades its influences (as the film Wake Up Dead Man did recently) but I must admit to being puzzled by the solution. How long is a koto string anyway?

 

[Autumnal]

They’re comparable to guitar strings.

 

[Desdichado]

Not much, yet, sadly. I read 106 books in 2025, so far in 2026 I haven't logged a single one. Because I got back into Star Wars: Old Republic, and it's been sucking up too much of my free time. That said, I want to quickly finish several books that I've been reading before I have some work travel next week, including the last of the Dark Waters trilogy by Graham McNeill, an Arkham Horror/Lovecraft pastiche trilogy of novels, the last novel of the Heirs of Ash Eberron series from back in the 3e era, and the 3e Monster Manual II, which is part of a trawl that I'm doing of all of the official 3e monster books (obviously, I'm still early days in that trawl.)

Like I said, I have some work travel coming up, and I've already got some extra books in my backpack and on my Kindle for that trip, but I'm not sure what I'm going to read yet. The Del Rey Solomon Kane collection, no doubt, and some Pathfinder 1e setting books to (re)read. On my shortlist of books that I've already gotten off the shelf and ready to go I've got the four James Silke Horned Helmet novels, the original Timothy Zahn Heir to the Empire trilogy. I've read the first two of the first of those series many years ago, but I couldn't find a copy of the fourth volume at a reasonable price for years, so I quit. I've now got all four thanks to Thriftbooks, and holy cow, I've had that first book since 1989 or 1990, and it's a long time coming. I need to reread the ones I've already read and read for the first time the last two. For the Thrawn books, I've read them before too; I somehow ended up with an extra copy when I ordered a set for my son, so I've been meaning to reread them for a while too.

After that we'll see what I decide to read, but I've probably for a reread of Dracula on tap soon, since my daughter bought me a really nice leatherbound copy that I haven't read yet. In older gaming books, which I've enjoyed reading, I'm going through the 3e monster books, as I said. Fiend Folio would be next, then Monster Manual's III-V. I also got stalled reading Curse of the Crimson Throne after the first three books, so I need to go read the second three. I've read that years ago too, but after that is Second Darkness, which I have not ever read, and which was not ever compiled into a single book. And I'll probably be running a heavily modified Freeport Trilogy soon, so I'll probably have to reread that again soon too.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Burning Chrome by William Gibson. A collection mostly of pre-Neuromancer short stories, including several that built out the Sprawl setting (“New Rose Hotel”, “Johnny Mnemonic”, “Burning Chrome”). Others range from present day weird fiction (“The Gernsback Continuum”) to Gateway-like future humanity facing an utterly mysterious hyperspace network (“Hinterlands”) to very 80s near futures (“Dogfight”, “Red Star, Winter Orbit”, “The Winter Market”). Even the pieces that have aged poorly have a lot of merit, and I enjoyed the reread.

Burning Chrome is a great set of short stories. It really shows how important Omni magazine was to the development of the cyberpunk genre. Blows my mind that Fragments of a Holographic Rose was written as far back as 1977. I would love to see Burning Chrome adapted as an anthology series. Give us the Killing Floor in Johnny Mnemonic (heck, you could cast Keanu as Johnny Mnemonic again). Give us a better New Rose Hotel adaptation (the movie has frustratingly great parts submerged in the rest of it).

The Wood Beyond the World is a fantastic title and also reminds me of Narnia, specifically the Wood Between the Worlds in The Magician’s Nephew, I wonder if it was an inspiration. The story is less like that, of course, but interesting in its Arthurian motifs.

The Wood Beyond the World is way influential. Morris, like Dunsany, is one of those writers people don't read anymore, but all their favorites did.

After that we'll see what I decide to read, but I've probably for a reread of Dracula on tap soon, since my daughter bought me a really nice leatherbound copy that I haven't read yet.

Dracula holds up. I try to re-read it every year or so, and it still sends chills down my spine in parts.

 

[jian]

They’re comparable to guitar strings.

Yes, I’d have thought so, so the longest for a really big koto is probably only about 1m long. In which case I’m really not sure how the solution works.

 

[prabe]

Read The Honjin Murders, a classic 1947 locked room mystery by Seishi Yokomizo, one of the archetypal Japanese golden age detective writers. It’s a very good example of its type and clearly lampshades its influences (as the film Wake Up Dead Man did recently) but I must admit to being puzzled by the solution. How long is a koto string anyway?

Expanding on what @Autumnal said, a koto is about the size of a full-size electronic keyboard, it's like an upsized hammered dulcimer (if you know what that is). I'd expect the strings to be longer than guitar strings, possibly more like four feet or longer.

Well, that's the size I remember the one I ended up helping a performer move when I was in college as being. I might be wrong, or speaking from very limited experience.

 

[prabe]

Yes, I’d have thought so, so the longest for a really big koto is probably only about 1m long. In which case I’m really not sure how the solution works.

Wikipedia says the instrument itself is usually about 180 cm in length. It looks as though the strings cover at least most of that. Does that help?

 

[jian]

Wikipedia says the instrument itself is usually about 180 cm in length. It looks as though the strings cover at least most of that. Does that help?

A bit but not a lot. Spoilers if you want them:

Spoiler

The solution requires a koto string to be wrapped round the hilt of a sword inside a house and threaded out through a small gap in the eaves to a tree outside, where it’s ingeniously strung along a couple of anchor points and through a hollow bamboo stem before being attached to a waterwheel. When the murder is committed, the murderer releases the sword which is pulled by the string (being wound around the waterwheel) out through the gap, so it lands outside the house and implicates someone else; the koto string is then pulled into the waterwheel and falls in the stream.

The waterwheel (and stream) is not described as being anywhere near the house (oddly it’s not on any of the maps in the book) and since it’s automatically timed as starting at 4am and is loud enough to be heard throughout the honjin estate (a complex of houses where an entire extended family lives; historically used to house the shogun and his entourage on their tours around the country) it’s probably not very close and the string would have to be quite long, rather more than six feet. There’s no mention of it being attached to something else or multiple koto strings being tied together.

 

[prabe]

A bit but not a lot. Spoilers if you want them:

I don't know the novel, but I wonder if there's some weirdness in the translation (presuming you're reading it in English, of course). I agree there's an issue with the solution.

 

[jian]

I don't know the novel, but I wonder if there's some weirdness in the translation (presuming you're reading it in English, of course). I agree there's an issue with the solution.

I think probably not? The translation is very clear throughout. I think I probably just missed something (and have now returned the book on Libby and so can’t check). It does seem like the sort of thing that my players would have called bullsh*t on for deliberately obscuring the plot.