2026 Book Club
A beginner's reading group
What is this?
I have created a yearly reading list to help me read more and develop the habit of reading in a way that is less daunting than starting with a 500 page novel. This has worked great for me for January and February with me reading more than just the reading list and I am now sharing this in the case that this inspires others to join or do their own version.
Each month has a book/novella and a short story/poem all centered around a theme. Everything on this list is available as a Penguin Classic, an Oxford World Classic, or as a PDF.
Why this list?
I curated this list centered around classics, philosophy, and ease of reading. This list includes multiple works from the following great authors: Oscar Wilde, Franz Kafka, Shirley Jackson, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Jorge Luis Borges, Jean-Paul Sartre.
This list is also organized in a way that is easy to consume by anyone with an interest in philosophy or classics. January started with ~100 pages total and December will have about ~300 pages so as to build the habit over time.
How it works
I would like this to eventually have enough people join me in reading to have a monthly or even bi-weekly zoom meeting to discuss the readings. As of now I will just post my analysis/review of the reading, any questions/ideas it brought to mind, and any other commentary.
I am also posting this halfway through February, but better late than never! January and February posts will follow in the coming days.
2026 Reading list
January: Mortality (~150 pages)
The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Tolstoy) / “The Dead” (Joyce)
February: The Divided Self (~100 pages)
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Stevenson) / “The Horla” (Maupassant)
March: Social Outcast (~150 pages)
Notes from Underground (Dostoevsky) / “The Aleph” (Borges)
April: Gender & Space (~125 pages)
A Room of One’s Own (Woolf) / “The Yellow Wallpaper” (Gilman)
May: Surreal Realities (~150 pages)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll) / “The Nose” (Gogol)
June: The Dying Mind (~205 pages)
Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury) / “Dream of a Ridiculous Man” (Dostoevsky)
July: Existential Choice (~200 pages)
The Myth of Sisyphus (Camus) / “No Exit” (Sartre)
August: The Trap of Existence (~265 pages)
Nausea (Sartre) / “A Hunger Artist” (Kafka)
September: Domestic Horror (~220 pages)
The Haunting of Hill House (Jackson) / “The Birth-Mark” (Hawthorne)
October: Isolation & Reckoning [Reader’s Choice] (~25 pages)
“The Selfish Giant” (Wilde) / ”The Judgment” (Kafka)
November: Architecture of Hell (~235 pages)
Inferno (Dante) / “Library of Babel” (Borges)
December: Romantic Melancholy (~240 pages)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (Wilde) / "The Possibility of Evil" (Jackson)
Here is the list on goodreads for ease of access, although not all of the books on the list are the same version used for the book club.
This club was heavily inspired by the following creators and their reading lists:
Thank you for making it this far and giving me your time.