Books I've read throughout May to August 2026I’m finally on 23 books for the year! Admittedly the past few months my reading has slowed considerably but being on over 23 books for 2026 already is quite an achievement. With it looking like I’ll quite easily read more than 30 books this year, who knows maybe I’ll get up to 40.
The first book I read was The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham to follow on from The Day of the Triffids. You follow two reports Mike Watson and his Wife Phyllis throughout the story with them both working for English Broadcasting Company (EBC) not to be mistaken for the BBC. Overall a great book and I really enjoyed it and was quite interesting seeing how the story progressed. Once again really enjoyed John Wyndham work and plan on reading more of his novels.
The second book I read was called Butter, it followed a report who was trying to get an exclusive interview with a Kajii who was accused of killing her “boyfriends” via the food she cooked for them. Throughout the book it did make me want to eat quite a bit especially rice with butter! I really enjoyed the story and thought it developed quite well. With the ending the main character Rika cooking the meal for her family and friends,the one meal which Manako Kajii could never do.
The next book is another by John Wyndham called The Midwich Cuckoos which was quite a strange read, where the town of Midwich experienced a “black out” day where all the residents become unconscious. We later find out every women in the town becomes pregnant leading to the children being born all having strange abilities. I won’t get into the story too much though, overall I really enjoyed it but I did feel like the ending was a bit abrupt.
This book despite the name was quite sad, it is by the author Nevil Shute and about the aftermath of WW3. All the characters are in the southern hemisphere, basically waiting for the radiation from the nuclear war to come down from the northern hemisphere. We follow an American submarine commander and Australia navel officer dealing with the aftermath of the war and explore strange transmissions coming from America. Overall I really enjoyed the book which basically explored the human condition and the want to survive.
The Body Snatchers was quite a strange read if I’m honest! You essentially see a whole town basically be taken over by these plants/pods. Where at the beginning of the novel the main character Miles who is the town doctor basically dismisses people who state that their love ones are no longer themselves. Then throughout the book you see this gets progressively more intense for Miles resulting in the “whole” town out searching for him and his love interest Becky. I thought it was a good read and could see how this book influenced quite a lot of media I’ve watched throughout the years with this story line.
Now for my favourite book I’ve read this year and probably one of my favourite books now is called Flowers for Algernon. Basically it is about a man Charlie Gordon with low IQ getting an operation to make him smart, it is written as diary entries from before the operation and afterwards. I don’t want to ruin any of the story apart from GO READ IT! You won’t regret it.
The last book I read was another sci-fi book called Roadside Picnic, it was an interesting read. Basically Aliens came and left leaving these artifacts, which then creates these places called Zones. These Zones are extremely dangerous and you have these people called stalkers who risk their life illegal to get “swag” i.e. the artifacts which they sell. I quite liked the main character Red and thought the story was pretty good. I think if you are into sci-fi I would recommend picking up this novel.
Thanks, Nathan.
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