Kristine Joy, Writer

A Novel Idea – 50 in ’26

CategorIes:

By

Kristine Joy

·

3–4 minutes

Mission:

Venture onward towards being well-read by finishing 50 books in 2026.

Wellness Why(s):

Primary: Intellectual

Subsidiary: Emotional (unwind, way to manage stress), Physical (built in rest; except when listening to an audiobook while running 😆🏃‍♀️), Occupational (when/if read industry applicable books), Social (talk books with others)

The Nuts & Bolts:

Drumroll here. I’m especially excited about this mission because it is my first REPEAT MISSON!

As you may or may not recall, I’m Bound to Make it Happen, was just my 3rd overall mission. It was posted on July 9th of 2025 with the goal being to average one book weekly for the rest of the year for a total of 25 books. Given the overarching goal to become better read, I asked ChatGPT for a suggested list of books to read.

Though it took me right up until the evening hours of December 31st, I met that goal as charted here.

Favorite Book (from ChatGPT’s list): Becoming by Michelle Obama

Favorite Book (outside of the list): strangers tend to tell me things by amy dickinson

The GOAL for THIS YEAR is to read 50 more books. And again, I asked ChatGPT for some help.

Comedic side note – ChatGPT provided me my reader profile upon request – I shared that here in more detail, including the fact that I “dislike books that feel impressed with themselves” and that I’m “drawn to meaning, mood, inner resolve, and human pressure—often in isolation or extreme settings.”

All of which leads me to conclude and be that much more excited about the mission for this year because ChatGPT’s list is personalized just for moi.

I’ll leave you with the list (copied over from ChatGPT) because I have some reading to get done.

* I asked for 3 of the books to be swapped out because I have already read Educated by Tara Westover (originally #2), Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer (#13) and Wild by Cheryl Strayed (#31). Apparently, “wild” and “education” are central to who I am as well.

📚 Your New, Fully Recalibrated List of 50 Books

I. Narrative Nonfiction & Memoir (Your Core Strength) – 15 books

  1. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks – Rebecca Skloot
  2. The Sound of Gravel — Ruth Wariner
  3. Crying in H Mart – Michelle Zauner
  4. Know My Name – Chanel Miller
  5. The Glass Castle – Jeannette Walls
  6. Angela’s Ashes – Frank McCourt
  7. Between Two Kingdoms – Suleika Jaouad
  8. Just Mercy – Bryan Stevenson
  9. The Year of Magical Thinking – Joan Didion
  10. Braiding Sweetgrass – Robin Wall Kimmerer
  11. Little Princes – Conor Grennan
  12. Endurance – Alfred Lansing
  13. Deep Survival — Laurence Gonzales
  14. The Warmth of Other Suns – Isabel Wilkerson (read slowly)
  15. A Long Way Gone – Ishmael Beah

II. Quiet, Powerful Literary Fiction (Human > Clever) – 12 books

  1. East of Eden – John Steinbeck (this is the Steinbeck for you)
  2. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
  3. The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
  4. A Gentleman in Moscow – Amor Towles (better than Lincoln Highway for you)
  5. Life of Pi – Yann Martel
  6. The Nightingale – Kristin Hannah
  7. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafón
  8. Station Eleven – Emily St. John Mandel
  9. The Road Back – Erich Maria Remarque
  10. The Light We Lost – Jill Santopolo
  11. The Things They Carried – Tim O’Brien
  12. Beloved – Toni Morrison (read with space; it’s heavy but human)

III. Nature, Place & Reflection (A Sweet Spot for You) – 7 books

  1. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek – Annie Dillard
  2. Desert Solitaire – Edward Abbey
  3. The Solace of Open Spaces – Gretel Ehrlich
  4. The Salt Path — Raynor Winn
  5. The Overstory – Richard Powers (trees + people, not data)
  6. A Sand County Almanac – Aldo Leopold
  7. Braiding Sweetgrass (Young Readers edition) – optional if you want lighter rereads

IV. Philosophy & Meaning (Applied, Not Academic) – 6 books

  1. Four Thousand Weeks – Oliver Burkeman
  2. Stillness Is the Key – Ryan Holiday
  3. The Consolations of Philosophy – Alain de Botton
  4. Man’s Search for Meaning – Frankl (revisit passages)
  5. The Art of Happiness – Dalai Lama
  6. On Tyranny – Timothy Snyder

V. Psychological & Accessible Fiction (Enjoyment Without Guilt) – 6 books

  1. The Silent Patient – Alex Michaelides
  2. Annihilation – Jeff VanderMeer
  3. The Night House – Jo Nesbo
  4. Big Little Lies – Liane Moriarty
  5. The Push – Ashley Audrain
  6. Room – Emma Donoghue

VI. Poetry & Short-Form (Emotion-Forward Only) – 4 books

  1. Devotions – Mary Oliver
  2. Citizen – Claudia Rankine
  3. Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth – Warsan Shire
  4. Love Letters from an Impossible Land – Robert Bly

Update On:

December 31, 2026 and/or here throughout.

Leave a comment