The Great Flop: how the 2026 book list morphed into something completely different

“Sometimes I think books choose YOU rather than the other way around,” thinks Denise Trull after failing miserably to fulfil her 2026 reading plan.

I had a book list in January. Honestly, I did. There was too much on it, of course, but each year in January my hope springs eternal that the list will be a ‘fait accompli’ in far-off December. The best laid plans…..as they say.

This year, however, I don’t believe I have read one thing I added to the stack. No, wait. Caryll Houselander has remained true. One does not simply bump Caryll Houselander off the list willy-nilly. She is a spiritual life line for me and so on the list she has stayed.

But the rest of the list….alas…..

I have succumbed to a total impulse read suggested by a random afternoon scroll through Facebook. I have dipped into a book I noticed in passing on my book shelf and wondered how I had never read it before. My husband Tony consistently sends me lovely emails with book suggestions I would have never entertained otherwise. They are always unique and interesting topics that grab me right away. 

My son sent me an invitation to take a trip into the mountains of 19th Century Japan. A dear friend highly suggested I read Henri Nouwen. She was right to do so. 

I lived in the Maine woods with a naturalist who loves ravens. 

And then I traveled to the woods outside of Vienna to tour a naturalist’s haven through pages full of delightful prose. I was lured into the gorgeous writing of Barbara Kingsolver and the promise of more incredible characters brought to life under her pen. And I have discovered that reading Muriel Spark stories makes me physically queasy, take that as you will. 

In short, the original 2026 book list is a shambles. So many cross outs and additions until I finally gave up and decided to proceed ‘ex tempore’, as it were.

Here is what I have read thus far:

The Return of the Prodigal Son – Henri Nouwen

A beautiful and important read for people who, born with a great need for beauty and depth of understanding, seek it out, expecting far too much from other mere mortals, resulting in an inevitable disappointment and heartache. 

These are hearts that need to learn how to rest in the house of their soul with the truest Friend and Father and not seek rest in ‘foreign lands’. How to carry the cross of deep loneliness in order to reap the joy of true union and friendship with God. Learning to live as a son or daughter of the Kingdom and not of this world. Such a timely book for me. Henri Nouwen’s honesty and goodness are a breath of fresh air.

Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury

Saw it on the shelf and marveled that I had never read it. Blew through it in two days. Overwhelmed by its timeliness in these very days we live in. Efficaciously creepy and magically lyrical in places – enough to bring tears to my eyes in fellow feeling. I kept saying: “I have thought these thoughts, but NOT like this.” Bradbury is a master of the lyrical. He made me love my books anew and I patted my bookshelves often in passing for a while after I read it.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – Muriel Spark

As I said, queasy. The school. The sleazy art teacher with a poor wife and children at home. The dull, lonely, music teacher aching for someone to love. The kind, almost childish spinsters. The self-professed enigmatic Miss Jean, and her narcissistic delusions about herself. Piggy-eyed girls and clueless parents. 

And the power of manipulation to create a whole, intricate little world that pops like a bubble in the end – but a world with a surprisingly long shelf life for being such an illusion. 

It just makes me queasy how narcissists have such a power to lure others into their (in hindsight) fabricated orbit of beauty, ever tempting others with that siren song of being in their coveted inner ring. 

 

Perhaps this story hit too close to home as I recalled being lured into a few narcissistic traps of my own over the years, and how could I have fallen for that, I wonder? 

I found this story chilling and depressing. So, I suppose Muriel made her point. It wasn’t a pleasant journey for me. I find her a bit brash and coarse

Kusamakura – Natsume Soseki

A beautiful introduction to Japanese literature for me. Filled with quiet wit, beautiful descriptions, and unforgettable characters in the way a fairy story would present them. And yet also quite real and unforgettable. A man enamored with the jeweled past of his country who must now face a modern world. A plight I find my own self in from time to time. It was poignant in such a moving way. This book made me want to read the great Japanese Haiku poets.

The Gift of Not Belonging – Rami Kaminski

A total impulse read for me. This is a book that, quite simply, explained me to myself. Why I do not like groups, committees, Church socials, ice breaker games, summer camp or the ‘hive mind’. 

Why it is that extroverts at a party ask: So, how about them baseball Cardinals? when all I want to do, right out of the gate, is to talk about why Emily Dickinson’s poetry is so amazing…..and they look at me like a deer caught in the headlights and back away smiling clutching their martinis. 

Why a room filled with people overwhelms me and why I slip away quietly with an Irish good-bye. Even why I can’t quite explain my preference for the Tridentine Low Mass’s anonymity even as we are all praying together. 

I am an Otrovert. It is a whole new sort of personality I have never read about before but wish I had. 

If you are friendly and open but always feel like an outsider in a group; if you prefer friendships one on one; if you never have FOMO and want nothing more than to miss out; if you are creative and approach life just a little differently than our ‘joiner’ culture might suggest; if you like to vacation by yourself or with perhaps one other, or play sports that do not require teams. 

If you like being alone and don’t feel lost or find anything wrong with your own company. If you are empathic and can read others’ emotions when sometimes you desperately wish you could not. If you want to get to know people intimately and care not a fig for the casual, surface acquaintances found in a group setting, then you might want to read this book. 

Even if you are a group person, an extroverted joiner personality, it would be good to read this book if only to understand the Otrovert and perhaps to let them be who they are instead of forcing or judging them for not joining the group. I didn’t agree with all his thoughts but I think he made a very good case for the Otrovert. An interesting impulse book, for sure.

A Natural History of Empty Lots – Christopher Brown

Tony’s suggestion. A very fine one. This is the story of a man who sought out and lived in an old, empty lot in the middle of an industrial park of Austen, TX. He discovers wild life all over this grassy, overgrown area. He tells you of his adventures exploring the river underneath the bridges and overpasses of the city. It’s utterly fascinating. He even builds his home into the ground and covers the roof with grass to attract the native insects. He is a great writer and had me hooked to the very last page. 

Well, that is the list so far, subject to impromptu changes in the coming months. Sometimes I think books choose YOU rather than the other way around. It has been a year like that for me.

This article was first published in Denise Trull’s Substack The Inscapist. For more fascinating articles, you can find it here. It is re-published in Adamah Media with the author’s permission.