20 Books Of Summer 2026 Reading Challenge Sign-Up #20BOS26

Last year Cathy at 746 Books handed over the baton of the 20 Books of Summer Reading Challenge to two new hosts: Annabel at AnnaBookBel and Emma at Words and Peace. This year Annabel has taken on sole hosting duties producing brand new graphics and a new hashtag #20BOS26.

The 20 Books of Summer 2026 challenge runs from 1st June to 31st August. You can find all the information you need about the challenge here where you can also sign up to participate.

Every year I approach the challenge high on ambition and usually low on likelihood of success. I’m aiming for the full 20 books again but this year with a healthy dose of realism. Therefore the majority of books on my list are from my NetGalley shelf, prioritising those with publication dates between June and September that I should theoretically be reading during that period anyway. I’ve added a couple from my current Classics Club list, my book club’s June pick and a couple of nonfiction books. Finally the remaining books longlisted for this year’s Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction that I haven’t yet read.

Being a stubborn old so-and-so, I like to stick to my original list and not take advantage of the option to swap books in and out. However, I do give myself more freedom to abandon books during the challenge if they’re not working for me. Links from the titles will take you to the book description on Goodreads. I’ll update them with links to my reviews when I’ve read them.