Reading Roundup: Summer 2026

The earth cracked under dry grass as blue skies and redder heat ransacked the UK this summer. I’ve really struggled to concentrate on life, let alone on a blog post. Thankfully, after almost two weeks of solid rain, the world is waking back up, and so am I. Here’s my summer roundup.

Bertrand Russell - The Problems of Philosophy (1910)

I started reading this at the end of last year as an introduction to philosophy. I struggled a little with some of the writing — I don’t think I’m as intelligent as Russell. However, the book served its purpose as a whistle-stop tour, and got me excited to learn more about these topics.

The Rust Programming Language

Last roundup, I threatened to fill this one with numerous coding books. In reality, this is the only one I finished as hobbies and priorities shifted (I’m not mad — more on that in an upcoming post). I’ve wanted to learn Rust for ages, so I’m glad I took the time to work through this book.

I learned loads about good practices for programming in general; this was my first systems language (JavaScript / TypeScript are my wheelhouse), so I came away from the book with a deeper understanding of what’s actually happening to the computer when I run code. I think some of Rust’s safety features, like forcing you to think about every edge case / outcome, will be applicable to any language.

However, I found that I didn’t much enjoy writing Rust itself. It strikes me as a fantastic choice for devs working in big teams where the built-in safety would be huge, but for a solo hobbyist like me it felt like overkill. I felt like I was writing way more code than I wanted to in order to achieve simple things. Still, this book was a great way to learn the language, and I’d recommend it to anyone who codes (even if you’re not necessarily interested in Rust itself).

Plato - The Last Days of Socrates + Protagoras & Meno (400-ish BCE)

These were my first foray into primary philosophy sources. I set out to read the Five Dialogues (Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Meno) but, because of the editions I ended up purchasing, I read Protagoras as a bonus.

While I’m glad I read them, I didn’t care for the Socratic dialogue format at all, finding it quite distracting. Additionally, ethics isn’t necessarily the branch of philosophy I’m most interested in; I was much more grabbed by metaphysics after reading Russell. Still, I felt that these were worth reading if for nothing else than their historical importance as the birth of written Western philosophy.

Martha Wells - Platform Decay (2026)

New MurderBot! There was no way I was skipping this. I’ve loved every book in the series. MurderBot’s characterisation and internal dialogue are, strangely, so relatable, like we’re all just stumbling through life with no real idea of what’s going to happen next, making it up as we go.

This is cool enough as a standalone “episode” in the MurderBot saga, but the meta-plot developments it sets up are also very interesting, like a pot approaching boiling. Read all of the books in this series if you haven’t yet.

V.E. Schwab - The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (2020)

This is my first Schwab novel, and I will 100% be reading more (see below). This was phenomenal. Schwab has a way of making you feel every bit of Addie’s pain as you trawl through her life. Some scenes hurt to read. An excellent novel.

Alix E. Harrow - The Ten Thousand Doors of January (2019)

I’ve always loved Harrow’s writing, and this didn’t disappoint. Harrow’s borderline-poetic prose pulls you through the story in a beautiful way.

”His hair clung to his skull in a white scimitar, as if the heat of his working mind had burned it away from the top of his head.”

I love how meta this gets with the worldbuilding, how Harrow twists the origin of folktales. Also, without giving any spoilers, the parent-child events here really pulled on my heartstrings — I can’t even imagine how painful any of that would be.

V.E. Schwab - Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil (2025)

I knew almost nothing about this book before going in, and I’m so glad. If you’re considering reading it: first, you should. Second, I implore you to do the same — go in blind. Read nothing.

Again, Schwab does a fantastic job of making you feel everything. I found myself wanting to root for all of the viewpoint characters — Schwab’s intention — which made some scenes particularly exhilarating to read. Like Addie LaRue, the end of the book isn’t necessarily the end of the story; the carousel keeps spinning, we just get off.

That’s it for this season! What started as a summer of philosophy and learning ended up an emotional roller-coaster. Next season I’m hoping to tick more of my ongoing reads off — I’m still going with Dracula Daily and really enjoying it! The temptation to read ahead is constant, but I’m staying disciplined. I also have six other books in progress on Hardcover, which is way too many.

Oh yeah! I’ve also switched from StoryGraph to Hardcover. My main rationale for this was keeping highlights / notes in sync — I use KoReader on a Kindle as my main reader and Readest on phone / desktop, so I’ve been looking for ways to get quotes from both in one place. Thankfully, both offer sync via Hardcover’s API, which I can also use to import into Obsidian via a script! It’s been working well so far, I’m really happy with it. Hardcover’s UI is also a joy to use. That’s not to say that StoryGraph isn’t a great platform though, both are way better than GoodReads.