A third year in a row, I’m sticking to (now renamed) quarterly updates. I definitely wanted to keep this going (along with my monthly newsletter), especially now that I took a few steps back from the blog for various reasons. Which you might have noticed, as I’m a lot less active. In the 2026 quarterly updates, I do a quick recap of the reading I did, pick 5 of my favorite reads, and also report on how I progressed with my different reading challenges. All of these are based on my reading goals for 2026 post, which you are welcome to check out! I will also add some updates from other areas of my life, such as board gaming, writing, and my favorite feature from my newsletter, a mini playlist!
So, here goes my quarterly updates for 2026 Q1!
The Good, The Bad, and Everything in Between
Womble’s TBR Reduction
Year in Aeldia
The Sound of Madness
Writing
Board Gaming
The Playlist
I not only wanted to take a few steps back from blogging, but I also planned to slow down my reading. Partly because this year I’m focusing on writing, and partly because reading had become a weird mix of chore and habit. Chore, because I tried to review as much as I could (something I never liked to do to begin with), and also because I was judging in SPFBO which in itself is a huge responsibility. A habit, because a lot of times I caught myself reading, not because that’s what I wanted to do, but because I felt like I had nothing *else* to do, you know? It had become almost my sole hobby and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it felt very limiting. So I want to give myself a lot more space to (re)discover some other hobbies, and hopefully make some real-life friends along the way as I’ve been relying on online friendships for way too fucking long. Again, nothing wrong with that, but these days I barely talk to anyone, and some company wouldn’t go amiss.
That said, it doesn’t mean I completely stopped reading, but I’m aiming to find my way back to pure enjoyment when it comes to books. So I’m picking carefully, and I rely a lot on audiobooks as it had become normal in the last couple of years. Right. Let’s get down to business then.
Until April 1st, I opened 16 books (6 less than in 2025). I DNFd 2 of them. Out of the 16 books, 2 were rereads. As for format, 9 were audiobooks and 6 were ebooks and 1 paperback. See, audiobooks are totally saving my ass. 2 of the 16 books were ARCs.
So all that means is that I’m 35% done with my GR goal – I once again set the number to 40. Which, this year, will be a lot more accurate, lol.
Out of the 16 books, 9 were on the list I set up as my shortened TBR in my Reading Goals for 2026 post, which is a pretty good start.
The books I loved the most in 2026 Q1
Out of the 16 books, I gave 5 crowns to 3. I don’t know if it’s the books I read, my mood or just that I generally try to be more realistic with my ratings and go less with my heart, but so far this year I’m not throwing around high scores. And anyway, often I find that not necessarily the books I 5 starred are the ones that stay with me until the end of the year, but those I might have rated lower for some reason. So, in these mini-lists, I’ll focus on highlighting those that I think have the potential to end up on my top 10 reads of 2026 list. I will not pick rereads, because I obviously loved them previously, so I’d like to give the spotlight to newcomers. The books are listed in the order I’ve read them.
The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam by Megan Bannen is the third, and last (I think?) book in the Hart and Mercy romantasy series, in which Rosie the immortal demigod and Adam, the inventor of the portals to Tanria are forced to work together in figuring out what causes the portals’ dysfunction, the ever increasing thorny vines and get stuck in Tanria in the process along with Duckers and Zeddie. Who have a lot to sort out between themselves. I enjoyed this book just as much as I did the rest of the series – it has humor, romance, good writing and a very imaginative world to boot!
The Reanimator’s Fate by Kara Jorgensen is the fourth and last novel in the Reanimator’s Mysteries series, which is sad, because I’m really into this one. I love Oliver and Felipe so saying goodbye is always bittersweet. Maybe that’s one of the reasons I wasn’t a big fan of the ending of this one, but I’m not quite sure why. It felt a bit rushed, for one thing, and I’m unsure that it’s the right thing for Felipe. But I’ll let you to be the judge of that.
Drop Down Dead by Michael Dylan is the fifth book in the DI Simon Wise crime thriller series, which I’m obsessed with. In this one, DI Wise and his team are investigating the murder of a mother and her missing child. My only minor complaint was that I knew fairly early on who was responsible, and I wasn’t supposed to. Still, this series is super entertaining if you are into gritty crime thrillers. Book 6 will be out soon!
Knight of Flames by A.K. Faulkner is the second book in this M/M romance/urban fantasy series. We know how much I love UF, and I recently really got into M/M stuff, so this series is the perfect blend for me. Plus, suprise, surprise, I’m totally connecting with autistic characters. See Oliver in Jorgensen’s series, or Quentin in this one. I wasn’t as much into Knight of Flames as I was into Jack of Thorns, but we’ll chalk that up to my weird moods this year. Thankfully, I have the next in the series, so we’ll see if it was a fluke or what.
Never After by Alexis Hall is a standalone historical fiction novel I very recently finished. It completely blew my mind, because I just adore the fuck out of Hall’s style. This one tells the story of Micha, an opium addict sex worker, and Thomas, the youngest son of a marques, who is the vicar of a small, quirky village community. Fair warning: it has a lot of graphic sex scenes and pretty dark themes.
I’m off to a very good start with Womble’s reading challenge this year. In 2026 Q1, out of the 3 prompts, I finished all three!
January – It’s a classic task for a reason: The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam by Megan Bannen. We had to read the last book we added to the TBR, and well, this was the last one I added when I prepped my 2026 priority TBR, so we’ll go with that.
February – Partners in crime?: Dig Two Graves by Craig Schaefer. I mean, it features Damien and Caitlin who are partners. And also their crime organisation family. Definitely partners in crime. For the stretch goal, which was reading a sequel, I picked Drop Down Dead by Michael Dylan, which is the 5th book in a series.
March – First Bloom: The Instrumentalist by Harriet Constable. For this one we had to read a debut, so I picked this one on audiobook. I mean, I already had it, so it was convenient. For the stretch goal, it’s a tie between Never After by Alexis Hall and Knight of Flames by A.K. Faulkner, as we had to read a book by a favorite author, and I like them both very much!
Book Roast’s Year in Aeldia reading challenges are always fun, and I loved the board game style last year. (Un)Fortunately, G decided not to come up with anything new this year, so we get the same board game map and prompts, but since there are four different paths to choose from, it’s quite understandable. In 2025, I took the path that led to 12C, a place that’s indicated with musical notes, so, you know, I was kind of obliged to, lol. This year I’m taking the B path and visit the sea side which is also very characteristic for me. Luckily the prompts are mostly in my favor so it shouldn’t be too challenging. The pros of taking a break from reading obligations is that I can accommodate my reading however I wish, meaning I can easily prioritise books based on whatever challenge I’m focusing on.
January – 1B (book published in 2025): The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam by Megan Bannen. We had the same prompt for all of the 1st steps, which was easy enough. And it aligned nicely with my already planned reading list.
February – 2B – West (book from the middle left side of the shelf): The Shape of Darkness by Laura Purcell. So this year, again, had to be a bit creative here. I fully intended to use my physical shelf this year for this prompt, but things weren’t going my way. So I relied on my priority TBR which has 60 books on it. Let’s pretend for a second that we divide that into three shelves, that means I had to pick something between 21 and 40. Closer to 20, actually, because left side, but we’ll ignore that bit. Out of the books I read in February, only The Shape of Darkness fell in that range, so that’s what I’m going with. We’ll also ignore the fact that I DNFd it. I listened to more than 50% of the book, so I don’t feel too bad about this bit of cheating.
March – 3B – Enjoy solitude (book from your own priority TBR): Knight of Flames by A.K. Faulkner. Okay, this was easy, as I’m trying to focus on my priority TBR as much as I can. And I really had to get on with the Inheritance series too, so win-win.
In 2026 Q1, I decided to add 6 books (tentatively) to The Sound of Madness Reading Challenge card. It’s always a slow start, as I’m never quite sure if something better will come along. Anyway, for now I decided to put 6 on the board, which I might or might not change later on. Here they are:
- Drop Down Dead by Michael Dylan for TOO MUCH BLOOD
- The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam by Megan Bannen for WILD THINGS
- The Reanimator’s Fate by Kara Jorgensen for ALL THE THINGS THAT I AM
- Dig Two Graves by Craig Schaefer for MOONLIGHT SHADOW
- Knight of Flames by A.K. Faulkner for TORN IN TWO
- Never After by Alexis Hall for SEX ON FIRE
Here is what my card looks like right now:
Writing updates is one of the main feature in my newsletter, so if you are a regular reader of that, then I probably won’t have a lot of extra info for you, and so you get my permission to skip this section.
It’s not a super well kept secret that I’m currently working on my own WIP, Inkfeather. It was supposed to be a short story, and I really should have known that it’ll turn into a full blown novel. I was so fucking naive. I already started working on it back at the end of 2024, but I didn’t get very far, and hence why I wanted to divert my focus to it in 2026. As of January 1st, part 1 (out of 3) had 18.160 words. By the end of March, I clocked out at 24.149. Nearly 6K, which isn’t too bad, but could have been better if *someone* didn’t rope me into writing a short story for a zine. That damned 2K story took up most of March, and then in the remaining time I didn’t really do shit for various reasons. I can’t talk about it more atm, as I’m still waiting on what’s going to happen to it. I can say it was fun to work on, and I hope to return to that world one day.
But back to Inkfeather. I really was hoping to get Part 1’s draft done by early February, but that obviously didn’t happen. So my new soft deadline was the end of April, which also probably won’t happen thanks to my little side quest in March. I’m close though, as my estimate for part 1 was between 25K and 30K. I only have 3 chapters to finish, currently working on one, and have the start of another one. Once I’m done with the draft, I’ll whip it into shape and will get a reality check from my trusted friend who already read a very early version when I started working on this story for real. Then we’ll be onto Part 2. My very idealistic plan is to get Part 2 also done this year, getting me 2/3rd way through the first draft. I’ll be content with only 50% tho.
Last year I took up board gaming and started building my own collection. I’m picking up games that have solo mode as I generally play on my own, which isn’t as much fun, but what can I do? This year, I also started going to board gaming events to a nearby board game cafe in an attempt to 1) try out other games and 2) make some actual friends. I’m going about 3/4 times a month now and it’s doing a lot of good for my mental state and also my non-existent social skills, lol. So I thought I would talk a bit about the games I get/play with in these quarterly updates.
New Board Games in My Collection
By the end of 2025, I owned 13 games (you can check out my collection on BoardGameGeek). In 2026 Q1 I added 6 more, in no particular order (the games are linked to their respective BGG page):
- Spellbook – Took me a bit to warm up to this one, because it takes a bit of time to figure out how it works. You collect runes to be able to learn spells based on the cards before you that gives you advantages going forward. The solo mode is pretty good, the only difference is that in the multiplayer version others could take the runes you need, but otherwise there aren’t a lot of player interaction. It’s goddamn hard to beat the solo score, though. A lot depends on the collection of playable cards/spells and luck.
- Cascadia: Rolling Rivers – I don’t have the classic Cascadia game yet, although I did play with it. Both the Rolling Rivers and Rolling Hills versions are roll &write type of games. They take up less time and space and pretty easy to play on solo as once again, there aren’t player interactions, everyone marks stuff on their own page. I like to pick it up when I need a quick game. I will have to get Rolling Hills tho, because they can be used together, which gives a lot of variations.
- Shallow Sea – I first played with this at the Board Game Café and I liked it so much that I bought it. It came out in 2025, but only was released in Hungary. It has similar mechanics to Cascadia and Calico but it’s very different. You have to collect corals and fish, and place them based on certain criteria. It’s a very pretty game to look at, and also fun.
- Cartographers Heroes – I wanted to buy the first game in this series, Cartographers, but sadly it doesn’t seem to be available in Hungary anymore. A shame. Heroes is pretty much the same with the added heroes cards that gives you more options. Another one that’s good to play solo, although it’s easier to plan around the monster cards. In the regular game, when a monster card is drawn, you have to hand over your map and another player will add it to your board randomly. And they won’t be nice about it, either, lol.
- The White Castle – This one intrigued me, so I decided to give it a go. It’s probably not one I’d recommend to beginners, as it’s not an easy one. It takes a lot of thinking and a good strategy to win. I think it’d be more fun to play with others, because the solo mode is pretty much unbeatable. Or at least I didn’t have any luck with it so far, and it constantly hands my ass to me, as it collects at least twice as many points as me. I like to play it, but it’s always depressing to look at the scores. I think I’ll just record my own scores and see how I do compared to myself so at least I would get some satisfaction out of it. The game has 3 sets of dice, which are ugly AF, so I got myself really fancy sets, because I can.
- The Search For Lost Species – This is the latest addition to my collection, and I only played once so far. It’s a deduction game in which an app gives you clues, and you have to figure out where the lost species resides. I’m a fan of this type of mechanic, so I definitely will play with this regularly. There are basic logic rules that are used in every game, but where the species are varied, and you can pick between 5 (I think) species to search for which all have their own rule. Plus there are different difficulty levels. Definitely playable solo, it has a built in player you can beat and who can get in your way when it comes to collecting points.
Board Games Played in 2026 Q1
In this section, I’m going to tell you about some of the board games I got to try and is worth mentioning.
- The First Tsar: Ivan the Terrible – I was on the fence whether I wanted to go play with this or not, because it seemed a bit more difficult than what I’m used to, but on the other hand, how could I not wit that title?! This is a complex strategy game, were decisions matter a lot. Took a while to put together the different steps within the game, but I got there in the end. This game was a weird experience for me, but I’m glad I went in the end.
- Azul: Summer Pavilion – Azul is probably one of the most popular modern board games out there. I played with the basic game a couple of times, and liked it, but wasn’t blown away. I was curious about this one tho, and honestly I liked a lot more. Probably helped that I won both times we played, lol. It has a similar mechanism, you have to pick up colored titles, but the placement rules are different.
- Kingdomino/Queendomino – These are fun, beginner friendly games that are easy to understand. Needs some strategical thinking and some luck. The first time I fucked up, and closed myself where I could use only one type of field, which of course was either taken before me or didn’t come up at all. Queendomino is a touch more complex with more options, because you can build and pick extra bonuses that helps at the end.
- The Quest for El Dorado – I loved this one! It’s been ages since I played a racing game, and I always loved a good race. A lot comes down to luck and good strategy. Unfortunately, I didn’t win, even though I got myself in the lead at one point. Oh well. I’d love to play more of this one.
As I mentioned in the intro of this post, circa a hundred years ago, one of my personal favorite feature of my newsletter is the mini playlist I include each month with 5 songs. I’m not going to feature all 15 of them here, just my top 5 (I’m going to have so many regrets), if you want more, sign up to my newsletter 😛 The songs are linked to YouTube.
- Too Much Blood by The Gaslight Anthem: I don’t really have any traditions, I don’t make resolutions, and I generally don’t really give a fuck about New Year’s celebrations. As far as I’m concerned, for me it’s my birthday that signifies an end/new beginning. The ONLY thing I do tho, is that I let my player pick a song from a long list of songs (my liked songs playlist currently has nearly 900 songs on it) and that’ll be my song of the year. For 2026, that choice fell on Too Much Blood, and I’m actually happy with that. Partly because I do love this song, and partly because it aligns well with my WIP. And the fact that I want to focus on writing this year. I don’t believe in coincidences, so I’m taking it as a sign that I’m making the right decision.
- Forget About Us by Alfie Castley: I only discovered Alfie at the end of last year, but damn, he definitely got my attention with Cold. Forget About Us is his latest single that came out this month, and it definitely deserves a place on my 2026 playlist.
- When I’m Gone by 3 Doors Down: The saddest news in February (general World fuckery notwithstanding) was the death of Brad Arnold, the lead singer and founder of 3 Doors Down. Their music had been an important part of my late teens and my becoming an avid rock music listener. And sure, haven’t been paying them a lot of attention in recent years (which shows by not even knowing he was ill), the news still hit me hard.
- Die Living by ILLENIUM, David Guetta, Dustin Lynch: You are not going to find a lot (or any) songs that involves David Guetta on my playlist, and yet here we are. This one caught my attention when I was listening to a new releases playlist and had become an instant earworm.
- 96 Sunfire by The Honest Heart Collective: I love The Honest Heart Collective, they remind me a lot of Fivefold. This song was released in February and gives me road trip vibes for some reason.
- Outside by Staind: Back in my teen years I listened to this song a LOT. Haven’t thought about it in ages, so it was a surprise to me when my brain randomly popped it into my head. Don’t ask me, I have no fucking idea why, but it took me on a walk down memory lane.
And that concludes my Quarterly Updates for 2026 Q1. On the whole, I’m doing well with my different challenges, so for now, I’m happy with my progress. Let’s hope I can keep it up for Q2 as well! I’d love to hear about how you are doing with your challenges so far, so feel free to comment below!
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