The 12 Most-Read Books of 2026… So Far

We are officially more than halfway through 2026, which means it’s time to ask an important question:

Are we all reading the same books?

Goodreads has revealed the books that Reading Challenge participants have marked as read the most this year, and the list is… interesting.

Some are brand-new releases. Some have been hanging around for years. One was published in 1847, because apparently Emily Brontë refuses to let the new releases have their moment.

And, naturally, a few movie and TV adaptations have sent readers sprinting back to the source material.

These rankings aren’t based on ratings, reviews, or books published specifically in 2026. They’re simply the books that the most Goodreads Reading Challenge participants have marked as finished so far this year.

I’ve read some. I want to read some. And at least one bored me so badly I did not finish it.

Let’s count down from No. 12 to the most-read book of 2026 so far.

12. Theo of Golden by Allen Levi

I’ve actually read this one, and it’s very different from the books I normally reach for.

The story follows Theo, a mysterious older man who arrives in the small Southern town of Golden. He discovers a collection of portraits hanging in a coffee shop and starts buying them so he can return each painting to the person pictured.

Through this little project, Theo becomes connected to people throughout town and starts changing their lives through small acts of generosity and kindness.

Basically, it’s a warm hug in book form.

I liked it, although I wasn’t completely obsessed with it. What I found even more interesting was Allen Levi’s story of self-publishing the book and watching it slowly pick up enough steam to become this successful. If you’re curious about that side of the story, definitely check out his conversation on Oprah’s podcast.

11. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Yes. A book first published in 1847 is one of the most-read books on Goodreads in 2026.

While the rest of us are out here chasing every shiny new release, Emily Brontë has casually wandered back onto the bestseller pile almost 180 years later.

Wuthering Heights is the Gothic classic about Heathcliff and Catherine, two people connected by an extremely complicated relationship involving obsession, revenge, misery, and a spectacular lack of healthy communication.

Basically, it has all the ingredients of a modern romance, except everyone is colder and lives on the moors.

I haven’t read this one yet, but its renewed popularity appears to have gotten a major boost from the recent screen adaptation.

You’ll notice adaptations becoming a bit of a theme on this list.

10. Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

Goodreads, I tried.

I really did.

But I did not finish this one because I was so damn bored.

The premise should have been perfect for me: A father and his three children are the final caretakers of a remote island near Antarctica that houses a massive seed bank. Then a mysterious woman washes ashore during a storm.

She may be hiding the real reason she came to the island.

She discovers sabotaged radios.

There’s a freshly dug grave.

Clearly, this is not going to be a relaxing little island vacation.

We have isolation, family secrets, climate themes, survival, mystery, and a massive storm closing in. All things I should have loved.

And yet? Nope.

Obviously plenty of readers disagree with me because it still landed at No. 10.

I may be the problem here. I’m willing to accept that.

9. The Wedding People by Alison Espach

This is another one I’ve read, and the setup manages to be incredibly dark and strangely funny at the same time.

Phoebe arrives alone at a fancy hotel in Rhode Island planning to spend her final night there.

Unfortunately for her plans, she has also arrived smack in the middle of an elaborate week-long wedding celebration.

The bride initially sees Phoebe as a potential disaster who could ruin everything. Instead, the two women form an unexpected connection.

From there, the book becomes a story about loneliness, friendship, starting over, and what can happen when your life collides with someone else’s at exactly the right moment.

This one has stayed popular through book clubs and word of mouth, and I completely understand why. There’s a lot to talk about beyond simply, “Did you like it?”

For the record: I really liked it.

8. Heart the Lover by Lily King

Heart the Lover follows an unnamed narrator who becomes close with two young men, Sam and Yash, during her senior year of college.

Their relationship begins with books, intellectual conversations, inside jokes, and a complicated romantic dynamic. But those connections continue shaping her life long after college ends.

The story moves from the intensity of young love into middle age and explores how some of our earliest relationships stay with us even when our lives move in completely different directions.

It’s also connected to Lily King’s earlier novel Writers & Lovers.

I haven’t read this one yet, but I am intrigued.

7. People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

An older Emily Henry book showing up this high in 2026?

Hello, movie adaptation.

People We Meet on Vacation follows Poppy and Alex, two best friends who could not be more different.

Poppy loves adventure and travel.

Alex likes routines, books, and staying home.

So naturally, I am Alex.

For years, they take one summer vacation together—until something happens during one of those trips and they stop speaking entirely.

Two years later, Poppy convinces Alex to take one more vacation with her in hopes of repairing their friendship.

And because this is Emily Henry, naturally there are feelings.

We’ve got friends-to-lovers, forced proximity, travel disasters, years of romantic tension, and two people who could probably save themselves quite a bit of trouble by communicating.

I read this one a while ago and liked it, although it’s not my favorite Emily Henry.

The movie, however? Very cute.

6. Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Now we’re heading to NASA.

Atmosphere takes place during the space shuttle program of the 1980s and follows Joan Goodwin, an astrophysics professor selected to train as an astronaut at Houston’s Johnson Space Center.

She joins a group of new candidates and finds friendship, ambition, and a love she never expected.

Then a 1984 space mission changes everything.

We’re dealing with historical fiction, romance, science, ambition, and—because this is Taylor Jenkins Reid—what I can only assume is emotional devastation.

Everyone says they cried.

Taylor Jenkins Reid does not invite us into one of her books so everybody can simply have a pleasant afternoon.

I’ve read several of her books but haven’t gotten to this one yet. It’s also, at this point in the year, the most-read historical fiction book in the Goodreads Challenge.

5. My Husband’s Wife by Alice Feeney

This one grabbed me immediately.

And I’m already a big Alice Feeney fan, so listen to this setup.

Eden Fox goes for a run on the morning of her first major art exhibition. When she gets home, her key no longer works.

Then another woman answers the door.

And Eden’s husband claims that woman is his wife.

Excuse me?

One house. One husband. Two women.

Somebody is obviously lying.

The story also jumps back six months to Birdie, a reclusive woman who inherits the same house and discovers a mysterious clinic claiming it can predict the exact date someone will die.

I realize that last part makes the book sound like it takes a very weird turn, but somehow it works.

I really liked this one.

4. Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid

My boys!

Heated Rivalry is the second book in Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series, although at this point, even if you don’t know the books, you probably know about the show.

The story follows Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, two elite professional hockey players who are huge rivals in public and have a very different relationship behind closed doors.

What starts as a secret physical relationship develops over several years as they compete against each other professionally while trying to figure out what exactly they mean to each other personally.

The book originally came out in 2019, but the TV adaptation obviously sent readers racing back to the source material.

And apparently people didn’t just add it to their TBR.

They actually read it.

Imagine that.

Before watching the show, I tried listening to the first book in the series. The story was great, but I could not get past the audiobook narration.

So I said screw it and watched the show instead.

No regrets.

3. The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

I listened to this one, and thankfully, the narrator did a great job.

The Correspondent gave me similar vibes to Theo of Golden: quiet, character-driven, thoughtful, emotional.

The entire book is told through letters and emails written by Sybil Van Antwerp.

She writes to family members, friends, authors, and people she’s met throughout her life. Through that correspondence, we slowly learn more about her relationships, regrets, and a painful part of her past that she has never fully confronted.

It’s a story about literature, forgiveness, and the ways we connect with people through writing.

The letter format did get a little boring for me at times, but I absolutely understand why this book has connected with so many readers.

2. Dear Debbie by Freida McFadden

I liked this book so much that I bedazzled it.

Naturally, a brand-new Freida McFadden thriller was going to end up somewhere near the top of this list.

And let me say it now:

Debbie is my girl.

Behind The Housemaid, this might be my favorite Freida book.

Debbie Mullen has spent years giving practical advice to women through her newspaper column, Dear Debbie.

Meanwhile, Debbie’s own life is falling apart.

She loses her job.

Something strange is going on with her teenage daughters.

Her husband appears to be keeping secrets.

And after years of being the reasonable one, Debbie finally decides she is done.

She starts taking some of her own advice—and getting payback against the people she thinks deserve it.

This one is also available through Kindle Unlimited, which probably helped even more readers pick it up quickly.

At this point, Freida McFadden clearly knows what her readers want: short chapters, questionable people, escalating chaos, and at least one moment where you stop reading and think:

What the hell did I just read?

1. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

And the most-read book in the 2026 Goodreads Reading Challenge so far is…

Project Hail Mary.

Originally published in 2021, Andy Weir’s sci-fi novel has shot right back to the top as excitement around the Ryan Gosling movie adaptation brought a whole new wave of readers to the book.

The story follows Ryland Grace, who wakes up alone on a spaceship with no memory of who he is, why he’s there, or what exactly he’s supposed to be doing.

He eventually realizes that he is the only surviving member of a desperate mission to save Earth from an extinction-level threat.

Small problem: He needs to recover his memories and figure out how to complete a mission he doesn’t remember agreeing to in the first place.

I haven’t read this one yet, and people will not stop telling me to listen to the audiobook.

Even readers who normally avoid science fiction—which is usually me—recommend it.

So apparently I need to give it a chance.

Andy Weir also wrote The Martian, so clearly the man enjoys abandoning people in space and watching them solve extremely stressful problems.

Respect.

What This List Says About What We’re Reading in 2026

The biggest surprise for me is how many of these books weren’t actually published this year.

A buzzy new release can obviously dominate our TBRs, but this list is a good reminder that books can come roaring back years—or apparently centuries—after publication.

And adaptations are doing a lot of the heavy lifting.

People We Meet on Vacation. Heated Rivalry. Project Hail Mary. Wuthering Heights.

Put a beloved book on a screen and suddenly everybody remembers they meant to read it.

As we move into the second half of the year, I’m already making predictions about what could show up on the final 2026 list. I’m calling some Off-Campus books, and I would not be surprised to see The Calamity Club make an appearance either.

But now I want to know:

How many of these 12 have you read?

Which book absolutely deserves its spot?

Which one would you kick off the list immediately?

And what book are you shocked didn’t make it?

Most importantly: What do you think will be one of the most-read books by the end of 2026?