The first monthly summary of what I’ve been reading, listening to, and watching in 2026!
BOOKS
I read 11 books in January: 7 in print, 2 in e-book format, and 2 in audio format. They were:
1. More Than Love: An Intimate Portrait of My Mother, Natalie Wood by Natasha Gregson Wagner. (AUDIOBOOK)
2. The Day The Earth Froze by Gerald Hatch (PRINT - SOFTCOVER)
3. Klaus: Complete Deluxe Hardcover by Grant Morrison and Dan Mora (PRINT - HARDCOVER, GRAPHIC NOVEL)
4. Being Jazz by Jazz Jennings. (AUDIOBOOK)
5. Rise of the Crones (The Crone Wars Book 5) by Lydia M. Hawke. (E-BOOK)
6. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. (PRINT - SOFTCOVER) (SPARTA BOOKS BOOK CLUB JANUARY PICK)
7. The Searcher (Cal Hooper #1) by Tana French. (PRINT - SOFTCOVER) (STANZA BOOKS MYSTERY BOOK CLUB JANUARY PICK)
8. Golden Age Christmas Mysteries, edited by Otto Penzler (PRINT – SOFTCOVER)
9. Absolute Martian Manhunter, Volume 1: Martian Vision by Deniz Camp, Javier Rodriguez, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (PRINT – SOFTCOVER)
10. Frankenstein Alive, Alive! By Steve Niles and Bernie Wrightson (PRINT – SOFTCOVER)
11. A Confluence of Obsidian (The Obsidian Sisterhood #3) by Lydia M. Hawke (E-BOOK)
STORIES
I have a goal of reading 365 short stories (1 per day, essentially, although it doesn’t always work out that way) once again this year. Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it.
1. “Mother’s Hip” by Corey Jai White & Maddison Stoff, in Lightspeed Magazine #188, edited by John Joseph Adams
2. “Bots All The Way Down” by Effie Seiberg.
3. “Hunter, Hunter” by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe
4. “A Brief Public Announcement” by Eli Brown
5. “Choose Your Own Damnation” by Kehkashan Khalid
6. “Where The Chicken-Footed Dwell” by Marisca Pichette
7. “Academic Neutrality” by M.R. Robinson
8. “The Moving Finger” by Adam-Troy Castro
9. “Dregs” by R. Diego Martinez, from Nightmare #160, edited by Wendy N. Wagner
10. “The Tailors” by Kurt Fawver
11. “Jennifer's Daughter” by Sara S. Messenger
12. “A Skull in Reverse” by Stephanie Feldman from Sunday Morning Transport Dec 2025, edited by Fran Wilde and Julian Yap
13. “'Brokeheart' GPT, or "A Superintelligent Being Reads Pat Rosal”” by Micaiah Johnson, from Sunday Morning Transport Jan 2025
14. “Donuts From the Daydream Network” by Julia Vee
15. “Slake” by Victor Manibo
16. “The Final Voyage of the Ouranos” by Marie Brennan
17. “The Stolen Christmas Box” by Lillian de la Torre from Golden Age Christmas Mysteries, edited by Otto Penzler
18. “Persons or Things Unknown” by Carter Dickson
19. “Death on Christmas Eve” by Stanley Ellin
20. “If Christmas Comes” by Steve Fisher
21. “The Christmas Bogey” by Pat Frank
22. “Silent Night” by Baynard Kendrick
23. “Dead on Christmas Street” by John D. MacDonald
24. “A Reversible Santa Claus” by Meredith Nicholson
25. “Crime's Christmas Carol” by Norvell Page
26. “The Adventure of the Dauphin's Doll” by Ellery Queen
27. “The Butler's Christmas Eve” by Mary Roberts Rinehart
28. “Dancing Dan's Christmas” by Damon Runyon
29. “The Wrong Santa Claus” by Vincent Starrett
30. “So Many Miles to the Heart of a Child” by Richard Bowes, from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 561 (April 1998), edited by Gordon Van Gelder
31. “The Red One” by Jack London, from Voices From The Radium Age, edited by Joshua Glenn
32. “First Bar at the End of the Day” by Ken Scholes, from Better Dreams, Fallen Seeds and Other Handfuls of Hope, edited by Patrick Swenson
33. “Making My Entrance Again With My Usual Flair” by Ken Scholes
34. “John Stevenson's Good Fortune” by Horatio Alger, from Horatio Alger Society Website, editor unknown
35. “The End of the Story” by Clark Ashton Smith, from Vampire Tales: The Big Collection, editor unknown
36. “The Hills of the Dead” by Robert E. Howard
37. “Carnival of Crime” by Fred Whitby, from Star Spangled Comics 45 (June 1945), edited by Jack Schiff
38. “Worth His Salt!” by Herbert E. Smith, from Captain Marvel Adventures 33 (March 1944), edited by Will Lieberson
39. “A Tip on a Turtle” by Robert Silverberg, from Playing Games, edited by Lawrence Block
40. “The Assimilated Cuban's Guide to Quantum Santeria” by Carlos Hernandez, from The Assimilated Cuban's Guide to Quantum Santeria, edited by Bill Campbell
41. “The Adventure of the Clockwork Men” by Ron Goulart, from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction #721, edited by C.C. Finlay
42. “The Invisible Event” by Seanan McGuire, from The Author’s Patreon
43. “Minor Hockey Gods of Barstow Station” by Beth Cato, from Red Dust and Dancing Horses and Other Stories, editor unknown (originally published in Galactic Games, edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt)
44. “The Collector” by Daniel Jose Older, from Salsa Nocturna: Stories, edited by Kay T. Holt
45. “Incident at Bear Creek Lodge” by Tananarive Due, from The Wishing Pool and Other Stories, edited by Vince A. Liaguno and Rena Mason
46. “The Astrakhan, the Homburg, and the Red Red Coal” by Chaz Brenchley, from Everything in All The Wrong Order, edited by Seanan McGuire
47. “The Stars You Can't See By Looking Directly” by Samantha Murray, from Clarkesworld 232, edited by Neil Clarke
48. “The Purloined Letter” by Edgar Allan Poe, from Poetry and Tales, edited by Thomas Ollive Mabbott
49. “Hell on the Homefront Too” by Stephen Graham Jones, from Giving The Devil His Due: Special Edition, edited by Rebecca Brewer
50. “Alchemy” by Carrie Vaughn, from Nevertheless She Persisted: Flash Fiction Project, editor unknown
51. “Persephone” by Seanan McGuire
52. “The Great King's Lost Bride” by R.K. Duncan, From Beneath Ceaseless Skies 449, edited by Scott H. Andrews
53. “J.C. on the Dude Ranch” by Philip Jose Farmer, from Riverworld And Other Stories, editor unknown
54. “The Fortingall Yew” by William Meikle, from A Winter's Tale: Horror Stories for the Yuletide, edited by Cliff Biggers, Charles R. Rutledge, James R. Tuck
So that’s 54 short stories in January. A bit more than “1 per day,” ha-ha (January 31st was, of course, the 31st day of 2026.)
COMIC BOOKS
I’ve begun tracking the individual monthly comic book issues I read and thought it would be fun to include that list in this monthly round-up as well. I’m striving for a comic book per day. I’ve also started doing a “Random Back Issue Comic Books Read/Reread” daily post on my Facebook, Instagram, and Bluesky accounts. We’ll see how long that lasts. Here’s the comics I read in January:
1. Knights of the Round Table #1 (Dell, 1954)
2. ROM #1 (Marvel, 1979)
3. Tomahawk #106 (DC, 1966)
4. Marvel Super-Heroes #17 (Marvel, 1968)
5. New Adventures of Superboy 29 (DC, 1983)
6. Demon Hunter #1 (Atlas, 1975)
7. Dark Shadows #6 (Gold Key, 1970)
8. Marvel Two-in-One #33 (Marvel, 1977)
9. Fence: Breakthrough: Quarter Clash #1 (Boom Studios, 2026)
10. Nova Centurion #1 (Marvel, 2026)
11. JSA #15 (DC, 2026)
12. The Tin Can Society #9 (Image, 2026)
13. Hero Zero #1 (Dark Horse, 1994)
14. The MAZE Agency #2 (Comico, 1989)
15. Hercules Unbound #12 (DC, 1977)
16. Batman Family #12 (DC, 1977)
17. Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery #36 (Gold Key, 1971)
18. Teen Titans #44 (DC, 1976)
19. Sorcerer Supreme #1 (Marvel, 2026)
20. Shogun Warriors #1 (Marvel, 1979)
21. C.O.R.T. (Children of the Round Table) #5 (DC, 2026)
22. Aquaman #13 (DC, 2026)
23. Green Lantern Corps #12 (DC, 2026)
24. Supergirl #9 (DC, 2026)
25. Action Comics #1094 (DC, 2026)
26. Star Spangled Comics #45 (DC, 1945)
27. Captain Marvel Adventures #33 (Fawcett, 1944)
28. Nutsy Squirrel #71 (DC, 1956)
29. DC Special #29 (DC, 1977)
30. Tales of Evil #1 (Atlas, 1975)
31. The New Warriors #1 (Marvel, 1990)
32. Famous First Editions F-8 (reprinting Flash Comics #1) (DC, 1975)
33. Showcase #83 (DC, 1969)
34. Steel The Indestructible Man #1 (DC, 1978)
35. Marvel Classics Comics (Dracula) #9 (Marvel, 1976)
36. Kurt Busiek’s Astro City #1 (Image, 1995)
37. Silver Age: Showcase #1 (The 7 Soldiers of Victory) (DC, 2000)
38. The X-Men #44 (Marvel, 1968)
39. Sea Devils #31 (DC, 1966)
40. The Grim Ghost #2 (Atlas, 1975)
So that’s 40 comics, a bit ahead of the “one per day” goal.
MOVIES
1. Zootopia 2 (2025), directed by Jared Bush and Byron Howard (THEATER)
2. Thunderbolts* (2025), directed by Jake Schreier (STREAMING, Disney+)
Not even close to the “one per week” I’m aiming for.
TELEVISION
· Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2, episodes 1 – 8 (8 episodes)
· Behind the Curtain: Stranger Things: The First Shadow documentary (1 episode)
· Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Season 1 Eps 1 – 3 (3episodes)
That’s 12 episodes of television, not even close to the “1 per day” I was shooting for.
LIVE THEATER
1. Oedipus (Studio 54, NYC)
PODCASTS
I’m a fairly recent convert to listening to podcasts, so I thought it would also be fun to list those here in the monthly roundups:
1 Justice Society Presents Episode 18 (JSA in the 90s: Justice Society #3)
2 Justice Society Presents Episode 19 (JSA in the 90s: Spotlight on the Holidays)
3 Justice Society Presents Episode 20 (JSA in the 90s: Justice Society #4)
4 Justice Society Presents Episode 21 (JSA in the 90s: Justice Society #5)
5 Justice Society Presents Episode 22 (JSA in the 90s: Spotlight on Jay Garrick, The Flash)
6 The History of Comics Books in 500 Issues Ep. 27 (African Comic Books Before World War Two)
7 The History of Comics Books in 500 Issues Episode 28 (Tijuana Bibles)
8 Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum Episode 400 (Tom Wilson interview)
9 Borgo Pass Horror Podcast Episode 3 (Man Mad Monster, 1941)
10 Borgo Pass Horror Podcast Episode 4 (The Invisible Man, 1933)
11 The Boxing Glove Arrow Podcast Episode 11 (Interview with Win Scott Eckert)
Summary of Challenges:
366 Short Stories Challenge: This month: 26 read; YTD: 26 of 366 read.
Goodreads Challenge: This month: 11 read; YTD: 11 of 120 read.
Graphic Novels Challenge: This month: 3 read; YTD: 3 of 52 read.
Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 0 read/watched; YTD: 0 read/watched.
Movie Challenge: This month: 2 watched; YTD: 2 of 52 watched.
TV Shows Challenge: This month: 12 episodes watched; YTD: 12 of 365 watched.
Live Theater Challenge: This month: 1 show attended; YTD: 1 of 12 attended.
Comic Books Challenge: This month: 40; YTD: 40 of 365 read.