Every year there are book adaptations worth watching. 2026 has an unusual number worth reading first. Christopher Nolan turned The Odyssey into the biggest opening of his career. Ryan Gosling’s Project Hail Mary is already out. The Hunger Games prequel lands in November. Emerald Fennell took on Wuthering Heights.
This is a reading list, not a movie preview. For each adaptation, I’ll tell you whether the book is worth your time before the screen version arrives, and how long it takes to read. Most of these are also on Audible if you’d rather listen during your commute.
Which ones to read first
- Best overall: Project Hail Mary. Fast, fun, standalone.
- Most ambitious adaptation: The Odyssey. Nolan’s biggest opening ever.
- Biggest franchise: Sunrise on the Reaping (Hunger Games).
- Fastest read: Verity. Thriller you can finish in a day.
- For sci-fi fans: Neuromancer. The book that invented cyberpunk.
- For families: The Chronicles of Narnia (Netflix film, now early 2027).
Big screen adaptations (2026 movies)
Project Hail Mary (March 2026)
Ryan Gosling as a lone astronaut solving an extinction-level problem with science and duct tape. If you liked The Martian, this is Andy Weir doing the same formula better. The book is a page-turner disguised as hard sci-fi.
The film is out now and reviews were strong, but the central mystery still works better when you discover it on the page. Read the book first if you can. The Audible version is narrated by Ray Porter and it’s one of the best audiobook performances I’ve heard. It streams on Prime Video now.
Wuthering Heights (February 2026)
Emerald Fennell (Saltburn, Promising Young Woman) directed Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as Catherine and Heathcliff. Fennell does obsessive, destructive love stories well, and Wuthering Heights is the original template for all of them.
The Victorian prose takes a chapter to adjust to, but the book is shorter than people expect (around 350 pages). The Audible narration by Joanne Froggatt makes it easier to get through the dense passages. Worth reading if you want to understand what Fennell was interpreting. The film split critics, and the book explains most of the arguments.
The Odyssey (July 2026)
Christopher Nolan’s IMAX adaptation of Homer’s epic, in theaters since July. Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway lead the cast. This is Nolan treating ancient literature the way he treated space travel in Interstellar.
Emily Wilson’s 2017 translation is the one to get. It reads like a modern novel and was the first English translation by a woman. You do not need a classics degree to enjoy it. Also available on Audible with Claire Danes narrating.
Verity (October 2026)
Colleen Hoover’s dark thriller with Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson. This is not a romance. A writer discovers an autobiography that reveals something disturbing about the injured author she’s been hired to replace. It reads in a single sitting if you let it.
Sunrise on the Reaping (November 2026)
The fifth Hunger Games novel follows Haymitch Abernathy during the 50th Hunger Games. If you read the original trilogy, you know how his story ends. This book shows how it started. Suzanne Collins does arena sequences better than anyone writing YA fiction. The full Hunger Games series is also on Audible if you want to catch up before November.
Practical Magic 2 (September 2026)
Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman returning for the sequel. The original 1998 film became a cult classic, but the book it is based on is worth reading on its own. Alice Hoffman writes warm, atmospheric fiction about family and magic.
Small screen adaptations (2026 TV series)
The Chronicles of Narnia (Netflix, now early 2027)
Netflix is adapting The Magician’s Nephew as the start of a new Narnia franchise. The box set is seven books, all short, all readable in a weekend each. Netflix delayed Greta Gerwig’s film to February 2027 (theaters first, streaming in April). If you have kids between 8 and 13, the delay is a gift: more time to read them together first. The audiobooks on Audible are great for family road trips.
Neuromancer (Apple TV, January 2027)
William Gibson’s 1984 novel invented cyberpunk. The Matrix, Blade Runner’s aesthetic, and most of modern sci-fi owe something to this book. Apple finally got it made after decades of failed attempts, with Callum Turner starring and a confirmed premiere of January 22, 2027. If you read sci-fi at all, read this before the show frames it for you.
One Piece Live-Action Season 2 (Netflix, out now)
Netflix’s live-action One Piece came back on March 10 and kept its footing, which is not something I expected to write about a live-action anime adaptation twice. Season 2 picks up where the East Blue arc left off and heads into the Grand Line. If your kid watched it and now wants the manga, that is a 110-plus volume commitment, so our One Piece reading order breaks down where to start and which box sets cover what.
Reading order by release date
Here is the full 2026 slate in release order. The first three are already out, but the books still hold up after you have seen the films.
- February: Wuthering Heights (film Feb 13, out now)
- March: Project Hail Mary (film Mar 20, out now)
- July: The Odyssey (film Jul 17, out now)
- September: Practical Magic (film Sep 11)
- October: Verity (film Oct 2)
- November: Sunrise on the Reaping (film Nov 20)
- Early 2027: Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew (theaters Feb 12, 2027), Neuromancer (Apple TV, Jan 22, 2027)
Reading plan: If you can only fit three, read Project Hail Mary, The Odyssey (Wilson translation), and Sunrise on the Reaping. Those three cover sci-fi, classic literature, and YA. Two are already in theaters, and the Hunger Games prequel arrives November 20.
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About These Recommendations
I’m George. I read to my kids for 10+ years before they started reading on their own. My wife’s a therapist who helped pick books that actually matter for development. Everything on this site got tested on our family first.