It’s New Year, New Reading Goals here at Mr B’s, where our team is excitedly picking out their reads for the year ahead. Especially as 2026 has just been named the National Year of Reading: promoting reading for pleasure, and using books as a way to reconnect reading with the things that already inspire us – from playlists and football matches to films, food and family time.

So, if you’re after a fool-proof way to plan out your 2026 reads, then look no further! Featuring 24 different categories of bookish inspiration (plus a free space!), our Book Bingo prompts allow you to pull from your existing shelves… and be pointed in some new literary directions!

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Because today we’re highlighting some of our favourite poetry collections!

Now, I know what you’re thinking. For those of you less keen on the matter, poetry might bring to mind long dreary English lessons, incomprehensible sonnets, and the dreaded iambic pentameter. I believe this is what those in the biz (i.e., the poets) refer to as rough winds, most often found shaking the darling buds of May.

But fear not! Poetry isn’t necesarily about cracking a code, deciphering a riddle, or knowing exactly what old Bill was banging on about. In fact, lets completely abandon the notion that we have to ‘understand’ poetry in order to read it. I’ve always found that my favourite poems – the ones I return to time and again – are the ones where I haven’t got the slightest idea what’s going on.

Case in point: here’s one of my all time favourite poems. This poem is wonderful. I’m still not sure what it’s trying to tell me.

Now onto our bookseller faves! Here’s a list of some recommendations from the Mr B’s Team:

Comedy and classics, heritage and heartbreak, mythology and multiple languages. And if none of these excellent collections take your fancy, why not try a space-opera-verse-novel-written-in-the-Orkney-dialect?

If you’re feeling a bit daunted by diving into a single poets collection, then we can recommend some anthologies: a sort of picky-bits tea situation, but for poetry. Some of our favourites include The Poetry Pharmacy (which offers poetic prescriptions for every ailment!), Poetry Unbound (in which each poem is paired with engaging commentary), and Poetry Is Not A Luxury (an anthology based around the seasons).

Looking for more of a challenge? Why not dive into an absolute epic, such as The Odyssey – before the Christopher Nolan film adaptation, out later this year!

We hope you have fun ticking off the categories, and that this bingo sheet inspires some excellent new reads.

Here’s to 2026 being another year of delightful reading!