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Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
Fewer Americans Are Reading for Fun
Drawing on data from the American Time Use Survey, researchers at University College London and the University of Florida have found that the number of Americans who reported reading for pleasure dropped from a high of 28% in 2004 to 16% in 2023. Put another way: over a period of twenty years, the number of Americans who read for fun dropped by forty percent, a decrease the researchers call “surprising” even though pleasure reading has been declining steadily since the 1940s. While the researchers don’t offer an explanation for the decline, we can do some educated guessing. 2004, the peak year of this study, was the last year before Facebook went wide on college campuses. It was followed by YouTube in 2005, Twitter in 2006, the iPhone in 2007. You know the rest of this song.
I generally resist alarmist interpretations, but I can’t stop thinking about Politico‘s characterization of the Trump-Newsom meme wars as a glimpse of what “the first post-literate presidential campaign might look like.” And how about this: if the number of Americans who read for pleasure drops another forty percent by 2044, we’ll be looking at a nation where less than 10% of people read books, magazines, or newspapers in any format. Literacy matters.
Everything’s Coming Up Kuang
Before it even hits shelves next week, Katabasis, the most anticipated book of the summer—maybe the whole year—is set to be adapted for TV at Amazon MGM Studios. Walking Dead producer Angela Kang will write and showrun the dark academia fantasy, which follows two grad student magicians who journey into Hell to retrieve their recently deceased advisor so they can finish their doctorates. I finished it last night (#galleybrag), and it’s like if Dante’s Inferno had a baby with The Secret History and that baby’s favorite TV show was The Good Place. Smart, funny, adventurous, and, yes, there’s a little bit of a love story. Sharifah is right, this one is going to be a great time.
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Reissued Classics Coming This Fall
Maybe it’s the lingering impact of the phrase “post-literate presidential campaign,” or maybe it’s because I keep getting served this video from a publishing grad student about why all the books seem so similar now, or maybe it’s that I’ve recently had some soon-to-be-announced reasons to revisit classics. The dog days of this summer find me in a decidedly “they don’t make ’em like they used to” kind of mood, so this round-up of six reissued classics coming this fall landed at exactly the right time.
Lesbians in Spaaaaaaace
And now for a good trend! Book Riot’s Danika Ellis explores the 2025 boomlet of books about lesbians in space. If you haven’t read Atmosphere yet, here’s your nudge.