KC bookstores buck the national reading slump
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Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Stock: Getty Images
Fewer Americans are reading, but bookstores keep multiplying, and Kansas City's shelves are proof.
Why it matters: The comeback isn't happening in some abstract retail economy. It's happening at 31st Street, in the West Bottoms and in Leawood strip malls, one new shop at a time.
By the numbers: U.S. bookstore companies jumped 70% from 2021 to 2025, from 2,010 to 3,416, per the American Booksellers Association, and 73% of booksellers reported higher sales last year.
- KC has followed the curve. Under the Cover arrived in late 2023, Monstera's Books in March 2024 and New Material Books in the West Bottoms that December.
Between the lines: What's selling explains what's opening. Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt told Axios that romantasy is the genre of the moment, part of a romance wave that saw print sales more than double from 2021 to 2025, per Circana BookScan.
- That wave built KC's newest shelves. Under the Cover, a romance-only shop, has expanded into the storefront next door, and Smitten Booktique grew from a bookmobile into a permanent Leawood home.
- A downtown Overland Park bookstore is beginning a new chapter with new owners and reopening in August as The Inked Page, which promises to be "A little mysterious. A little sexy."
Between the lines: Booksellers say the deeper draw is connection, with stores doubling as gathering spots for readers who want somewhere to be.
- Rainy Day Books, which turned 50 last year, is known for its robust calendar of author events and book clubs.
Yes, but: The readers themselves complicate the story. 36% of Americans say they read fewer books than a decade ago, per a June CBS News poll.
The other side: Daunt isn't worried. He rejects the decline narrative entirely, saying "people don't read" has been the lazy story about bookselling for decades, and the stores keep opening anyway.
The bottom line: People may be reading less, but Kansas Citians keep showing up for their local shelves.
Go deeper: What KC couldn't stop reading last year