Happy Wednesday! Look for joy and delight today.

☀️ Today's weather: High near 93 and a strong chance of thunderstorms tonight.

🎵 Sounds like: "Reading Rainbow"

🏀 Situational awareness: The Dallas Wings face a must-win Game 2 against the Golden State Valkyries at home in the first round of the WNBA playoffs.

• Tipoff is at 8pm. Tickets are still available.

✍️ Programming note: We're in Atlanta this week, meeting our Axios Local colleagues from across the country and getting inspiration for our newsletters here in Dallas.

• In today's newsletter, our colleague (and fellow Texan!) Sami Sparber shares her reporting on America's reading slump.

Today's newsletter is 799 literary words — a 3-minute read.

Just over 16% of Americans read for pleasure on an average day last year, according to new government data.

Why it matters: America's reading slump is sticking — remaining near the lowest level in at least two decades.

• Researchers say reading, even for fun, comes with a host of benefits for emotional intelligence, employment, health and more.

Zoom in: Not only has the share of leisure readers fallen, but so has the time spent doing it.

• Americans spent an average of 16 minutes per day reading for pleasure in 2025, seven minutes less than a decade ago, according to the data.
• For comparison, people spent an average of 2.6 hours watching TV daily last year.

By the numbers: Back in 2005, 27% of people 15 and older read for pleasure on an average day, but the numbers are lower today, per data from the American Time Use Survey.

• In the 2025 survey, women (19%) were more likely to be readers than men (13%), and so were people 65 and older (27%).

Reality check: People are still buying books. Barnes & Noble and independent bookstores have mounted a comeback, opening new stores and reporting higher sales.

• And "romantasy" — steamy fiction that mixes romance and fantasy — is now a billion-dollar business.

If you need a new book to read, here are the most popular picks of late on the library app Libby.

State of play: Author Kathryn Stockett's bestselling "The Calamity Club" explores poverty and friendship through the eyes of two outcast women in 1930s Mississippi.

• It's her first book since her 2009 breakout, "The Help."

Between the lines: You can also find bestsellers on the Dallas Public Library's catalog, though many also have waiting lists.

• The Fort Worth Public Library has book lists divided by category, such as Hispanic heritage and murder mystery.

The intrigue: Libby's top 20 features several BookTok favorites that have either already been adapted for the screen or are slated to be.

• Those titles include "Yesteryear" by Caro Claire Burke, a thriller about a tradwife influencer that Anne Hathaway is set to star in and produce, and "The Deal" by Elle Kennedy, the basis for Amazon Prime Video's hit hockey romance series "Off Campus."

The fine print: The data reflects North American public libraries that use Libby.

What's next: These are some of the most anticipated new releases this fall…

• "Agrippa": "Conclave" author Robert Harris' novel about "ancient Rome's descent into dictatorship"
• "Taipei Story": "Yellowface" and "Babel" author R.F. Kuang's novel about a Chinese American college student spending a summer in Taipei
• "Hollow Bones": Bestselling author Jodi Picoult's novel about an emergency preparedness official shaped by losing her mother on 9/11
• "A Court of Splintered Harmony": Sarah J. Maas returns to her hit romantasy series. Plus, another book is scheduled for release next year.

🤝 President Trump is scheduled to visit the Peterbilt Motors facility in Denton tomorrow to talk to workers about his "pro-growth economic agenda," per a White House spokesperson. (NBC5)

🥩 Perry's Steakhouse will offer two lunch dishes for 79 cents on Friday. The first 200 customers at each location will be eligible for the Flashback Friday deal. (CultureMap)

🍨 Morgan's Ice Cream is closing after six years in Fort Worth. The owners said God "put us on a new path." (Star-Telegram)

Bookshelves are our favorite elements in a home. They are filled with clues about the homeowner's life — their interests, hobbies and guilty pleasures.

Why it matters: Many of you have consumed our newsletters for years. Here's one way to bare your soul: Show us your bookshelf!

The intrigue: Organized, cluttered — it doesn't matter. Reply with your photos and we'll share some in an upcoming newsletter.

• Bonus points for including a book rec.

This newsletter was edited by Bob Gee.

Our picks:

☕️ Naheed is learning about a Michigan TV station's brilliant coffee shop concept.

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