Axios Hollywood
October 01, 2026
2. 📖 Americans are still in a reading rut
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.feven
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.
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4. 🤓 What readers are borrowing
Need a reading recommendation? "The Calamity Club" was last month's most-borrowed e-book on Libby, the library app tells Axios.
State of play: Author Kathryn Stockett's bestseller 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."
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, 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 using 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
5.📍 Library borrowing hotspots
Ohio, Utah and Washington lead the nation with more than 11 public library checkouts per person, federal data shows.
The big picture: Public libraries nationwide reported 6.5 checkouts per person in FY 2024, according to the Institute of Museum and Library Services survey.
- That figure includes physical items and electronic materials like e-books.
The other side: West Virginia (3.5), Georgia (3.1) and Mississippi (1.9) saw the fewest library checkouts per person.
Between the lines: U.S. library circulation per person is rebounding from its pandemic-era drop, helped by a boom in digital borrowing.
- Electronic material checkouts reached a decade-high 2.1 per person in FY 2024, per IMLS.
- Physical checkouts remain twice as common, at 4.3 per person.
Axios Hollywood
