Woohoo! It's Wednesday!

☀️ Today's weather: Mostly sunny, with a high of 84 and a low of 63.

🎧 Sounds like: "Young Metro" by Future and Metro Boomin.

🍑 Situational awareness: We're in Atlanta this week for our annual Axios Local retreat focused on making our news coverage even stronger.

• So we're bringing you a special newsletter about reading. We hope it inspires you to pick up a new book!

Today’s newsletter is 1,060 words — a 4-minute read.

Richmond has a polyamory book club, another for feminist horror fans and several where you can read in silence alongside other people.

Why it matters: The traditional book club is getting a Richmond makeover as readers turn increasingly niche interests into opportunities to find community.

By the numbers: Book club events on Eventbrite jumped 108% in Richmond last year compared to 2024, the platform exclusively tells Axios Richmond.

• Nationally, the jump has been driven largely by "hyper niche" meetups, the platform tells Axios' Sami Sparber.

The big picture: In Richmond this year, that's included a group audiobook walk on Brown's Island and an "alternative book club" where people talk about their latest book obsession over tea.

• Events have turned into wine tastings, book exchanges, craft nights and making your book into a purse.
• Richmond also once had a smut book club until it ended in August.

Zoom in: There are countless other options, including one at Abi's focused on banned books, the Spooky Book Club for fans of "downright bizarre literature," and a members-only club that meets at locally owned businesses.

• Virginia Polyamory's monthly book club at local public libraries centers fiction and nonfiction books about polyamory and other LGBTQ+ topics.
• Last month's book reimagined Dracula as a toxic, polyamorous vampire.
• Good For Her, which celebrates femme rage in film, has a spinoff book club with monthly picks.

Some upcoming events:

• Oct. 1: Silent reading party at the Pit and the Peel with Melanin & Manuscripts. Reserve a spot here.
• Oct. 7: RVA Baddies Book Club is having a Halloween-themed meetup.
• Oct. 23: ACOTAR Launch Party at Bingo Beer is celebrating the newest addition to the "A Court of Thorns and Roses" series with theatrical readings and promises of "the drinks and the smut." Tickets: $39.19.

Tell a friend

Book clubs might be more popular, but 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.

By the numbers: Americans averaged just 16 minutes of pleasure reading per day in 2025, down seven minutes from a decade earlier, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

• They spent 2.6 hours a day watching TV.

Yes, but: Richmond-area libraries are still moving millions of books.

• Richmond Public Library last year said print and digital checkouts jumped 50% since 2023, while library visits increased by roughly 150,000 over the same period.
• Henrico libraries logged about 2.5 million print checkouts for fiscal year 2025, up about 5% from two years earlier, with digital circulation reaching nearly 1.3 million.
• Chesterfield readers checked out more than 1.1 million print books and 717,000 Libby e-books and audiobooks in 2025. Digital materials accounted for roughly 40% of checkouts by 2024, compared with about 20% pre-pandemic.

Plus: 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.

👀 Attorney General Jay Jones launched an investigation into Placer.ai, the cellphone location data firm that Richmond used to track and profile park visitors. (Times-Dispatch)

• It comes after a new state law banned the sale of precise geolocation data, which Placer.ai continued providing the city.

☀️ Richmond City Council rejected a proposed 25-year solar deal that Mayor Avula's administration said could've saved the city nearly $20 million, after members raised concerns about financial and legal risks. (The Richmonder)

• The project could still be revived, but federal tax credit deadlines for it are looming.

🗳️ A record 67 referenda are on Virginia ballots this year, driven largely by 47 localities — including Richmond and Chesterfield — asking voters to approve a new 1% sales tax for school construction. (VPAP)

🍯 D.C.-based Milk & Honey Southern Inspired Kitchen will open in western Henrico's Westpark Shopping Center next summer, serving gumbo, fried catfish, shrimp and grits and more. (BizSense)

• FYI: Don't confuse it with Buttermilk and Honey.

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 is packed with BookTok favorites.

• They include "Yesteryear," a tradwife thriller Anne Hathaway is set to star in and produce, and "The Deal," the basis for Prime Video's hit hockey romance series "Off Campus."

Keep reading for the fall's most anticipated new releases

Dolly Parton's death has prompted a surge of interest in her free-book program, with the Richmond-area Imagination Library reporting high website traffic and sign-up requests.

Why it matters: The renewed interest could put more free books into the hands of Richmond-area kids.

How it works: Parton's Imagination Library mails enrolled children a free book every month from birth through their fifth birthday, regardless of family income.

Zoom out: Gov. Spanberger highlighted the program's reach on Give Like Dolly Day last Friday, saying 99 local programs serve more than 86,000 Virginia children.

• They've delivered three million books since Virginia established the program in 2024.

The bottom line: Dolly's book club keeps growing.

🤓 Karri is here for any kind of reading revival.

• She got in a rut for years, but is now on a hot streak, thanks partly to a Kindle Unlimited subscription.

🐧 Sabrina is obsessed with this new penguin species scientists discovered and now wants to travel to the Kerguelen Islands to meet them.

Thanks to Alexa Mencia Orozco for editing today's edition.