THE HEADLINE

Maybe reading habits are okay, actually?

Kateryna Hliznitsova via Unsplash

Most American adults read a book (or part of one) in the last year, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center.

📘 Print books maintain a wide lead. 64% of respondents reported reading a print book, compared to 31% reading ebooks and 26% reading audiobooks. 💃 More women than men read a book last year, but the split—78% of women, 71% of men—hardly supports the recurring panic about men’s reading habits. 🙋‍♀️ Adults under 50 were more likely than older adults to report reading a book in the last year. 💬 Book clubs are rare. Just 7% of American adults (10% of women, 5% of men) have participated in the last year. 💪 Power readers unite: only 14% of Americans read 20+ books in the last 12 months.

🤔 What to make of the fact that this data stands in sharp contrast to last year’s widely-reported finding that only 16% of Americans reported reading for pleasure?

Differences in survey design could be a factor.

Pew asks yes/no questions, whereas the data reported last year were combined from several studies that asked participants to record how they actually spent their time in a designated period. Pew’s wording casts a wider net. Adults ages 18-29 reported the highest rate of reading in the last year (78%), some of which could be attributable to assigned reading for school. Contrast this with the specificity of “reading for pleasure” in last year’s report. Pew sets a low bar. You get to answer “yes” if you’ve read a book “either all or part of the way through,” (emphasis mine), so even minimal engagement gets counted.

🔑 The key takeaway seems to be that the numbers are pretty stable. Pew has been asking this question since 2011, and the percentage of Americans who report reading some or all of a book in the last 12 months has been steady in that time.

📊 See more of the data here. — RJS

TRENDING

The books everyone is talking about right now

adult braces, the night we met, half his age

Tongues are wagging about Lindy West’s new memoir Adult Braces, and they’ve been wagging about Jeanette McCurdy’s Half His Age since the former Nickelodeon star announced her debut novel last year. Headstrong women who know what they want are often controversial, and readers can’t get enough of these two.

Abby Jimenez’s latest contemporary romance, The Night We Met, is also climbing charts. The ceiling is extra high in a season without a new Emily Henry book.

Also on the April Hot List:

John Green‘s adult fiction debut, due out this fall Viola Davis’s thriller co-written with James Patterson The 2025 sleeper hit that keeps winning awards Narrative nonfiction from an award-winning investigative journalist and occasional J. Crew model

🎧 Hear our conversation about these and more trending titles.

TOGETHER WITH 23RD ST. BOOKS

Promotional image for Everything in Color

For fans of Blankets, Fun Home, and Educated

Stephanie Stalvey grew up where desire was dangerous and obedience was love. Then she fell for a seminarian and started asking questions she wasn’t supposed to ask.

Everything in Color is a graphic memoir of faith, romance, motherhood, and the slow work of building a life that actually fits, told through striking mixed media illustration and prose that doesn’t flinch.

CLUB CULTURE

What the biggest book clubs are reading in April

If you’ve been waiting for Percival Everett’s generational hit James to hit paperback, your moment is almost here, and you’re in good company. Katie Couric selected the Pulitzer- and National Book Award-winning novel for her book club this month and will host a conversation with Everett on April 28.

Other notable picks:

Oprah’s Book Club: Go Gentle by Maria Semple Roxane Gay’s Audacious Book Club: Black. Single. Mother.: Real Life Tales of Longing and Belonging by Jamilah Lemieux Read With Jenna: Upward Bound by Woody Brown Reese’s Book Club: Into the Blue by Emma Brodie GMA Book Club: Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

📚 Find more April book club selections.

ALL BOOKED UP

Why you should join the 24-hour readathon happening this weekend

a person reading on a couch with stacks of books on a table

image via Cottonbro Studio on Pexels

Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon has been going since 2007—we’re closing in on the 20-year mark! I’ve been participating for the past 14 years, and nowadays, I readathon with two of my best friends every April and October.

🗓️ The next readathon takes place from April 18th at 8am Eastern to April 19th at 8am Eastern.

The readathon is my favorite holiday, and I want to influence you to give it a try. I feel like reading all day has an obvious appeal for book lovers, but here are three more reasons to join the readathon.

🥳 You’ll be part of a 24-hour bookish party: You can readathon any time, but during Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon, you can follow updates from fellow readathoners all day across all social media platforms. It’s a great way to participate in a bookish community. 😴 You can make it whatever you want it to be: You don’t need to eschew sleep or showering! The readathon is flexible. Take breaks, fit it around work, read picture books to your kids, listen to an audiobook while walking the dog—it all counts! 🧁 Last, but certainly not least, THE SNACKS: One of my favorite things about readathon is preparing a spread of snacks to graze on throughout the day. Pro tip: remember to incorporate some healthy snacks and at least one real meal. An upset stomach really distracts from reading.

I’ve been writing about readathons for a decade, so check out my tips for lasting through a 24-hour readathon and beginner readathoner mistakes to avoid.

Then, load up on novellas and graphic novels and join the party! I’ll see you there! — DE

TOGETHER WITH POETRY MAGAZINE

Be a part of poetry’s present and future.

Enjoy and celebrate poetry all year long with a subscription to Poetry magazine. During April—National Poetry Month—new subscribers to Poetry get a free limited edition notebook to use for the lines you’re turning over, the poems you haven’t written yet, and everything in between.

Support poetry as a living art form, one that this cutting-edge magazine has been celebrating for more than 110 years.

AUDIOBOOKS

You can now buy physical books through Spotify.

The audiobook war rages on, and Spotify is giving Audible no quarter. Spotify users can now order physical books via the app, which will be fulfilled by Bookshop.org.

These purchases directly support indie bookstores as part of Bookshop.org’s mission.

That’s not the only bookish news out of Spotify.

It has expanded its audiobook catalog from 150,000 to 700,000 titles. 30 more languages, including French, German, and Swedish, have been added to its Page Match feature, which lets users seamlessly switch between physical books and audiobooks. Audiobook Recaps, which allow users to hear tailored summaries of where they left off, are now available for Android users. Audiobook Charts are now available in Germany A new Kids & Family Audiobook Chart has been added (available in the U.S., U.K., and Germany).

With all of these new features and offerings, it’s clear Spotify is entering into a new bookish era, one that may change the book world in big ways. — EE

WRITER LIFE

How writing horror led Marcus Kliewer to an OCD diagnosis

photo credit: Brian Van Wyk

Marcus Kliewer is the bestselling author of the horror novel We Used to Live Here. His second book, The Caretaker, is out April 21st from 12:01 Books. Below, he discusses how writing horror led to his OCD diagnosis.

I rediscovered my love for writing horror in the middle of the pandemic. It was oddly comforting to find a type of misery I had control over, even if that control was simply typing words on a page. And thanks to CERB (Canada’s $2,000/month benefit to those who lost income during the pandemic), I was able to dedicate more time to writing than I ever had before.

After a six-year hiatus, I returned to r/NoSleep, a subreddit dedicated to internet horror stories. In a time when the entire world felt exceptionally isolated and directionless, sharing my work with that community gave me much-needed connection and purpose.

I was several parts into a series with the unwieldy title The Man in my Basement Takes One Step Closer Every Week when I received a DM asking me if the story was about OCD. The message went on to say that the main character’s inner monologue was relatable to their own experience with OCD.

I was honored to hear the story resonated with someone, but I remember thinking the similarities were likely just coincidental. My understanding of OCD at the time was limited at best, ignorant at worst. Most representations I’d seen of the disorder depicted it as purely an obsession with cleanliness or symmetry. The possibility of having OCD myself was little more than a distant afterthought.

But the more I started reading about OCD, particularly harm and religious OCD, the more I started to suspect those story similarities might not be coincidental after all. I spoke with counsellors and OCD specialists, and soon enough I was officially diagnosed with the disorder. Today, my second novel, The Caretaker (a vaguely spiritual successor to the Man in Basement Reddit series), ended up as a thinly veiled metaphor for OCD and my own experience with it. I hope it resonates with those who live with OCD, and gives others a window into the exhausting, shapeshifting, and often horrific nature of the disorder.

TOGETHER WITH

500 Billion Page Challenge ~ #GetYourPagesIn

A decade ago, Americans read nearly 500 billion pages a year. Then something shifted. We’re now reading 200 billion fewer pages. ThriftBooks is here to change that. Join the 500 billion page challenge today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Tracy K. Smith, born April 16, 1972

Did you know? Smith’s father was an engineer on the Hubble Space Telescope, and her Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry collection Life on Mars was inspired by his work.

CRITICAL LINKING