Is reading a niche hobby?

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We were planning to talk about our reading habits and rituals in this episode...but then Elizabeth heard an NPR podcast about how no one reads anymore, at the same time as Martha read multiple articles about how more people bought Rebecca Yarros' latest book than any adult book since records began and that thanks to TikTok, Barnes & Noble is opening more stores this year. We had to ask ourselves: how could both of these things be true?

Join as we try to sort fact from moral panic, discuss the gendered media narratives around book releases by women authors and the loss of literary men, debunk an oft-repeated (even by us) statistic about reading, and ponder whether reading has indeed become a niche hobby. We do also, eventually, talk about the struggles we both face with reading and the habits and rituals we've developed to help fit reading into our lives.

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Books we're reading in this episode:   

All Fours by Miranda July 
A Lady’s Guide to Scandal by Sophie Irwin
The Women by Kristin Hannah
I Ran Away to Evil 2 by Mystic Neptune
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

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Sources listed in the order they appear in the episode :

• https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1263527033
• Irwin, William. "Reading Audio Books." Philosophy and Literature 33, no. 2 (2009): 358-368. doi:10.1353/phl.0.0057.
• https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/feb/03/romantasy-and-booktok-driving-a-huge-rise-in-science-fiction-and-fantasy-sales
• https://www.newsnationnow.com/business/booktok-barnes-and-noble-60-stores/
• https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/30/books/rebecca-yarros-onyx-storm.html 
• https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/01/06/three-in-ten-americans-now-read-e-books/
• https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/25/books/sally-rooney-intermezzo.html 
• https://www.vox.com/culture/392971/men-reading-fiction-statistics-fact-checked

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Intro and outro music: "The Chase," by Aves.

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