Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
Barnes & Noble’s Most Anticipated Books in Fiction and More
Over the holiday week, the major book retailer released its annual lists of the most anticipated books of 2026 in the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, Fantasy and YA (not sure why they’re mashed together), and Kids’ Books. There’s much to dig into, but I’ll share my personal highlights. In Fiction, we have Vigil by literary darling George Saunders; Kin by celebrated, award-winning author Tayari Jones; talk-of-the-town Half His Age, Jennette McCurdy’s debut novel; Python’s Kiss: Stories, a collection from Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Louise Erdrich. In Fantasy and YA, I’m looking forward to Queen of Faces, a debut novel from biracial, trans writer Petra Lord, as well as Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories by Amal El-Mohtar, hot off of her buzzy 2025 release, The River Has Roots. Find all of the available lists here.
Fascinating 2025 Reading Data
YouGov America Senior Data Journalist David H. Montgomery shared findings about American reading habits in 2025 learned from the research data and analytics tech group’s annual survey. For starters, 67% of those surveyed responded that they read four or fewer books in 2025, with 40% representing those who read zero books. I find the median numbers to be the most revealing as averages can be misleading. For instance, the survey found that Democrats read more books on average than Republicans, but that average is driven by heavy readers. When you look at the median, you find that typical members of both parties come out at two books read last year. In fact, the median American read two books last year. If you’re a data nerd or simply interested in the reading habits of Americans, I highly recommend the full exploration.
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Zohran Mamdani Sworn in With Schomburg Qur’an
Raised Muslim, I grew up with an old, heavy Qur’an on the family shelves, and I felt like an outsider recognizing the Bible as America’s religious tome, used in courts, politics, and elsewhere. And so the news that Zohran Mamdani took the oath of office using a Qur’an from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture made me smile. If you happen to be in New York City, you can see the Qur’an, possibly produced in Ottoman Syria in the 19th century, on public display at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building starting January 6th. Read more about the manuscript and the swearing in here.
Most Popular Literary Activism Stories from 2025
To determine which posts were the most “popular,” I pulled the top 750 posts on Book Riot for the year and teased out those that were categorized as literary activism. It was far more interesting to examine these in conversation with one another than in isolation, so rather than simply listing the top posts, they will be organized around themes. This is a chance to provide links to those stories, as well as short updates on where those stories stand now in early January 2026.
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