Today in Books gathers a bunch of news from around the internet, but we cover some stories ourselves. Here’s what we were tracking this week.
The 2026 Federal Budget Proposal Shutters The Institute for Museum and Library Services
Amid the court battle over the future of the IMLS, Trump issued a budget proposal for 2026 that would make any of the legal decisions moot: the IMLS would simply be defunded.
Much of this was seen in generalities until now. Late last week, the details of what this might look like have emerged. Recall that the IMLS budget comprises under 0.005% of the overall federal budget at about $313 million dollars as of this fiscal year. For fiscal year 2026, the budget would be slashed to a mere six million dollars.
The Most Read Books on Goodreads in 2025 (So Far)
Goodreads has released its list of the 144 Most Read Books of the 2025 Reading Challenge (So Far), separated by genre. Each category has 12 titles, and the genres are: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery & Thriller, Fantasy, Romantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, Romance, Young Adult, Memoirs, History & Biography, and General Nonfiction.
DEI Books Restored to the Naval Academy Library, and More News for Librarians
I’m rounding up a bunch of news updates that library staff will want to keep on their collective radar. There’s the usual batch of censorship updates (some good! some not so good!), but there’s also a bunch of award news and some fun adaptation announcements.
More Than 50% of Americans Have Listened to An Audiobook: Latest Data on Audiobook Trends
APA’s Consumer Survey found that more than half of Americans age 18 and older–51%– have listened to an audiobook. There’s also been an increase in the number of Americans who state they’re interested in trying out an audiobook, 38% in 2025 as compared to 32% the previous year. Americans indicating they’re “very interested” in trying an audiobook has gone from 10% in 2024 to 18% in 2025.
The Bestselling Books of the Week, According to All the Lists
This week’s bestseller lists have a few new additions, including a new romantasy book from the Rachel Gilling, author of the One Dark Window series: The Knight and the Moth. We also have the first book in a new mystery series by Michael Connelly: Nightshade. On the nonfiction lists is Original Sin by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson as well as—surprisingly enough—a new Mark Twain biography.
Source : The Book News We Covered This Week
