News of note for readers: June 22, 2026

Catch up quick with the bookish news of the past few days ... or take a deeper dive into each story. Your choice!  

• A new poll of Americans' reading habits yielded some depressing results, with a third of respondents saying they're reading less for enjoyment than they did a decade ago; half of those surveyed said they're too busy and have too many distractions (CBS).

• Beloved author Judy Blume says she's done writing, so fans who want to hear from Margaret of Are You There God? fame won't get the menopause novel they're asking for (NPR).

• The James Patterson/MrBeast collaborative novel now has a release date (September 1), a title (The Most Dangerous Games), and a publicly available cover (USA Today).

• Granta says it's done with "external publishing partnerships" that don't include editorial control, after the literary magazine published the Commonwealth Short Story Prize winners, one of which has drawn widespread accusations of AI use (The Guardian).

• Take a look at the evolution of dust jackets (I Love Typography).