Libraries are Scrambling for Books

Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.

Libraries are Scrambling for Books

Let’s get the bad news out of the way first. 404 Media covered why it might be harder for all of us to get new releases from our local libraries. We’ve been talking about the shuttering of one of the largest distributors of books to libraries, Baker & Taylor, and the storm brewing for these essential public spaces. This is one of the most comprehensive articles I’ve seen about the distributor’s downfall and the fallout of its closure being experienced by libraries now. Most frustrating for library staff is the lack of transparency about the state of the books distributor from B&T itself, with news of the shuttering breaking on a Reddit thread instead of via a statement. Read all about the debacle and what it means for libraries and library patrons like you.

A Sweet Scholastic Treat for Your Friday

It’s Friday. It’s Halloween. Let’s read something that’ll warm the cockles and send us into a festive spirit. Jami Attenberg writes about popping into a Scholastic Book Fair sponsored by her online group writing accountability project #1000wordsofsummer. Through the sponsorship, students at bilingual school Esperanza Academy received stacks of books and enjoyed the full book fair experience. My colleague, Danika Ellis, has written about the inequality of school book fairs, and Attenberg’s project is one small but beautiful way to get books into the hands of more kids. You can hear Attenberg talk about putting together a book fair where every kid walks away with a book here.

Happy Halloween!

The day has arrived at last. Here are some great books and a fun quiz to drop into your Halloween book bag:

• 10 of the best ghost stories nominated for the Booker and International Booker Prizes
• Great Haunted House Novels (rec’d by Silvia Moreno-Garcia)
• The Best Horror Books of 2025 (So Far)
• 20 spooky short stories you can read for free online.
• And the Award Ghost To… : 20 of the Best Award-Winning Horror Novels
• Oh, the Horror! Do You Know the Books That Inspired These Movies and TV Shows?

The Most Read Books on Goodreads in October 2025

What makes for a good October read? You need some pumpkin spice romance in there, but also some thrillers or horror novels to get your heart racing. Adding in werewolves and vampires doesn’t hurt, either. That’s just about the shape of the top five most read books of October on Goodreads, though I think it’s a shame that horror doesn’t make an appearance on even the top 50 list.

Before we get into the top five, let’s talk about some new releases that came out in October that deserve more attention.