On the last Saturday of August, I began my morning with The New York Times, which carried yet another story about the decline of reading across the country.

Over the past two decades, the share of Americans who read for pleasure fell 40%, as The Times reported. It’s a sobering trend with a lot of potential implications for the future. Reading has many social benefits, and our connections with each other can grow weaker when fewer of us find the common ground that books often provide.

But civic engagement wasn’t the first thing I thought about after reading The Times' story.

Instead, while mulling over the prospect of those legions of nonreaders out there, I worried about all the fun they’re missing. Fun was top of mind that day because my wife and I were planning a weekend drive to th

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