I feel that it was exactly the same with bookstagram before tiktok became a thing. It was all about who made the prettiest pictures of books (the reviews seemed to be all strangely similar, nobody had anything bad to say about a book, ever…) and finding ways to harvest followers and likes. It’s the feeling I get after years of lurking around.
Cultured_Ignorance on
It’s the same way with many other cultural practices. As so many have lost self-understanding they attempt to explain themselves using objects and behavior deemed valuable in the cultural marketplace.
MetaI on
In the same way that setting a goal can give a feeling of satisfaction before any progress is made towards the goal, I noticed myself feeling good and accomplished with the act of simply buying a book, before I had read a single page of it. Even though I don’t engage with any of the social media fanfare around ‘reading culture’, and even though reading is a relatively private hobby for me, I STILL found myself falling victim to the aesthetics and pressures of the whole thing.
I think borrowing from the library and trying to be more deliberate and thoughtful about what I read and why I read it has helped me escape that mindset just a little.
carlotresca on
It’s worth noting that this isn’t exactly a new phenomenon. People have been faking being more well read than they are for quite a long time. Wasn’t that what Reader’s Digest used to be for?
But it’s true that BookTok is an internet “aesthetic” and so in some sense it reduces reading to aesthetics. So I can understand the concern. A more hopeful take might be that it may actually eventually prompt people to read more because they get hooked on the aesthetic at first.
“the flagrant abuse of sticky tabs in novels that absolutely do not require that much citation”
I remember flagrantly abusing sticky tabs…in theory texts I read for graduate school. Or original sources.
And then one day I saw a BookTok of “Empire of the Vampire” that was practically inundated with sticky tabs on nearly every page and wondered what in the world all of those tabs were for – this isn’t Gene Wolfe, the plot and writing don’t warrant this many (any?) sticky notes.
terminalprancer on
This is silly. The popular booktokers definitely have an aesthetic that draws in viewers like every other platform but the people consuming booktok are definitely reading booktok books. I know this because all of the books being peddled are basically wattpad smut. If it was about being ‘a reader’, the books being shared would be waaaaaay less embarrassing. The average booktoker has a kindle that’s just packed with porn lol.
Accomplished-Wolf123 on
I never put it in the comments cause that seems mean but this sub is 70% posts about not-reading; “reading feels exhausting, characters are off-putting, progress is slow, etc, etc”.
Reading still has the cultural cachet of yesteryear but it competes with way more media than ever before. So people feel guilty for being on here instead of behind a book. But guilt is useless, folks should just relax.
Hayred on
It’s the same with any ‘X-tok’, ‘X-stagram’ type culture. Ever been to a gym and watched all the wannabe fitness influencers have a terrible workout because they’re too busy setting up their tripods to focus on what they’re doing? Foodies letting their nice fancy dinner go cold and ignoring their company because they have to get that A* action shot of their meal?
When you’re busy trying to *appear* to do the thing you enjoy, you’re not actually able to do the thing the enjoy.
LyschkoPlon on
This isn’t a new thing – collecting *things*, and *actually doing what that thing is for* are often two adjacent but different hobbies. Doesn’t matter if that’s books, board games, miniatures for painting, LARP stuff, whatever.
I own a ton of books. A lot of them I haven’t read. Sometimes something catches my fancy because it looks really good, but I never get around to reading it.
My backlog is massive, but it doesn’t matter – I still supported the author in what little way I could, and if I ever feel like reading the book, I can. And in the mean time, it probably looks good on my shelf or at the coffee table.
Sometimes the *idea* of reading a book is more appealing than actually reading it.
No_Championship9668 on
This is very interesting! I consume way too much booktok for reasons unknown and I think it’s really cool to see like, 16y.o’s and young uni aged woman get into reading as a hobby and being excited to read more. It’ll be intriguing to watch how it looks in a year or two once we’re on the other side of the wave.
Aonswitch on
“Back in my day, things were different” yeah sure
danone25 on
I don’t know.
Of course there a lot of people in the internet bookreading that fetizishes reading lots of books with the same old stories, talking about books in the most consumerist way possible, and the aesthetics of being a “reader”
But I think that lots of it are just the social media logic of influencers trying to churn up some more “content” out of the platform.
Most readers I think, care a lot about what they are reading.
The downside of all that is that most bookreaders in those platforms recommend some really odd books.
And also those people that get shocked when a author from the 19th century doesn’t have the same morals as people from today, and all the witch hunt on certain authors.
duochromepalmtree on
Most people read zero books a year. Literally zero. A lot of people go years without finishing a book. Any book. Like it or not, the booktok community HAS created more readers. We are seeing authors who spent a decade self publishing suddenly getting deals with traditional publishers to put their books in stores. We have brick and mortar book stores making a huge comeback. We have a romance author selling more copies in a year than the Bible! You may not like the books people are reading, you may consider it “porn” or cheesy or unnecessary. But as a reading specialist who dedicated my life to trying to get children to read ANYTHING I am delighted watching reading become a hobby young people are passionate about. Are some people there for the aesthetic? Sure. But I’m never going to knock anyone for reading anything.
7ootles on
I find certain “writing” communities to be largely the same. They talk about writing more than they actually write. They seem to prefer being seen writing than actually sitting down and writing.
non_avian on
I remember joining this sub and thinking it was a place to discuss books we’re reading/have read, not the concept of books in general. I feel like I’m missing something here. Posts about actual books seem to be a very small percentage and it’s the same books over and over. I was hoping to find something a bit more broad than the niche philosophy subs I’m in and expand my horizons a bit, but at this point I wouldn’t be comfortable posting about books I’m actually reading here unless it was to triumphantly say that I didn’t finish the book and don’t need to feel any guilt for DNF or whatever. Not comfortable because it literally doesn’t seem within the scope of the sub.
I’m just shocked that no one responded to this pointless article written by an obsoleted booktuber by saying that his focus on physical books is leaving out audiobook readers.
I think I’m still here out of masochism. I guess it was on me for seeing something called “books” and thinking, “oh, it must follow that this is actually about reading”
jonjoi on
I’m not on this book tok, but how is it different from this subreddit?
CitrinetheQueen on
Arguably, people spending lots of time on any app showing off about books and reading are spending less time reading than they could be.
It always amuses me how pretentious people get about how books are “meant” to be enjoyed. So, some people love the aesthetic of books, how is it hurting anyone?
ZENinjaneer on
That was excruciating to read. Oh the irony!
Fair_University on
r/bookscirclejerk gonna have a field day with this one
Legitimate-Record951 on
Speaking of shallowness, isn’t the article essentially just acusing another group of readers of being wannabees and not true readers like us?
Ill_Entertainer_10 on
Haven’t enjoyed any BookTok recommendations so far, but I love the idea of people falling in love with books for whatever reason! It supports the authors, and even if they read ONE of the books they buy for the aesthetic, it’s getting someone into reading. I am an avid reader, and I too collect books because they’re pretty. They’re pieces of art to be appreciated at the end of the day. I couldn’t care less if someone is doing a time lapse of them reading for social media clout because they have read something. Oh, and the article was awful. It felt like when I forgot to do a school writing piece and had to quickly get something down.
TLDR: let people enjoy things
muricanviking on
Idk, I might not enjoy most of the things that BookTok is into, but it’s gotten a lot of my friends to start reading. I’ll call that a win
[deleted] on
“Back in my day we used to READ the books”
Ineffable7980x on
I take Booktok for what it is: entertainment. I scroll for a bit, and then I put away my phone so I can actually read in peace.
RyanPendell on
The “golden age” of modern fiction for many people was the age of pulp — that’s where we get all our genres: western, mystery, suspense, horror, fantasy, science fiction, romance, etc. Pulp became synonymous with disposable trash writing.
I feel like there’s a law: Whatever we criticize is going to be celebrated in 50 years. Serial web fan fiction turned into billion dollar blockbuster movies is as preposterous as, say, the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the 1960s.
YardSouth on
I understand why it can be frustrating, but avid readers first complain that no one reads books anymore and now when people show interest in reading again, they complain that people are reading books to be aesthetic. Maybe just appreciate the fact that people still see books as worthwhile?
JhymnMusic on
Duh. Have you seen like 90% of the posts on this subreddit? Lol
Fuck_Joey on
“And I thought I started this “ the ego on this one lol
Deweydc18 on
Honestly who cares? Frankly I find BookTok people way more benign and less annoying/toxic than the BookBros who will look down on people who don’t read “hard” books or who will invariably tell me I need to read Infinite Jest. Like, none of this is particularly important, just do whatever you like. Some gates need keeping but this isn’t one of them.
Ph4rmacy on
I think it’s nice that books still get a place in modern media as well. Even if it’s just to „show off“ it still benefits the whole industry.
There is no harm done with this.
BionicgalZ on
I’m a person with a MA in British literature, who has worked in bookstores and libraries, and has written, and teaches writing, for a living. It’s fair to say that the balance of my life has been in and around the written word.
BookTok even got me interested in reading after a bit of a slump. People need to get off their high horses. I absolutely love seeing people love, discuss, promote, and yes — even objectify books.
32 Comments
I feel that it was exactly the same with bookstagram before tiktok became a thing. It was all about who made the prettiest pictures of books (the reviews seemed to be all strangely similar, nobody had anything bad to say about a book, ever…) and finding ways to harvest followers and likes. It’s the feeling I get after years of lurking around.
It’s the same way with many other cultural practices. As so many have lost self-understanding they attempt to explain themselves using objects and behavior deemed valuable in the cultural marketplace.
In the same way that setting a goal can give a feeling of satisfaction before any progress is made towards the goal, I noticed myself feeling good and accomplished with the act of simply buying a book, before I had read a single page of it. Even though I don’t engage with any of the social media fanfare around ‘reading culture’, and even though reading is a relatively private hobby for me, I STILL found myself falling victim to the aesthetics and pressures of the whole thing.
I think borrowing from the library and trying to be more deliberate and thoughtful about what I read and why I read it has helped me escape that mindset just a little.
It’s worth noting that this isn’t exactly a new phenomenon. People have been faking being more well read than they are for quite a long time. Wasn’t that what Reader’s Digest used to be for?
But it’s true that BookTok is an internet “aesthetic” and so in some sense it reduces reading to aesthetics. So I can understand the concern. A more hopeful take might be that it may actually eventually prompt people to read more because they get hooked on the aesthetic at first.
I’d like to point out the [I Libertine of 1956](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7H5kFGEyUw).
This isn’t even a modern thing.
“the flagrant abuse of sticky tabs in novels that absolutely do not require that much citation”
I remember flagrantly abusing sticky tabs…in theory texts I read for graduate school. Or original sources.
And then one day I saw a BookTok of “Empire of the Vampire” that was practically inundated with sticky tabs on nearly every page and wondered what in the world all of those tabs were for – this isn’t Gene Wolfe, the plot and writing don’t warrant this many (any?) sticky notes.
This is silly. The popular booktokers definitely have an aesthetic that draws in viewers like every other platform but the people consuming booktok are definitely reading booktok books. I know this because all of the books being peddled are basically wattpad smut. If it was about being ‘a reader’, the books being shared would be waaaaaay less embarrassing. The average booktoker has a kindle that’s just packed with porn lol.
I never put it in the comments cause that seems mean but this sub is 70% posts about not-reading; “reading feels exhausting, characters are off-putting, progress is slow, etc, etc”.
Reading still has the cultural cachet of yesteryear but it competes with way more media than ever before. So people feel guilty for being on here instead of behind a book. But guilt is useless, folks should just relax.
It’s the same with any ‘X-tok’, ‘X-stagram’ type culture. Ever been to a gym and watched all the wannabe fitness influencers have a terrible workout because they’re too busy setting up their tripods to focus on what they’re doing? Foodies letting their nice fancy dinner go cold and ignoring their company because they have to get that A* action shot of their meal?
When you’re busy trying to *appear* to do the thing you enjoy, you’re not actually able to do the thing the enjoy.
This isn’t a new thing – collecting *things*, and *actually doing what that thing is for* are often two adjacent but different hobbies. Doesn’t matter if that’s books, board games, miniatures for painting, LARP stuff, whatever.
I own a ton of books. A lot of them I haven’t read. Sometimes something catches my fancy because it looks really good, but I never get around to reading it.
My backlog is massive, but it doesn’t matter – I still supported the author in what little way I could, and if I ever feel like reading the book, I can. And in the mean time, it probably looks good on my shelf or at the coffee table.
Sometimes the *idea* of reading a book is more appealing than actually reading it.
This is very interesting! I consume way too much booktok for reasons unknown and I think it’s really cool to see like, 16y.o’s and young uni aged woman get into reading as a hobby and being excited to read more. It’ll be intriguing to watch how it looks in a year or two once we’re on the other side of the wave.
“Back in my day, things were different” yeah sure
I don’t know.
Of course there a lot of people in the internet bookreading that fetizishes reading lots of books with the same old stories, talking about books in the most consumerist way possible, and the aesthetics of being a “reader”
But I think that lots of it are just the social media logic of influencers trying to churn up some more “content” out of the platform.
Most readers I think, care a lot about what they are reading.
The downside of all that is that most bookreaders in those platforms recommend some really odd books.
And also those people that get shocked when a author from the 19th century doesn’t have the same morals as people from today, and all the witch hunt on certain authors.
Most people read zero books a year. Literally zero. A lot of people go years without finishing a book. Any book. Like it or not, the booktok community HAS created more readers. We are seeing authors who spent a decade self publishing suddenly getting deals with traditional publishers to put their books in stores. We have brick and mortar book stores making a huge comeback. We have a romance author selling more copies in a year than the Bible! You may not like the books people are reading, you may consider it “porn” or cheesy or unnecessary. But as a reading specialist who dedicated my life to trying to get children to read ANYTHING I am delighted watching reading become a hobby young people are passionate about. Are some people there for the aesthetic? Sure. But I’m never going to knock anyone for reading anything.
I find certain “writing” communities to be largely the same. They talk about writing more than they actually write. They seem to prefer being seen writing than actually sitting down and writing.
I remember joining this sub and thinking it was a place to discuss books we’re reading/have read, not the concept of books in general. I feel like I’m missing something here. Posts about actual books seem to be a very small percentage and it’s the same books over and over. I was hoping to find something a bit more broad than the niche philosophy subs I’m in and expand my horizons a bit, but at this point I wouldn’t be comfortable posting about books I’m actually reading here unless it was to triumphantly say that I didn’t finish the book and don’t need to feel any guilt for DNF or whatever. Not comfortable because it literally doesn’t seem within the scope of the sub.
I’m just shocked that no one responded to this pointless article written by an obsoleted booktuber by saying that his focus on physical books is leaving out audiobook readers.
I think I’m still here out of masochism. I guess it was on me for seeing something called “books” and thinking, “oh, it must follow that this is actually about reading”
I’m not on this book tok, but how is it different from this subreddit?
Arguably, people spending lots of time on any app showing off about books and reading are spending less time reading than they could be.
It always amuses me how pretentious people get about how books are “meant” to be enjoyed. So, some people love the aesthetic of books, how is it hurting anyone?
That was excruciating to read. Oh the irony!
r/bookscirclejerk gonna have a field day with this one
Speaking of shallowness, isn’t the article essentially just acusing another group of readers of being wannabees and not true readers like us?
Haven’t enjoyed any BookTok recommendations so far, but I love the idea of people falling in love with books for whatever reason! It supports the authors, and even if they read ONE of the books they buy for the aesthetic, it’s getting someone into reading. I am an avid reader, and I too collect books because they’re pretty. They’re pieces of art to be appreciated at the end of the day. I couldn’t care less if someone is doing a time lapse of them reading for social media clout because they have read something. Oh, and the article was awful. It felt like when I forgot to do a school writing piece and had to quickly get something down.
TLDR: let people enjoy things
Idk, I might not enjoy most of the things that BookTok is into, but it’s gotten a lot of my friends to start reading. I’ll call that a win
“Back in my day we used to READ the books”
I take Booktok for what it is: entertainment. I scroll for a bit, and then I put away my phone so I can actually read in peace.
The “golden age” of modern fiction for many people was the age of pulp — that’s where we get all our genres: western, mystery, suspense, horror, fantasy, science fiction, romance, etc. Pulp became synonymous with disposable trash writing.
I feel like there’s a law: Whatever we criticize is going to be celebrated in 50 years. Serial web fan fiction turned into billion dollar blockbuster movies is as preposterous as, say, the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the 1960s.
I understand why it can be frustrating, but avid readers first complain that no one reads books anymore and now when people show interest in reading again, they complain that people are reading books to be aesthetic. Maybe just appreciate the fact that people still see books as worthwhile?
Duh. Have you seen like 90% of the posts on this subreddit? Lol
“And I thought I started this “ the ego on this one lol
Honestly who cares? Frankly I find BookTok people way more benign and less annoying/toxic than the BookBros who will look down on people who don’t read “hard” books or who will invariably tell me I need to read Infinite Jest. Like, none of this is particularly important, just do whatever you like. Some gates need keeping but this isn’t one of them.
I think it’s nice that books still get a place in modern media as well. Even if it’s just to „show off“ it still benefits the whole industry.
There is no harm done with this.
I’m a person with a MA in British literature, who has worked in bookstores and libraries, and has written, and teaches writing, for a living. It’s fair to say that the balance of my life has been in and around the written word.
BookTok even got me interested in reading after a bit of a slump. People need to get off their high horses. I absolutely love seeing people love, discuss, promote, and yes — even objectify books.