As an English major, I am entirely qualified to be the type of person who shits on other people for what they choose to read; to be the type of person who sees BookTok as encouraging ‘the wrong kind of reading’. But I don’t. My decision to major in English stemmed from a love of reading, not from a love of competition – and definitely not from the superiority complex I gave myself after reading all 1,462 pages of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables at age 14 (please just let me flex this). Far from a kind of graveyard where ‘good literature’ goes to die, BookTok is the best thing to happen to the internet in a long time.
Throughout history, something is always ‘ruining reading’ (reminder: Fifty Shades of Grey existed long before BookTok was even a thing). There's this elitist mindset that only certain books are worth the time, with everything else dismissed as frivolous. This perspective isn’t just snobby – it completely misses the point of what reading is supposed to be about. As long as people have been speaking, there has been storytelling – and while your ancestors probably weren’t sitting round the fire sharing ‘fake dating’ or ‘only one bed’ stories, they were still fostering a sense of community. And that’s what BookTok is: the internet’s campfire. It’s a place of creativity, joy, and enthusiasm for stories. It’s like the world’s biggest book club.
BookTok can be seen as an echo-chamber where only one type of book is recommended. You can probably picture all those deceptively innocent-looking cartoon covers. But trends come and go and, really, there’s no such thing as a BookTok book. You may have walked into the University Bookshop and seen the ‘As Seen on BookTok’ sign. On closer inspection, however, the books piled up under this heading have very little in common. I think you’d struggle to find similarities between ‘The Secret History’ (a dark academia murder story) and ‘A Court Of Thorns and Roses’ (an action-filled fantasy and romance series).
Contrary to what people seem to think, BookTok isn’t synonymous with trashy; it’s synonymous with popular. It’s a marketing strategy. The BookTok section of a shop is for the books that are getting a lot of traction, and are therefore displayed more visibly so people buy them in a place where – get this – people go to buy books. It’s no different to the Classics section where, really, the only thing making it a “classic” is that it’s old. The tropes on BookTok aren’t new, either. Jane Austen was the OG enemies to lovers writer, she just wasn’t writing at a time when books were classified by their hashtags.
BookTok is predominantly a female space, readers and writers both. There have been worries about these female authors quickly churning out books that tick the boxes of what is trending, with apparently little literary quality. But where’s the same criticism for James Patterson, who has written 25 books this year already, all with the same formulaic plot and cover art? There seems to be an underlying misogyny to the dismissal of the books most enjoyed by women. It’s similar to anyone wearing a band t-shirt being asked to “name three songs”; or hating on Taylor Swift, who deserves to be critiqued for a number of reasons, but not for the fact that she’s a successful woman. Can’t a t-shirt just be a t-shirt, and a book just be a book? And can’t we listen to the 10th version of The Tortured Poet’s Department (acoustic, extended and remastered) in wistful peace?
Other critiques rest on the idea of performative reading – the so-called ‘hot girl books’ that are more an accessory than an intellectual pursuit. But why is it only performative when it’s a female celebrity and not when Jacob Elordi gets papped casually browsing for books in the airport? Sports fans aren’t dismissed in the same way. A guy wearing a football top isn’t called out for wearing it as an accessory, and while the posters of Alan Shearer on his bedroom wall might be an ick, they wouldn’t be called performative. Maybe you don’t hate BookTok. Maybe you just hate women enjoying things.
The increased visibility and revival in reading that BookTok has encouraged is a positive thing. In this era of misinformation and brainrot, developing critical thinking and the ability to dedicate time to something other than our phones is crucial (check out last week’s issue to see just how bad our phone addiction is). It’s made books culturally relevant again. There are so many people I know who are getting back into reading after not having read a book since high school, and it’s the best thing ever. The fear that books will die out in the digital age is being squashed by BookTok. Your grandma can breathe a sigh of relief.
Not every book needs to be revolutionary. At the end of the day, reading is a hobby and there’s no right or wrong way to engage with it. All art is subjective. What’s mediocre to you might be a masterpiece to someone else (kind of like who your flattie chooses to bring home from town). I know that what I like to read doesn’t apply to everyone, but that doesn’t mean they’re wrong. It just means we’re different people with different tastes.
Once you start reading, it’s often a gateway into more reading. Sure, it might begin with hockey romances or One Direction fan-fic, but it's a step towards discovering your own tastes. And if those are still exclusively hockey romances, that’s fine too! You’re allowed to enjoy something simply because you enjoy it. Conversely, you also don’t have to read something if you don’t want to (but this doesn’t apply to your assigned readings, sorry babe). If you loved a book, no one has the right to invalidate that.
BookTok is encouraging a whole new generation to discover the joys of reading. It’s diverse and really does offer something for everyone. In one scroll, recommendations can range from Colleen Hoover to Dostoevsky. If what you’re seeing isn’t for you, do something about it. Don’t just dismiss BookTok for one of its many parts – change the algorithm and make an effort to find what really resonates. It’s called a For You Page for a reason.