If you’re a chronic scroller of TikTok, you’re possibly aware of the not-so-little corner of the app known as BookTok.
What started as a small and wholesome community of readers recommending well-written and unique books of all genres written by a widely diverse range of authors quickly spiraled out of control. Now full of division, elitism, and explicit content, you can’t avoid videos that don’t spark some form of controversy.
You wouldn’t think that a community dedicated to a (seemingly) harmless hobby, reading, could become so ugly and competitive.
That begs the question, has BookTok ruined reading?
Reading Goals: How Much Is Too Much?
Where have you been if you love reading but don’t know what Goodreads is, or what the Goodreads Annual Reading Challenge is?
Goodreads is a social network through which readers can make a list of books they want to read and what they have read and leave a review of those books. What makes Goodreads a favored app in the bookworm community is that it allows you to set a reading goal at the beginning of each year.
Goals can range from one to 200 plus. Last year, I made the seriously unwise decision to aim for 70 books. I did it, but never again. Ever. It completely took over my life, and the need to keep up became an unhealthy addiction.
On top of the insanely high reading goals some people set for themselves is the number of videos churned out week after week, month after month, of creators sharing, “How many books I read *insert period of time*” and then the ‘how many’ is, like, 20 books in a month! Can you even take in what you’re reading if you consume so much?
“It makes me not want to read because of the pressure. Reading is not about how many books you want to read. If you want to escape to one world in one year, that’s fine.”
Jordan Renwick
Even my “modest” 70 books drained all the fun out of my favorite pastime. I would work myself into a state of trying to finish books before the end of the week. And readers are beginning to feel inadequate after seeing so many creators show off their book consumption. Because that is what it is, just another form of consumerism.
Equally, there is still hope! There are so many readers and BookTok creators encouraging those who aren’t reading insane numbers of books a week. Instead of dragging them down or telling them they aren’t real readers, they’re praising the fact that people are reading! Making it known that if you’ve only read one book this month, at least you’ve done that.
Overconsumption In Book Buying:
Part of the problem isn’t just reading too much; it’s buying too many books and sometimes buying books you already have copies of (Trill has already touched on this here). Shopping hauls are a popular form of content, and BookTok hasn’t managed to escape the Shein-ification of book buying.
Book buying is arguably just as fun, if not more, than the act of reading itself. I can’t count the number of hours I have spent browsing shelves upon shelves of books every time I walk past a bookshop.
It’s so exciting to look at all of the beautiful covers, to trace your hand across the design of the cover you will inevitably judge the book by (we all do it!), to turn it over and read the blurb, maybe even reading the first page to see if it’s as interesting as the cover would have you believe. It’s a sensual experience.
I would give anything to be able to buy one or multiple books every time I went into a bookshop. But I already have an overwhelming amount of unread books sitting on my shelf waiting for their turn, and not enough money to do that anyway. But BookTok has begun treating the joys of buying a book like the fast fashion industry, and I’m not the only one upset about this:
Smut: Is BookTok Normalising Porn Addiction?
I’d be lying if I told you I’ve never picked up a spicy book in my life. Of course I have!
I’m trying not to sound prudish when I say that only a small percentage of my books contain smut. It’s not what I look for in a book; give me epic worldbuilding, give me an intricate plot, give me a romance based on the grazing of hands and stolen glances.
I honestly prefer my books without it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an added bonus when it’s there, but sometimes it’s just not necessary.
Here’s where the problem lies: readers relentlessly commenting on every single book recommendation video, “Does it have any spice?” or “But is it spicy?” or “What’s the spice level?” It’s fine to like spice in your books, but it really shouldn’t be the only selling point.
These readers are missing out on some great, brilliantly-written YA (Young Adult) and/or smutless books that once ruled the BookTok scene, and the books that are coming out now but are being wrongfully sidelined.
It’s become so ridiculous that it’s sparked a trend of videos making fun of “spice addicts.”
In an article for The Harvard Crimson, writer Kiesse K. Nanor wrote: “Despite the diversity of BookTok’s participants, all too often the hashtag is dominated by sexually explicit books with dark overtones. The sub-hashtag “#smut” has garnered over 450,000 posts, each brimming with shocking recommendations.”
They then went on to say that pornographic material in digital spaces is nothing new:
“Websites like Wattpad and Tumblr — which introduced a ban on visual “adult content” in December of 2018 — have long provided adolescents with access to sexually explicit content like smut for decades. But with the rise of BookTok, books full of explicit content are now being regularly consumed by teenage readers.“
Kiesse K. Nanor
This is another issue surrounding TikTok and the reading community: their regulation of the content shown, and to which viewers. As a result, very young people are seeing these smutty recommendations and reading them.
Elitism: When Did We Stop Using Our Critical Thinking Skills?
The Classics: to read or not to read? Doesn’t really matter, a book is a book is a book. Let’s just enjoy the fact that more people are reading!
Some Classics are brilliant, and it’s so great to know that they’ve stood the test of time. But it doesn’t make you a better, smarter, or proper reader if you’ve read them when others haven’t. Not everyone enjoys Dostoevsky and the Brontë sisters, and that is ok! Don’t belittle those whose tastes differ from yours.
Equally, commenting that someone is pretentious and elitist for enjoying Classics is silly. Unless they are saying that Classics are the only books worth reading and everything else is inferior, you can’t tell someone their opinion is pretentious.
Let’s use our critical thinking skills, shall we?
The genre debate is so strange — why should it matter what people read? Everyone likes different things. Through BookTok, people have been able to discover new genres, whole new worlds, and new authors they never considered reading before.
BookTok is and will be for as long as it lives, my go-to place for book recommendations. I know what I like, and my ‘For You Page’ is really good at showing me creators who have similar tastes with recommendations I’ll love.
So, has BookTok ruined reading?
To put it in simple words, No! BookTok has not ruined reading. It’s still a popular hobby, as it should be, and some corners of BookTok are amazing! There remains a lovely community of readers that welcomes all genres, all levels of enthusiasm, and all readers.
You don’t have to read one or more books a week to be considered a “reader;” if you’ve read a single book this year, you can call yourself a reader. A book does not need spice to be good. It doesn’t need to be a Classic to be good.
Reading tastes are subjective. If you don’t like what you see, just scroll.
Reading is a hobby — let’s keep it that way. Don’t feel pressured to be reading more than you think you can. Take your time to read what you like, when you like.
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