Has #BookTok taken the joy out of reading? Some people think so. Here’s a look at some of the criticism and how content creators have responded.
Monthly Reading Wrap-Ups Take #BookTok by Storm
“I read twenty-six books in July and we’re going to rapid-fire go through what I thought of them, my ratings, if I recommend.”
Emmy, or @whatemmyreads on TikTok, stands behind a stack of books in a white sweater emblazoned with the American flag. Stacks of books in beautiful arrangements line a white bookshelf in the background. The description on Emmy’s TikTok account reads, “an absolutely feral reader.”
“We’re actually starting off really strong, which was one of my favorite reads of the whole month, and that is the entire Magnolia Parks series that is out so far,” Emmy continues, holding five books with colorful spines to face the camera.
The video, posted to TikTok on August 2, has over 15 thousand likes and 114 thousand views.
“Wow 26?!?! Sounds like you had a great month!” someone commented. And another: “How do you have so much motivation and how do you read soooo fast?? I NEED TIPS.”
If you’re active on #BookTok, videos like this have likely popped up on your feed, too. Over the first few days of each month, content creators and influencers often post similar reading wrap-up videos in which they report, review, and/or recommend the books they read in the previous month.
“Welcome back to part two of the 22 books that I have read in July,” says @whatshalesreading. “This is the latter half, which are the books that I enjoyed the most.” Another creator, @_alyssaslibrary_, read 16 books in July. @joe.reads read 13. @klhwriter read 12. The list goes on.
Readers Raise Concerns About the Competitive Culture of #BookTok
Rebekah Froggatt joined #BookTok in 2021. The online reading community, which gained popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, was just taking off. This March, Froggatt wrote in an article, “As time has gone on, 2024 has recently made me drift away slightly from the BookTok community as it seems to be filled with competitiveness, harsh comments and overwhelming pressure.”
Such criticism is not new. Throughout the past year, writers have taken to the internet to air their concerns and disappointments regarding what they deem to be a toxic culture on #BookTok – particularly the shift of reading from hobby to competition.
“From monthly reading lists to keeping track of the number of books you read in a year, book content has brought with it the inevitable pressures of comparison and performance that underlie so many of our digital spaces,” wrote Adele Walton in a mid-2023 opinion piece. “Like new year’s resolutions, but for books, each month is now marked on ‘BookTok’ with new goals and numbers of books that one should aim to consume.”
“It seems these days as if everyone on social media is bragging about how many books they are reading,” wrote Diana Logan in a similar piece. “Book-reading challenges have turned this quiet pastime into what appears to be a competitive sport.”
“At first, seeing so much excitement about reading was a breath of fresh air,” wrote one anonymous account on Medium. “Until I realized much of the buzz had little to do with the actual craft of storytelling or quality prose. Instead, BookTok seems to prioritize quantity over quality, turning reading into a competitive sport over a window into the human experience.”
Perhaps most inflammatory is an early 2023 piece in the Huffington Post.The headline reads, “TikTok’s Book Influencers Are Sucking The Joy Out Of Reading.”
Content Creators Urge Readers To Avoid Comparison
“How on earth do I read twenty to thirty books a month while working a full-time job and also without getting into a reading slump? These are definitely my most-asked questions ever in my comments.”
It’s American flag sweater Emmy again, in a video posted earlier this month. She goes on:
“Also, just gonna say: so many people on here think this is my full-time job. It is not, guys. I’m so sorry. I just read for fun…My energy when it comes to books and reading is just through the roof, okay? So, don’t compare yourself to me…Now, I’ve said it so many times on my profile: I am a fast reader, naturally. I read fast. I read an average 300 page book in around 3 hours.”
Feral reader, indeed.
“Don’t compare yourself to people on here,” says @dylaansreading in a video posted last month. “There are people that are dedicated to TikTok, that have it as their full-time job, and they can spend eight, twelve hours a day reading. That’s why they have 9 billion copies of books on the shelves behind them. Or that’s why they’re reading seven books a week. It’s their job. There’s no point in comparing yourself to someone that is reading for a job versus you reading for a hobby.”
@paiger0ss has taken the fight against competitiveness a step further. Paige’s pinned video is a relaxing montage of aesthetic bookish scenes with a soothing voiceover:
“Welcome to the slow reading side of BookTok where reading is not a competition. We don’t do readathons. We don’t read fifteen books every month. And it doesn’t matter if we’re behind on our Goodreads reading goal. We don’t feel pressured to annotate every single book just for the sake of adding tabs. There are days in which we don’t even pick up a book, and that’s okay. We read when we can and at our own pace. And at the end of the month, if we haven’t even managed to finish one single book, we don’t mind.”
The video, posted earlier this summer, has over 107 thousand likes and over 2,000 comments.
“I always feel so guilty watching people read like 30 books a month,” Julia commented. “I’m happy to be on this side of booktok.”
Content Creator Offers Words of Encouragement for Readers
A few minutes spent in some corners of #BookTok might have you feeling like the least prolific reader in the world. But if the numbers matter to you, take heart: a poll conducted by YouGov at the end of 2023 revealed that, if you managed to read even two books last year, you read more books than half of the adult U.S. population. If you read more than 50 books, you were in the top one percent.
And while it remains to be seen if these numbers will change in 2024, one #BookTok content creator has some encouragement for you:
“There is no correct amount of books to read,” says @sellingnwa in a video posted August 7. “If you finish one book a year, I’m proud of you. Because there are so many things that we have in our daily lives that pull on our attention…If you are able to read at all, that’s impressive…It does not matter the amount of books that you read — you are a reader. If you read, you are a reader.”
