With most hobbies today having some sort of space online, reading by far is one of the biggest and most active social media communities. Within every social media platform, forums are created for the sole purpose of books. Most notably, BookTok, which is a popular online community on TikTok, has held longstanding dominance among all other platforms.
BookTok originated in early 2020 and has since become a global phenomenon with millions of people interacting with book-related content every day and 72.9 million posts under the hashtag.
Under this hashtag, viewers can find whatever one’s bookworm heart desires from communities of different popular reads, recommendations, new authors, bookstores, reviews and creative trends that showcase literature from every genre.
With the growth of readership among Gen Z, BookTok has provided space for individuals from all over the world to come together and talk about, well, books!
BookTok is often credited for platforming and highlighting the majority of the popular books. From the current star of the show, “Heated Rivalry,” to the fall favorite “The Secret History,” historical romances like “Bridgerton,” and gut-wrenching love stories like “The Song of Achilles.”
With a whole range of genres and communities, there is something for everyone on BookTok.
For studio art major Andrea Chaidez, romance and fantasy are her favorite tropes, and even better if they combine the two in one book.
She also enjoys the fact that BookTok has allowed for queer spaces and books that wouldn’t usually be popular to have a chance to reach people.
One of her gripes is the way authors fail to present strong female lead characters as feminine.
“Femininity can be strong, and I feel like there’s a lot of tropes in which authors make characters all strong, tough or bad-ss bosses, but they completely ignore the feminine aspect of the character,” Chaidez said.
With the many different genres to choose from, there are also many different communities, and these fellow readers can be closer than people may think.
Bethanie Braun, liberal studies major and event coordinator for Fresno State Spotlight Events, is familiar with BookTok. She enjoys the way that BookTok allows her to find people around her who enjoy reading.
“I’ve discovered all my favorite book series from BookTok,” Braun said. “It brought out the fun and love I have for reading.”
Braun mentioned that with the popularity of BookTok, many young people are doing more leisure reading. For an event she planned for Spotlight Events, she said that BookTok inspired her to do a blind date with a book last spring that attracted over 200 students, many of whom said that BookTok brought back their love for reading.
Like any platform that tries to sell you a product, the intention of the content can be insincere and can create a disconnect with viewers.
Psychology major Janna Yanez said that she likes BookTok to a certain extent. She has her critiques on the ways some of the content is presented, especially when authors try to sell their books.
“The reasons I have a negative view on it because I just see it as another capitalist tool that pushes content to people,” Yanez said. “Most creators, authors on BookTok are just trying to make money instead of actually focusing on the quality of the content they are promoting.”
Instagram is another social media platform that has a considerable amount of viewers for book-related content.
Bookstagram is a hashtag on Instagram that provides a social media space for readers. Like BookTok, Bookstagram has a large following and provides a community for people all over the world to come and discuss books
This is the case for English lit major Noah Reed Miranda. As someone who doesn’t use TikTok, they access and receive their book content through Bookstagram.
Reed Miranda noted that this space is split among different subgroups and sub-communities, but essentially is a place where people come together to discuss books they are currently reading or books that left them feeling completely empty. They note that this online space allows for opportunities for niche genres like horror or transgressive fiction to reach new audiences.
“I think that online reading communities have had benefits for encouraging readership,” Reed Miranda said. “I have seen how Dracula Daily, Les Mis Letters, and other email subscriptions have led to fandom-like content on apps like Tumblr, with hundreds of (mostly younger) people reading these novels in accessible formats and engaging with them through modern styles of discourse.”
Within this big community, Reed Miranda has found a space that cultivates literary voices and traditions, pushes their literary imagination, expands their palate and explores the local book community.
“I have also loved the local Fresno community on Bookstagram, from friends of mine with their own book review accounts, to local bookstores, shoutout to Judging by the Cover,” Reed Miranda said.
With analog becoming more popular and society’s self-awareness of our phone addiction, young people are turning to physical media for entertainment. BookTok is that available space for people to find that next good niche read and find a community around themselves.
