Making Reading Cool Again: The Rise of “BookTok”

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I used to have at least five books stacked on my nightstand table at one time. I would read multiple books at a time, finishing two to three a week. I read everywhere — in the car, at the dinner table, even outside sitting on the swing. But then I started to grow up. I got to high school and started getting too busy with studying, friends and extracurriculars. While my passion for reading didn’t dwindle, the time that I was setting aside for it definitely did. 

Enter BookTok. The process of figuring out which books to read has become easier and revolutionized by content creation specifically centered on book recommendations and reviews. The nature of the TikTok algorithm allows for this type of content to flourish, going wildly viral and tempting people to start reading again. BookTok creators have pushed certain novels into the spotlight, giving them intense popularity. Certain titles have been categorized as BookTok books, such as “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo'' by Taylor Jenkins Reid, “It Ends With Us” by Colleen Hoover, “They Both Die At The End” by Adam Silvera and “The Song of Achilles” by Madeline Miller. These are books that BookTok raves about, ones that have resurfaced on The New York Times Best Sellers list years after they were originally released.

The readers that create content on BookTok are, above all things, passionate. They simply love to read. It’s a magical kind of community with groups of people who are eager to share their thoughts and beliefs with each other. What people choose to read has always been influenced by the power of word of mouth; this power’s new form in BookTok has made this community so popular and successful.

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And all of a sudden, after spending some time on BookTok, I found myself reading again. I started making lists of book recommendations from TikTok. I was going to the library and asking for Barnes & Noble gift cards for my birthday. My friends and I have started to exchange books and talk about them. 

And I finally started to remember why I used to read constantly when I was younger. I was reminded of how it serves as an escape from reality, and I was reminded that I genuinely loved it. 

Too often, social media is seen as negative. But it’s important to remember the positives of it too, like reminding a whole generation of the magical feeling that comes with reading. BookTok has become this new literary frontier, and just maybe, has made reading cool again.

Strike Out, 

Writer: Abby Wager

Editors: Kimani Krienke, Natalie Daskal, Will Kennedy, Mary Clare Cameron

Writing Director: David Kramer

Blog Director: Helenna Xu

Notre Dame