Written by Isabella Halteman. Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock.
If you are a bookworm of any degree, you most likely know about BookTok. If you don’t, BookTok is a community on TikTok where creators share their passion for books and literature. They review and discuss books they read, mostly centered around young adult fiction, fantasy and romance. But, focusing on such a small group of genres only includes a small group of books. Too many BookTok creators talk about the same books. Titles that have been exhausted by the app include Colleen Hoover, Sally Rooney, or Ottessa Moshfegh books, Circe, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Daisy Jones and the Six, and The Song of Achilles. That doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with them, obviously, if a lot of people recommend them they have to be enjoyable. But, the types and genres of books are as vast as movies and music: Everyone has their own preference.
People who want to get into or back into reading might not like those books and might give up after reading one of them. I guarantee there are books for everyone to enjoy, but it takes a while to figure out what you like. It would be cool to read Russian Literature all the time, but I can only ingest so much Dosfyesky, and I know I enjoy thrillers and fantasy so much more. Getting into reading is very intimidating, and a resource like BookTok could be beneficial.
One way to improve would be to diversify the books and authors they recommend, and another is to remind people that everyone will have a different reading pace. I’ve noticed a lot of these creators will do a recap of everything they read in the past month, and it will be up to twenty books, which is unattainable for most people. Reading one book in a few months is something to be proud of, just as reading a book in a day is.
Finding time to sit down and read can be challenging. Especially as a college student, taking the time to enjoy a book not relevant to an essay or project you are working on can feel like a waste of time. But, it is important to give your brain a break from work and practice not associating reading with schoolwork all the time. Five to ten minutes a day is enough to start with. A lot of us are not used to being able to focus on something for a very long time because of technology or just the world around us, so give yourself time to strengthen that focus muscle with time.
So when it comes down to it, BookTok can be great, but only for some people. Hopefully, the community will grow in the future. In the meantime, pick up a book that sounds interesting to you and not because people are always talking about it.
