Landscape of book reading changing with the times

BookTubers. Bookstagram. And now ... BookTok.

Since social media has been around, so have various avenues for book lovers to show their passion for books. The BookTok community was established in 2020 around the time of the pandemic lockdown, according to Wikipedia.

From those who were looking for a new hobby during the pandemic to those who wanted to escape their day-to-day life, BookTok has been there supplying recommendations on new and old books, as well as authors well known and not as well known.

Authors such as Colleen Hoover, Sarah J. Maas and Adam Silvera are among the most widely read in the BookTok community.

Trinity Laws of Cape Girardeau said when she pulls up her TikTok account, her feed is full of storytime videos that just happen to be her favorite type. She said her BookTok changes all the time and can go from fantasy to self-help books in just a day. Laws has a mix of physical books to use as well as the Audible app to listen to during her busy day. She will listen to her self-help books at the gym, running errands or while sending emails at work. However, when she is reading books from some authors, she gets a physical book to hold and read.

Laws is not one who dives into the community of BookTok by commenting on videos, but rather when she sees a video talking about a book she likes, she gets off the app to go get the book.

"I'm not a big person to feed into like fandoms; so, not necessarily for me, but I think it's fun that people go down like a quick rabbit hole."

Before she was on BookTok, Laws said she was an avid reader and got many of her book recommendations from her parents, as they have a large selection of books at their disposal.

"I think it's actually a very, very good thing that BookTok is happening because social media has really affected our attention span and has really made people not be able to focus on things. So for BookTok, I feel like it's really piqued the interest and like made it exciting again to read. I know more adults who say that they don't like reading than I know adults who say that they do like reading, which is crazy to me because books are so pivotal in people's education and life," she said.

Like many others, Megan Chilton of Poplar Bluff, Missouri, has been on BookTok since the pandemic when she was looking for something to occupy her mind while lockdowns were in place. Chilton was given videos on her "for you page" (fyp), which were upfront in telling her about the books with no spoilers but gave the overall feel of the book. She said she will read just about anything, but her niche would be thrillers with a ghost element. Her first book off BookTok was "I Remember You" by Yrsa Sigurdardottir. Before Chilton was on BookTok, she said to find books she would just wander around Barnes & Noble in the horror and thriller section. Chilton's job at Nestle gives her, and all other employees, $500 a year to go toward something that brings them joy. She has spent $100 of last year's hobby money on books and $200 of her own money. She now has her own personal library.

"I buy them because I like the smell and the feel of them and, nothing against Kindle users, I just want to be able to get done and put it on my bookshelf. What typically happens is, after I finish a video after I've bookmarked it, I'll go on to Amazon and add it to my cart and then just get it when I can," she explained.

While BookTok has a large following of fantasy and thriller readers, it also has romance readers, such as Chloe McAlister of Scott City. McAlister said she stumbled onto BookTok while going through a hard part in her life last summer and has not looked back. She started with Colleen Hoover, and said those new to reading romance should start there. McAlister said she was one of the readers who had a difficult time getting certain books, such as "Verity" by Colleen Hoover, due to their popularity. This is one of the reasons she switched from physical copies of books to investing in a Kindle.

"So when I started out, I would say with the physical copies, I probably spent close to just maybe $100. Then when I actually invested in things like Kindle Unlimited, it's only like $9.99 a month, so like all the books I get now like they're free. And if there's some books that aren't with Kindle Unlimited, I pay maybe like $3 for them."

To track all of her reading habits, she has also been using the Goodreads app after her mother recommended it to her.

"My mom was like, 'You should be on Goodreads. That's because that's where I find all my books.' So I did and now I have like 500 books on my list and everything," she said.

Jessica Pennington of Chaffee, Missouri, has been on BookTok since the very beginning and it has brought back her love of reading from when she was younger.

"I read a lot as a kid and a teen but when I started nursing school, I really fell off with that. Then COVID hit, I discovered BookTok and I fell back into reading and it was a really good escape from what I was seeing in the hospital," Pennington said.

While on BookTok, one of the first series she read that got her out of her reading slump was "A Court of Thorns and Roses" by Sarah J. Maas, also known to others as ACOTAR. Pennington said this book was pivotal to her getting back to reading and has tumbled down the rabbit hole of the "Maasverse". Another book she got off BookTok recently was "Fourth Wing" by Rebbecca Yarros. She said this book, like the ACOTAR series, was everywhere, which made it difficult for more readers due to the high demand and it selling out at first. Pennington said one of her favorite types of videos are the To Be Read (TBR) list videos.

"I like TBRs a lot. Fall is coming up, and I know that I want to read kind of fall cozy feeling books. People have already compiled a TBR, and they list what the books are about, so I can pick from those books and compile my own TBR list for this fall."