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A tradition as timeless as reading will always have the power to impact each generation in its own way.
Young people are sharing their passion for reading on social media. On TikTok, it is prevalent for a word representing a specific interest to be followed by the ending “Tok” to represent a community. Thus, SwiftTok means Taylor Swift fans; ChurchTok is for believers in religion and BookTok for those who read, for example. The community of readers can be found on this social network with the hashtag #BookTok. Its description reads, “Book and literature lovers, welcome to the #BookTok community. Share your favorite books, the best reviews, the new treasures in your collection, or whatever you are most passionate about….“
This community saw exponential growth during the pandemic, as most of the creators were young people who could exploit their ideas in the comfort of their homes. The creators of this hashtag pose different categories for books, such as “Books that catch you from the first pages,” What book did you love, but you can never read again because it is so sad?” “What is your favorite sentence in a book?” among thousands of others.
One of the content creators I am familiar with established “Betty ‘s Booklist,” now having 267.5 thousand followers on TikTok. This influencer creates videos where she narrates the plots in the first person; in this way, she captures the listeners in seconds. The first time I heard her, I thought she was recounting something happening to her, but she mentioned the book she was reciting at the end of the video. Her site delivers a dynamic recommendation, active, taking less than a minute, making thousands of people discover new books.
Another creator in the Spanish-speaking community is popularly known for her YouTube channel, “Clau Reads Books,” but she is also on the TikTok channel as @g_vanille. Clau is a content creator by profession, originally from Monterrey (Mexico), and, in addition, she is the author of several juvenile and fantasy books. Her most popular videos are book recommendations, tours of her bookshelf, demos of the new books she has bought, and parodies and comedy videos with characters.
According to an article by Alison Flood published by The Guardian, publishers are positively affected by this new trend. Kat McKenna, marketing consultant and specialist in books for children and young people, comments that “the market size of people guaranteed to purchase a book is limited, but BookTok makes books more exciting. The short and interactive videos allow reaching more people who are not readers.” Olivia Horroz, marketing, and advertising manager at Simon & Schuster, compares these challenges to the ice-bucket challenge circulating in the media in 2013. TikTok trends work the same way. Since many people do not want to be left behind, they buy the book everyone wants.
What makes BookTok so enjoyable for new generations is how quickly video content can be consumed. People who consume this type of content are usually looking for increasingly faster and more effective media. Interests can be found through keywords and shared in short videos such as “Top 5 LGBT+ romance books.” Anyone can see the category title; if a topic interests them, they can quickly view it and buy the recommended book.
Alison Flood points out the success of sad, gloomy, and romantic books among young audiences. Readers seek catharsis and identify with the characters who can let out and share emotions. There are several trends where people upload videos where they cry about a book scene, impacting many viewers who want to know what had that effect on the person. Then they decide to see for themselves by buying the same book; if it touches a person’s heart, it is very likely to impact more users. However, not all is romance and tears. Comedy and humor are also quite popular. For example, videos where the title proclaims, “How I think I look reading, and how I really look,” “How white authors describe Asian women,” or “What dresses to wear to run with your lover through the castle,” among others.
Books have always had the power to transform for the better those people who maintain a friendship with them. We grew up listening to the endless benefits of books at school, with our family, and that teacher who always assigned us a book to read. When we finally give in and enter it, that is when we finally understand. Our minds have the power to create images, worlds and show us someone else’s vision. At the same time, they function as a window to our soul, capture images in time, words, and thoughts of people throughout the centuries, and in passing, teach us spelling, writing, and concentration. This new generation has given their own twist and touch to sharing books. In the end, a tradition as eternal as reading will always have the power to impact every generation in its unique way.
Translation by Daniel Wetta.
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This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 
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