How TikTok and tears have started a reading revolution
By Greta Ryan
Pauline, aka @thebooksiveloved, has red puffy eyes and damp cheeks. She has just finished reading You’ve reached Sam, by Dustin Thao. She holds up the book and speaking over an Adele song, tells her audience she had to ‘re-read the last few pages because I couldn’t read it through my tears’. Pauline’s brief, heartfelt video is typical of many on TikTok with the hashtag #BookTok. Creators, primarily young women, have flooded the BookTok community with their tears and raw, unfiltered passion for books.
BookTok videos aren’t all waterworks and recovering from being broken by a book. The content includes reviews and recommendations, discussions of the experience of reading, book trailers with images or videos set to popular music, and videos that make fun of literary tropes – often very specific and niche tropes, such as ‘Which dress are you wearing to run romantically through a castle to your lover?’
With many content makers still teenagers, it is Gen Z and Millennials who are using BookTok to find their next book. It’s not surprising then that two of the most popular genres in the BookTok community are Young Adult and YA Fantasy. Contemporary romance also has a special place in BookTok hearts. The staff at Dymocks Booksellers at Highpoint Shopping Centre have seen a spike in romance book purchases, which they cite as specifically due to the BookTok effect …
This feature is an excerpt. To read the full article (and Greta’s top tips on how to find the time to read more books) pick up a copy of our October 2022 print version for free at either the RMIT Student Union in Building 8 on Swanston St or the lobby of Building 94 on Cardigan St.
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