How BookTok motivated me to read again | The Daily Star
Skip to main content
T
Wednesday, February 8, 2023
The Daily Star
E-paper Today's News বাংলা
  • Home
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Health
  • Sports
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Culture
  • Life & Living
  • Youth
  • Tech & Startup
  • Feature
    • Lifestyle
    • Arts & Entertainment
    • Showbiz
    • Star Health
    • Satireday
    • Shout
    • Toggle
    • Star Literature
    • In Focus
    • Star Youth
    • Shift
    • Daily Star Books
    • Roundtables
    • Star Holiday
    • weekend read
  • More
    • Environment
    • NRB
    • Supplements
  • E-paper
  • বাংলা
বাংলা T
  • Home
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Health
  • Sports
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Culture
  • Life & Living
  • Youth
  • Tech & Startup
  • Feature
    • Lifestyle
    • Arts & Entertainment
    • Showbiz
    • Star Health
    • Satireday
    • Shout
    • Toggle
    • Star Literature
    • In Focus
    • Star Youth
    • Shift
    • Daily Star Books
    • Roundtables
    • Star Holiday
    • weekend read
  • More
    • Environment
    • NRB
    • Supplements

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Apps
  • Comment Policy
  • RSS
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Newsletter
  • Privacy Policy
  • Conference Hall
  • Archives
Daily Star Books

How BookTok motivated me to read again

It has made literary criticism—often regarded highbrow or excessively academic—feel accessible.
Shababa Iqbal
Wed Aug 3, 2022 07:00 PM Last update on: Wed Aug 3, 2022 07:00 PM
Design: Maisha Syeda

As I've gotten older, I've experienced what many book lovers refer to as a 'reading slump' due to, well, life just getting in the way. 

Enter BookTok, the product of TikTok's uncanny ability to bring together like-minded readers through its algorithm. In this community that is bursting through social media, users are welcome to interact, start funny trends, engage in cosplay and give book recommendations.

For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.

BookTok has manifested itself in various ways across the platform, having its own sides pertaining to specific genres, characters, or books.

Read more

What’s stopping us from reading books?

My most recent read was The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (Atria Books, 2017) by Taylor Jenkins Reid, after it was recommended to me countless times on TikTok. The novel is about ageing Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo, who is ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. Magazine reporter Monique Grant listens to her incredible story and is tasked with writing her biography. Let's just say that after a long time, I stayed up till the wee hours of the night reading a book, and I was completely hooked from the very first chapter. 

While this is not how BookTok began, it is how I was first introduced to the concept. I thought that I would have been well aware of the bookish social media community from its beginning, since I grew up reading through every second of my spare time. Since finding BookTok, I've never felt more in touch with my inner bookworm.

In school, I was always considered "the nerd who reads giant books" so I tended to keep quiet about my love for them. Today, I feel like I don't have to. 

BookTok is filled with old and new fans of the many series I grew up reading and loving, so it is easy for me to feel right at home while watching the videos. 

Netflix adaptation
Read more

‘Persuasion’, ‘Bridgerton’, ‘Emma.’ What’s missing from these quirky period dramas?

Whether I'm watching someone perform a skit as Percy Jackson or a video meant to poke fun at the Twilight franchise, I'm always in on the joke—something that couldn't always be said for real life.

Many creators use the platform to share their thoughts and shed light on problems they have with certain books. Other users chime in with their comments, usually getting a response from that creator or other fans. This has been an unexpected way to find people all across the world and share my love for book series like The Hunger Games.

The platform has served as a renewal for me, as someone who had lost touch with books. While I was enamoured with a popular book-turned-movie franchise at one point or another, my love for reading dwindled as the stress of work and study took over for years. I had never stopped loving books and the rush of comfort they gave me—I just put them on the back burner  for a while. 

can't finish a book anymore
Read more

How it feels when you can’t finish reading a book

That being said, when I finally had time to sit down and pick up a good book again, I was lost on where to start. There were so many releases I had missed, and some that I would likely never have found had it not been for BookTok.

Among the cosplayers and the skit-makers, there are also creators on BookTok who film 60-second book reviews or compile lists of books for audiences to read if they've liked a particular novel or phenomenon in the past.

Even while researching for this article, I bookmarked a recommendation list from BookTok, and purchased three books from Kiera Kass' The Selection series, which has been popping up on the app. 

Read more

Things we’d like to see from our local booktok

But more than anything, the best part of BookTok is the sense of community surrounding it. For me, BookTok is fueled by a creator's pure passion for a book, and so, it feels more personal and casual. It has made literary criticism—often regarded highbrow or excessively academic—feel accessible.

And this is different from bookstagram, the book reading and reviewing community of Instagram, where one has to maintain an aesthetic at all times. BookTokers aren't really bothered about how the books are "looking", so to speak. Their discussions, too, are bite sized—one doesn't have to read long reviews, as is the case with Facebook or Instagram. 

Read more

Wanderlust reading: Books for your vicarious travelling this summer

BookTok has been a way for me to look in on my favourite fandoms from the outside and watch people younger than me fall in love with the books that I hold close to my heart. I've been able to geek out over things that some 29-year-olds would be embarrassed to admit out loud, and I find comfort in that.

Scrolling through BookTok serves as a reminder that it is okay for some things to never change, and that it will always be okay to cry over your favourite fictional characters. Most of all, it reminds me that I am not doing it alone. 

Shababa Iqbal is a contributor to Daily Star Books. Email: siqbal.tds@gmail.com.

 

 

Related topic:
booksBookToktiktokTikTok appInstagrambookstagramreadingsocial media
Apple Google
Click to comment

Comments

Comments Policy

Related News

The fault in our books: Why are Bangla books poorly edited?

Why I’m excited about ‘House of the Dragon’

can't finish a book anymore

How it feels when you can’t finish reading a book

Nine times that books told us why overpopulation is scary

What’s stopping us from reading books?

Netflix adaptation

‘Persuasion’, ‘Bridgerton’, ‘Emma.’ What’s missing from these quirky period dramas?

৫ ঘণ্টা আগে|আন্তর্জাতিক

মৃত্যু ৭২০০ ছাড়াল

তুরস্ক ও সিরিয়ায় ভূমিকম্পে মৃতের সংখ্যা ৭ হাজার ২০০ ছাড়িয়েছে। বার্তা সংস্থা রয়টার্স এ তথ্য জানিয়েছে।

৫ ঘণ্টা আগে|পরীক্ষার ফল

এইচএসসির ফলাফল আজ

The Daily Star
Journalism without fear or favour
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Apps
  • Comment Policy
  • RSS
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Newsletter
  • Privacy Policy
  • Conference Hall
  • Archives
© 2023 thedailystar.net | Powered by: RSI LAB
Copyright: Any unauthorized use or reproduction of The Daily Star content for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited and constitutes copyright infringement liable to legal action.
X