Along with many others, I have always enjoyed reading. However, as a result of being stuck inside due to quarantine in 2020, I had so much free time with nothing to do, so I began to read entire books in a day, and full series in a week. While scrolling through TikTok in the midst of quarantine, I came upon the community of readers that can now be identified under the hashtag BookTok, which gave me the opportunity to appreciate and find entertainment in reading even more than I had before.

In 2021 alone, book sales saw increasing rates, mostly due to the popularization of the TikTok hashtag BookTok, which mainly caters to teenagers and young adults. Talking about books online is not a new phenomenon, but creating a space for book lovers on TikTok allowed for a broader audience to be reached, opening an inclusive and engaging world of reading to younger audiences. Many hashtags inside of a BookTok pertaining to favored books have reached millions, even billions of views, like “Six of Crows,” by Leigh Bardugo, a personal favorite of mine, which has reached a total of 1.1 billion views, taking one of the top places for most viewed hashtags within the BookTok community. Popular books like “We Were Liars,” by E. Lockhart and the graphic novel series “Heartstopper,” by Alice Oseman became bestselling sensations in 2021, after being discussed frequently throughout the BookTok community. Although I will refrain from stating my opinion on favored books in the community, influencers that post under the hashtag are very good at convincing viewers to read their newfound favorites.

This reading resurgence among teens allowed big booksellers like Barnes and Noble, along with small, independent bookstores to flourish, even in these post-quarantine times. Despite Amazon making up for over half of the online book sales in the United States alone, the rage is not about e-books or online sales. Many teens are going into stores to buy physical copies, sometimes multiple times a month. Barnes and Noble have even gone a step further to remodeling and revamping their stores to allow for easy access to trending books, even having display tables titled, “BookTok,” to show off the recently trending books under the hashtag. Many people have noted that they would rather go in-store to buy a physical copy, instead of waiting for online orders.

For most students, it can be hard to associate reading with enjoyment. However, #BookTok almost romanticizes the act of reading, opening the eyes of young adults to a world where reading is enjoyable. There is no special formula or secret to trending on BookTok, but the algorithm favors videos talking about romantic or sad books. If it will make you cry, it is bound to be renownedly talked about. With bestsellers like “It Ends with Us,” by Colleen Hoover, which has continued to top best-selling charts in 2022, and “A Little Life,” by Hanya Yanagihara, both of which explicate romance and hardships, consecutively, both novels were seen flooding the hashtag throughout 2021. Although reading sad stories helps to build empathy and compassion, BookTok tends to favor these tearjerkers because they are more realistic than happy endings. They also seem to be more engaging, as you continue to root for the main character’s conflicts to resolve and for their situation to get better.

From what I have noticed, the aesthetic surrounding reading brought up by BookTok is what drew many people in. A lot of influencers on TikTok and Instagram can be seen with walls filled with perfectly organized books, creating the perfect background to sit behind and review their recent reads. There has also been an influx of new readers who have even admitted to having started reading because of its aesthetic, yet began to enjoy it so they stuck with it. Whether it is the idea of being seen at a coffee shop, reading your favorite book, or taking pictures searching through the shelves of a bookstore for your Instagram feed, reading has not so much become about the actual act, but the appearance. 

No matter what type of books you enjoy, BookTok is a welcoming place for you to interact and share your favorite books with faces all around the world.