Is BookTok Worth Your Time? Thoughts From a Recent Convert
TikTok has become a force to be reckoned with in the literary world. With more than 44.2 billion views, the hashtag #booktok is changing bestseller lists, bringing unexpected books out of obscurity and encouraging young readers to pick up old classics – and discard others. Many bookstores, both physical and online, now have BookTok sections and covers marked “TikTok made me buy it”. Readers from all around the world are picking their next reads from BookTok reviews, but should you?
Like many of us, I was an avid reader as a child and teen, and found adult life to be harder to wrap around my reading habits. In my 30s, I’ve tried various techniques to regain a good reading habit. Scrambling onto BookTok was one of them. To be honest, I was sceptical at first. If you haven’t yet embraced the wonderful mess that is TikTok, it can be an overwhelming platform to enter. Eventually, your “For you” page will be a highly tailored entertainment feed, showing you nothing but clips you are likely to engage with. The more you engage, the more the algorithm feeds you. But before it learns where you belong, you will have to sift through a seemingly endless parade of videos that are totally irrelevant to you. You can, of course, just search the book-related hashtags and take it from there, but to “get on” BookTok – and stay there – you have to put in the work. The algorithm rewards you with more of the content you engage with, so liking, sharing and commenting is key.
Finally arriving at BookTok may feel like coming home, but it might not initially yield the plethora of book recommendations you were looking for. A common criticism of BookTok – from people who have brushed past it – is that it “only recommends the same five books over and over” or that it’s heavily focused on gimmicks. At first, this may seem true. There are titles that first gained popularity due to their quirks or aesthetics, like S. by Doug Dorst and J. J. Abrams, or the all-but-forgotten murder mystery book Cain’s Jawbone from 1934. Some books, like Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles, have achieved enormous popularity through BookTok and appear to pop up in every tenth video.
This book is a brilliant example of why you should look a little closer before dismissing this as a hype phenomenon. Upon its release in 2011, The Song of Achilles was already a popular book. It received good reviews in major publications, made it onto the New York Times bestseller list and won the Orange Prize for Fiction (now Women’s Prize for Fiction). Nine years later, in August 2020, it saw a spike in sales. Curious, the publishers traced it back to a TikTok video published by popular BookToker @moongirlreads_. The video, which now has almost two million views, is called “Books that will make you SOB” and features The Song of Achilles and four other titles, along with the creator’s rating of how much each of them made her cry. From here, the book’s popularity skyrocketed, and in April 2021 it reached the coveted #1 spot on the New York Times bestseller list – ten years after it was first published. By June, the publishers celebrated one million copies sold, and another half a million by September.
Although this is an amazing story, and there are a few of these kinds of titles that seem to be on everyone’s recommended list, the essence of this story is not about hype. At its core, The Song of Achilles’s second success was not due to clever marketing, reviews by the literary elite or uptake in the rather stiff literary canon. Instead, it was sparked by a reader – a young woman – unapologetically sharing the emotional impact of books she loved with other readers. That’s what BookTok is about: a mutual love of books and the stories within them.
Is this enough to make BookTok worth your time? Maybe not, but there is more: you will find other readers who love the books you love, and see what else they recommend. In addition to ordinary readers, you’ll find authors, librarians, booksellers and editors – hundreds and hundreds of people who live and breathe books.
This is where doing the work comes in. Imagine BookTok a bit like a house party. Many reach the front lobby, see a couple of recommendations, then leave before they’ve spoken to anyone. This is a mistake. If you allow yourself to dive in, there are grand and wonderful things happening in other rooms, and you are guaranteed to find rooms that speak to you. Whether you’re into science-fiction, romance, self-help books or erotica – there are BookTokers ready to discuss your favourite titles or recommend something new. Is your heart still racing after finishing If We Were Villains? You’ll find all the support you need to get through it. Want a list of summer reads? BookTok will provide. Feel a popular title was overrated? BookTok’s here for you.
When you’ve found your people, by all means, stick around, but don’t stop looking around. One of my favourite aspects of BookTok is that it makes it easier than ever before to find recommendations from people outside my own demographic. I always want to expand my horizons and read more diversely, and walking through the various rooms of casa, BookTok has exposed me to titles I’d otherwise never have heard of. If reading more books written by authors of colour has been on your to-do list, but you find it difficult to start, BookTok has your back. If you want to make sure you read some books with good disability representation, books with and by LGBTQ+ people, books written from outside the UK or US, or books with older female protagonists, BookTok will give you recommendations from people who know those lives from the inside. This is important. By following a diverse selection of accounts, you will get a diverse selection of recommendations, and open your bookshelves to a truly exciting influx of new titles.
There are many ways to engage with the publishing industry, and TikTok is just one of them. If you find the constant stream of videos and the fast-paced, trend-based environment exhausting, it may not be for you. Sticking with it took a little practice for me, but I’ve found BookTok to be a brilliant entryway to a richer reading life. I hope you will too.
Some of my favourite accounts to get you started:
Several BookTok-famous authors owe a lot to Selene. Her videos are sweet and funny, and will often make you scour the comments for clues. She has a particular knack for books that tug at your heartstrings.
Dilan’s account is an artistic collection of quotes, recommendations and smooth transitions. She has a particular knack for matching books with sounds.
Carmen calls herself an inclusive book influencer and Latinx book lover. She combines vintage fashion, groovy dance moves and a passion for books to promote literature, particularly by Latinx authors and women of colour.
Greg is a Curaçaoan living in the Netherlands. In addition to familiarising you with the postage grief that comes with living in the Netherlands, he recommends and talks about queer books of all kinds.
Indie bookshop in the US. The booksellers give personal recommendations that reflect their personalities. A great place to find unexpected new favourites.
Written by M. Amelia Eikli
M. Amelia Eikli is a Norwegian artist, writer, translator and financial literacy advocate. She loves to-do lists, 30-day challenges and a never-ending parade of hobbies. She lives with her wife and over-filled bookshelves in Weston-super-Mare. Her socials are all @ameliabilities
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