booktok & the hotgirlification of reading
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- čas přidán 19. 05. 2024
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➤ PRODUCTION
written by Mina Le, Ella Gray, and Sophie Carter
edited by Charlee Reiff
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➤ SOURCES
Assembling “Sides” of TikTok: Examining Community, Culture, and Interface through a BookTok Case Study by Jessica Maddox doi.org/10.1177/2056305123121...
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0:00 - intro
3:07 - is reading pretentious?
16:57 - the booktok of it all
28:14 - hot girls who read
43:04 - mina's book recs - Zábava
I'm a 44 year old book obsessive and am 100% down with reading being cool with the kids. I don't even care if people are carrying a book just as a fashion accessory. If all the 14 year old girls are saying books are the best because of insta and tick tock, then it makes life much easier for the nerdy girls who hang out in the library during the lunch break.
ehh, i feel this is just another micro trend and two months from now, girls reading ACOTAR will be ridiculed for being out of style or late on the trend. if anything, it takes what the nerdy girls like and gatekeeps it from them.
edit: i understand this trend has been around for a few years. listen to what mina is saying- this dates back to as early as the first century. there has always been the “i’m not like other girls, i read books” mentality. but now you also have to be a model, apparently. mina is making this video now for a reason…the trend has EXPLODED and anytime we see a trend get this popular, we see it fade out just as quickly.
@@loudchihuahuai feel as though this trend has been around for a few years now
@@zulmie5777a few years is a pretty long time for a trend to have stuck around. One more year and it's here to stay or the hot new thing makes it make a comeback in 20 years?
@@loudchihuahuareading badly-written lit from authors like Cassandra Claire, Coleen Hoover, etc has been pretty popular for years now, though.
@@zulmie5777for sure! i think the kendall jenner/runway model of it all has made it explode though. after all, mina is making a video about it now for a reason, ya know?
I love that reading is cool again! I only wish borrowing books from the library was trending as well. Because honestly who has the money and space to buy dozens of books every year?
I was reading an article yesterday that said borrowing from libraries was up 77% in the past year. Not sure if that was UK or US, but it's good anyways. Every now and then the tiktok girlies discover capitalism and push libraries/thrifting.
libraries are becoming popular again! even with me, i’ve read some of the hated books that people don’t recommend from libraries (like acotar, didn’t like it, just wasn’t for me) and i’m assume others who are weary about things like this have as well.
Tons of people use the library. And I’ve actually seen a lot of people create content surrounding the library by either doing hauls, recommending the library, offering library resources etc
@@tsuki3752acotar is ROUGH. I read it when it came out and the consensus a few years ago was book 1 was bad, 2 was incredible and 3 was decent.
I liked 2 more, byt honestly didn't find book 2 to be THAT much better. It certainly wasn't incredible.
What are your fav books?
There's also this little thing called "e-books", they take no space at all. Oh, and you can find several tens of thousands of them for free... I guess you're just terribly uninformed. I'm not gonna insist on the fact that borrowing books from the library not only is trending, but it has been for years now
i feel like the actual problem about booktok it’s that people just read the books that are popular and trendy instead of exploring their own style and taste but hey at least young people are reading more and that’s good
so true. I’ve been suckered in too many times with popular books that end up being terrible. Learning what I like is great, but now I notice it’s harder to have a discourse with others because no one is reading anything particularly interesting.
I'm sorry I'm not original I love romances 😭 but ig you're right I could totally read other genres but i'm scared to dive in myself? Idk is it weird ?
REAL
but that's how people can discover their taste as well :)
Everyone has to start somewhere though!
One of the aspects of the “ high brow” vs “low brow” literature conversation that I dislike is that it runs under a false assumption that people can’t contain multitudes or read/ enjoy different kinds of books. This month I have read Percy Jackson, the virgin suicides, a self help book and an Agatha Christie novel. Most people I know read and enjoy multiple genres. But also - read what you want! As long as you’re reading why does it matter if it’s “good literature.” You can enjoy Jane Austen and you can also enjoy a hockey romance. Reading is reading, you build your brain and critical thinking skills regardless.
I completely agree
So so true! I just finished The Inheritance Games-series, now I'm reading a non-fiction about the history of popular music, and next up on the list is Pride and Prejudice. If you enjoy the book, that's all that matters:)
None of that is high brow
agreed....this is my reading pattern hahahah
This is interesting to me because I see the same discourse in the film community, in the end you may not like reading complex books, but love watching complex films. I'm the opposite, I love classic books but I only like silly movies and I'm judged for that, but in reality I satiate my thirst for knowledge in another way. You can improve yourself through documentaries, films, magazines, music, there are so many things out there, you absolutely do NOT need to read classic literature to be an intelligent and interesting person, just do what you want. If you only want to read trashy smut romance for the rest of your life GO FOR IT, literature is about enjoyment and entertainment too, you are not less smart because of it.
"looking at their phones instead of looking at books" is interesting because like... ebooks exist. unless you're really looking hard you aren't gonna know that someone on their phone isn't reading. plus we should all get over judging strangers on public transit for whatever they're doing as long as it isn't hurting anyone
Yes, theres many apps where people can read books for free too. People just love judging because they think your lower than them.
I often quickly read on my phone on public transport when I can't sit down to get comfortable for my 40 minute ride and get my Kindle out. Absolutely possible that more people are doing the exact same thing as me or just always reading on their phones. Sometimes the Kindle is also just in another room or I didn't take it with me when to an event so my phone that is always on me is just convenient.
True
True, since 80% of the time when i'm on my phone it's because i reading well developed, good-plot fanfics everyday
Exactly, books are also heavy to carry
38:26 I completely agree portraying abuse isn’t inherently bad. The problem with CoHo is she writes abuse and tells readers it’s romance. There’s a massive difference between the two.
THIS. There's a difference between the characters' actions being awful if the text is aware of it or if it is not. Part of the appeal of Lolita is that, if you read it properly, Humbert Humbert's actions are not painted as good by the text itself, but CoHo's texts do not do that! The abuse and other things are painted as good and never put into question by the text.
Personally though I would expect the girlies who claim to read books and be very smart to have enough reading comprehension and ability to make a value judgment enough to u derstand that a bad and abusive romance can still be someone s king to write and read about. I'll revel in an abusive written romance. My real life marriage is good and calm, I want wild and ugly drama on paper. I'm not stupid to think that it's something aspirational, but I'm not arrogant enough to not occasionally fantasize harmlessly about it in my reading chair, either.
you are the reader. The text may not be aware of what it is, but you can be and should be. Nothing wrong with enjoying it. Humans have always been 'bad on paper' and liked it, too. Literature is a good way to express your less ideal traits and desires in a sterile, more or less harmless setting.
"wdym, arson isn't hot?" - Colleen Hoover probably
Writing about abuse can help readers realise what they’re going through is wrong - it truly depends on what authors choose to illuminate about the abuse they write about
she never tells her readers its romance lmao she explicitly said IEWU was inspired by her own mums story so idk why yall still try to say the same thing like those seagulls off of nemo
My son and I are both autistic and hyperlexia is a part of that for us. I'm in my late 30's and the assumption that a large vocabulary means you're stuck up and pretentious isn't new. In my head I was trying to select the best words to be understood, but others thought I was showing off. I also had an extensive knowledge of insects, random science facts, etc. I learned that other people are constantly comparing themselves to others, so I had to be a little less "interesting" (weird) in a group situation. You also aren't supposed to show too much interest in one person in a group in particular, because that means you're either flirting or making fun of them. It's exhausting, which is why books are preferable to human company most of the time.
This right here. I’m also autistic and hyperlexic, and just recently a coworker of mine asked me not to use my (admittedly extensive) “college vocabulary” because it made me seem pretentious. I asked for a specific example cause I didn’t understand when exactly I used “college vocabulary.” He mentioned the fact that I used the word “irreparable” when conversing with a regular that comes in (he always wants to talk about Gaza while I fulfill his order, and I oblige cause the situation does need to to be talked about). I don’t remember the specific context, but it was something about irreparable damage done to something, and apparently my use of “irreparable,” despite being the appropriate word for the context, was “pretentious” 🥴
I think people are just insecure about their own shortcomings with language and they take it out on people who understand and use a wider vocabulary. I kind of want to gift people like that a Word-of-the-Day calendar 😅
i had no idea hyperlexia was a thing so thanks for introducing me to that! my parents tell me i was like in diapers reading disney picture books on my own but i only realised i'm autistic in my 20's. when i talk about the books that i've read i'm simply talking about the books that i've read with no underlying motives but non autistics always get insecure and feel judged about their reading habits when i do. communicating cross culturally with non autistics is often pretty tough.
@@alexjones8843 my first language is a romance one, so (when speaking english) I'm used to words of latin origin since they're easy to recall (irreparable, as you said, being one of them). I found out that a lot of those words sound posh to other people 😅
Same!! IDK if I'm autistic or not, but I casually use words like "penultimate" and "alas" in casual conversation without thinking about it. I didn't choose the verbose life; it just chose me, and then I wholeheartedly accepted it.
@@aninha-007 I didn’t even know of its Latin origins, that’s so interesting! I’d love to get into linguistics one day when I have the time, the creation and evolution of language is fascinating
Time is such a flat circle. When I was a teenager the whole rage was booktube, with the famous CZcams influencers that posted book reviews and even would host authors into their channels (Orion Carloto who’s an author now kinda got her start as a CZcams influencer/ booktuber). I remember everyone was up in arms saying the popular booktube influencers only read trashy YA books and that young kids needed to read proper literature. The other side of the argument was the same one now; who cares at least kids are reading! The same way with TikTok, those kids will grow up and their reads will mature with them. I loved Percy Jackson and Cassandra Clare when I was a tween, I’m 24 now and no longer like YA books and tend to read what some people see as “high-brow literature”. We will continue repeating this what is literature and what should we read argument until the end of time lol.
Older generations will always complain about the people that come after, and how the world is going to sh-t.
@@amara560isn't this the truth.
I'm ten years older than you and still read YA! Though I agree it's a good starting point for young readers to start loving reading and grow into adult fiction. At the same time, there's no age limit on good stories intended for a younger audience. I'm allowed to get meaning from Puss and Boots 2 and Casablanca, and it's the same with books. Anyone who judges me for reading Ella Enchanted or the Graceling series because they're YA can go ahead and do that. I'm having fun, and doesn't negate the classics, adult lit, or nonfiction I also read.
(Not saying you're judging or that you're wrong. It's okay to have grown out of the books you used to love, just like it's okay to (re)read YA. There are people who say fiction is useless because books are meant to be productive, that fantasy is useless because it's not realistic, that YA and children's lit never has themes. At the end of the day, everyone should just read what they want and leave other people alone about their choices)
Except they don't grow out of YA. So now you get 'Adult covers' for harry potter, and things like Actar which is just YA with sex scenes.
@@poshboy4749this has been my experience with booktok honestly. There’s a lot of smart people on there but there’s also a lot of people who make their whole persona about reading while also believing anyone who reads stuff more advanced than YA and Colleen Hoover is being performative. Its such a weird mix of pretension and anti-intellectualism
Honestly if there's one thing that can be "hotgirlificated" is reading. Even if it's just for aesthetics, even if the book choices aren't often the most high-brow. I am very happy to see the kids start reading more and thinking it's cool. It's certainly better than what I got, which was getting bullied for reading back in middle-school and having to read in the bathroom to not get teased.
SO MUCH THIS. I used to get labeled as weird and antisocial and people would purposefully trip me in the hallways at school just because I liked to read. Admittedly I had a bit of a problem with reading at inappropriate times (I apologize to my elementary and middle school teachers so much. I ignored their lessons 90% of the time because my books were more interesting, and looking back as an adult it was honestly so rude of me to blatantly ignore them while they were just trying to do their jobs), but reading was my escape from my pathetic life and if I was reading and pretending to be someone else for a while, I didn’t have to feel pity for my own sad situation.
I would just love that id they not shown books that romaticises abuse, r show abuse as normal to kids. You get some off the worst books from TikTok.
It's just a trend. It reminds me of skateboarding in the early 2000s. Kids all over the country were doing it for a while, but then it completely fizzled out by 2010. The true hobbyists will continue regardless of a trend, of course, but it's definitely a short-term obsession.
My favourite authors are Dostoevsky and Hakan Gunday (a Turkish author) and one time I was reading Dostoevsky and a guy came up to me and said "you don't have to pretend you like Dostoevsky"... I was flabbergasted. People thinking reading is being pretentious is interesting to me because I know a lot of smart people who don't read and as a reader myself, I am definitely not smart lol
But then again TikTok uses everything as an aesthetic and literally ruins absolutely everything
i second this dostojewski is one of my favourite classical authors
Same here, I love a lot of Russian literature and more 20th century writing such as James Baldwin’s, but I just don’t mention it becuase I don’t want to look pretentious or cold to other people.
@@chalkfanatic1848 I have told like 5 people I love the book Master and Margarita and nobody has heard of it in the US. :( Then I try to explain what it's about and I'm sure it just sounds like pulp urban fantasy.
so now reading books is like wearing band t-shirts. there will always be someone (a man) assuming that you are pretending to like it
TikTok can’t ruin everything if you ignore the platform… at least, that’s my strategy 😂
As a 19 yr old who has been obsessed with reading since little, I love that reading is so popular again. I can now talk with so many ppl about our readings, its so fun!
“You read to me as I shit” is absolutely wild lmaooo😂😂😂
Ikr! Lmaooo
Martial is absolutely savage, definitely recommend reading a translation, he's super funny
Possible cultural difference because I'm French; i've never noticed this "ppl who read in public are pretentious" attitude here. I read a lot on public transportation, and in the warmer days I read in sunny outside spots a lot too. No one has ever questionned whether I was pretending or showing off and frankly I doubt anyone really notices.
Mostly true, unless you're reading in a foreign language - my bestie was verbally abused for reading a book in English on a train, by young men who clearly felt attacked by her linguistic abilities 🙃
But overall yes, reading in public is pretty normalised in France.
Same here in Germany :)
Happens quite a bit in America. People are very threatened by intellectualism here because they think knowledge is directly tied to class (it isn't. Reading has always been accessible here, so I think people just use that as an excuse out of laziness), and also because it makes people feel inferior to see others actively participating in things they themselves cannot do. Books are a symbol of that to many people. They do the same thing with art. I can't tell you the amount of nasty stares I've gotten in public for sewing something or drawing in my sketchbook.
Definite cultural differences with regard to reading and reading culture in France vs the US. It's the anti-intellectualism combined with lower literacy rates in the US.
@@missvioletnightchild2515 No, not just any foreign language, specifically English. It's why bookstores over there separate "Anglophone lit" into a separate section.
i started working at my local library about 6 months ago. i have fully flipped from a “buy a cool looking book at barnes n noble and if i don’t like it at least i have a book on my shelf” girl to a “information should be free and accessible, and even if i can’t keep it on my physical bookshelf for more than a couple months, it’s worth reading because reading is worth it” girl. i also really advocate for audiobooks and ebooks for people that have mobile devices. overall, i am always happy to see fellow 20 somethings checking out books, no matter how "high brow" or "trashy" the covers make them out to be.
audiobooks have allowed me to fall in love with reading again! 3 years in, and I'm finally reading books again and finishing them too and I know audiobooks played a big part! (late-diagnosed ADHD and narcolepsy made it so that I would read every waking moment to not touch a book for almost a decade!)
My life changed drastically after I stopped being a book seller
Now I don’t have as much time for reading / use my time otherwise, but I can listen to audiobooks while working
I only buy physical copies of reference books or cook books now, hardly any fiction
Most of it is virtual now
People have given me shit for reading so many comics and manga over the years but thankfully I was raised to not really care. I'm also 31 now and simply don't feel like I need to explain to people that I read plenty of conventional books as well. I just don't limit myself to only them and don't see how I can't just read all the different types of books in the wider sense. I also like putting on an audio book when I'm cleaning because that way I'm not thinking too hard about the task and can still fully comprehend what's going on in the story. Listening while doing repetitive tasks is wonderful and makes the time go faster.
Same!! I looked at my bookshelf and realised that my read-to-not-read ratio was downright embarrassing, so I’m not buying books anymore but am instead working on the ones I own, after that I’ll start going to the library instead and will only buy the book if I love it! I also stopped subscribing to Fairyloot’s monthly boxers because as pretty as the special editions may be, all except one have been hot garbage😭
How did you get the job? Asking for a friend 😅
Mina’s book recommendations:
1. Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham
2. A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith
3. Kindred by Octavia Butler
4. Notes On An Execution by Danya Kukafka
5. Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott
Noted down for myself but might be useful to others here.
Notes on an execution is one of my favorite books I've read in my life so far. The end of the book from the viewpoint of the serial killer sticks with me and I think of it almost daily. It does not romanticize killing and in my opinion does not intend to make you sympathize with the killer, but gives you a completely objective view of his mind. Just a beautifully written book.
another thing about books being used as a mean of identity is that there's a growing movement who deem people's morals based on what they read or watch - it ends up enforcing some weird puritan culture where if you engage with any "problematic" media it automatically means you endorse it : to have a clean mind is to read clean things. If you read Lolita it means you're actually a pedo for instance. This very much ties in with how consumerism is more and more attached to one's identity. It showcases how important media literacy is as well imo
I for one am NOT about the consumerism of books. They are hot and in, yes, but most ppl fund this hobby through barnes and nobel. Libraries are one of the last truly free resources our society has, and they have PLENTY of romance books. I know this cause I worked in one! My library had every new YA or romance novel that came out. Libraries always order the month’s latest new releases. I love that booktok is a thing, but i hate that people are spending like they are. If there’s a book you DNF, you shouldn’t own it. Rent before you buy!! Also, libraries have to discard books all the time, so before they just donate or throw them away, they try to sell them for like 5 bucks. Take advantage of libraries!!! (I know my grammar and spelling is so off in this post sorry lol)
My library growing up had a free paperback exchange. It was full of wonderful finds - romance, YA, sci-fi, classics, fantasy, and everything in-between - I still have a book I found there, more than 20 years later.
I don't know if those still exist, but I dearly hope they do.
As someone who doesn’t have much money to spend on books, libraries in my town and online libraries like Libby are the absolute best.
Agree and also as someone who studied bookbinding and preservation and restoration of papers and books, books rot and collect dust. If you can't keep your books in a dry, cold and ventilated area, even in just few years, depending on where you live, that dust is beginning to damage the paper, you might get paper mites. There's a particular smell to many of the homes of paper book collectors that I associate with paper decay and the dust that paper books collect. Badly ventilated and humid libraries have the same stink.
if you don't have a good place to store your collection, keep your paper book collection modest, and go to a library or get an e-reader. When you have to move homes, your future self will thank you, moving books suuuuuuuucks.
i mean tough shit we live under capitalism. i’m just happy people are reading
Also, of you do have books that you wanna get rid of, don't just throw them away. There's countless avenues to donate them or sell them second hand at reduced prices. Sometimes even through libraries.
Booktok’s romantasy and dark romance obsession has annihilated my trust in most recommendations tbqh
Yeah, sometimes the recs are bad, but sometimes they are decent
Same. I don't really take recommendations anymore as I felt like I wasted so much time and money (even just on ebooks, there aren't really libraries that close by as the town is more of small yet slowly growing commuters town really) reading books that I will never finish unless I force myself to, which makes me want to read less. Now on, I just read what seems appealing to me, not what is being pushed by others.
Booktok is plagued with avid smut readers😣
@@ruhamaxo i love my lil corner with my lil account recommending only well written books about women losing their minds (mood) and beefing with CoHo, HD Carlton, and SJM fans 🫶🏻 ✨
I think it really depends. Theres niches within booktok and you kinda have to dig but some great recs come.out of there
The point that to be an author today actually means you have to be an author, editor and publicist is not only true but almost an understatement. I'm a writer and bad a book come out with an indie publisher (who are great, dont get me wrong) last year and the amount of work I had to do on social media to drum up interest as someone without an inbuilt audience was intense. If any tiktok gals want to make my book the next aesthetic find it would be a weight off my shoulders frankly. I will also say that I read in public all the time and am rarely questioned on whether I'm REALLY reading something, but I do occasionally get a little old lady asking what I'm reading and how I'm finding it, which is an interaction I never get tired of.
As someone who wants to publish but is not quite there yet, I am TERRIFIED of that. I am good at writing - but I am horrible with social media clout, and horrible with marketing, possibly due to being autistic. If nobody will help me with that part, literally nobody will ever read or even find my books.
What’s the name of your book? Now I’m curious.
I read Markus Zusak's "The Book Thief", David Mitchell's "Cloud Atlas", and Kazuo Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go" back when I was a teenager and these stories have really shaped me and stayed with me through the years. I heartily recommend them.
The book thief is so good!!!
@@harshdeep8835 Ishiguro's stories always have this beautiful wistfulness to them. The emotional depth is simply unfathomable.
@@ovenbird1253 "I am haunted by humans." Just remembering the story makes me tear up :')
I loved "Never let me go." It's one of those stories I still think about today, around a decade after reading it 💜
David Mitchell's "Cloud Atlas" is spectacular but big ole trigger warning for r4pe.
Bookshelf wealth is real! I used to work for a large used book store in NYC and a decent chunk of our business came from interior decorators, set designers and other “books by the foot” clients who wanted to bulk-buy books for display purposes. On one hand, it was a little sad to know the books would probably never be read by their new owners, but on the other hand, it kept the lights on.
i remember going to korea once and while my cousin was in the middle of a photoshoot, i realised that the books used as props were actual books so picked one up and started reading. one of the staff there told me "you're actually reading that?" 😭✊🏼
yo thats CRAZYYYYY
Kinda sad, but maybe at least it let you shovel out some of those books that seem to forever line the shelves of used book stores (looking at you Terry Goodkind) and make space for others
I get sad thinking about coffee table books that’ll never be read 😢
man i wish i could have someone to just buy books for me like that bc i’d read every single word
I'll be honest, I started reading as a preteen because I was looking for a "unique" personality trait I can publicly perform lol. These days, I work as a full-time editor who genuine loves what I do. Doesn't matter how you start, imo. If it gets people into reading, what's the harm!
Haha yeah same. Until I realised that I can't bloody read because ADHD doesn't let me get past a paragraph. Ironically, I have a degree in English literature, I still don't know how I did it, but it must have involved a ton of good type bullshitting because I sure as shit did not read all the obligatory reading material.
If you don’t mind me asking, how did you get to where you are now? I live in a small country and don’t have much hope but it’s my dream to work in the publishing sphere.
@@sodiumghost3153I’m also from a relatively small country in southeast Asia! It’s not a big-name int’l publisher, but a domestic one. I started out small as a copy editor who only works with grammar and punctuation, but eventually promoted to meeting with authors and advising them. The real challenge is keeping your eye out for open positions. From what i know, though, there have been some remote set ups so maybe you can try looking for those online!
@@sodiumghost3153I’m also from a small southeast asian country! I don’t work for a big-name int’l publisher but a small, domestic one. I had to start small as a copy editor (just correcting grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.) before eventually working my way to meeting authors and advising them. I wasn’t even an english/language major, just had a good grasp of writing.
The real challenge I think is finding an open position to begin with. You have to keep your eye out for when they’re hiring, and that could be tricky if a publisher doesn’t have an updated website/socials. Recently, I’ve been seeing more remote stuff done in publishing, so there is a chance for you to work for a foreign or out-of-town publisher.
Idk if this helps or if this is what you’re looking for 😅 goodluck though!
@@sodiumghost3153 I'm also from a small country in SEAsia! I don't work for a big-name int'l publisher, but a small domestic one. I started as a copy editor (just grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc.) and worked my way up to advising authors on how to change/make improvements. I'm not even an english/language major, just know my way around writing and audiences.
I think the real challenge is just finding open positions to begin with. Some publishers are just reeeeeally traditional and don't have updated sites/socials, so you have to keep an eye out for when they're hiring. I've seen some hiring remote workers tho, so it might be possible to work for a foreign/out-of-town publisher.
Idk if this is what you're looking for, but goodluck!
As a literature student, it's funny when people say thing like "men read real novels and women read childish literature"... like, where can I find men in my career? 80% of the people here are women and I can assure you we read high quality literature, meanwhile the men I know talk about the same three books who whrote the same three white men. (At the same time I am not shaming any tastes in litterature, go read whatever you want, but be conscious of what you read, and respect the environment not buying books just because "buying books is a hobby different from reading books" or just for aesthetics, please. And go to libraries too).
The best place to get book recommendations from is the library! Walk into it one day and tell them the books you have read previously, the genres you have liked and types of stories you like and they will personally pick out books for you to read. They seriously have people dedicated to doing this at the library so take full advantage of this wonderful resource!
I like to think the male equivalent of booktok is all those million dollars worth manga haul collectors who havent read a single chapter of DBZ lol.
booktok in general is just male anime fans who eat up the same generic anime that objectifies women and is soft core p*rn. i got nothing against spicy books or soft core spicy anime, but can we at least respect women while we’re at it? damn. but that’s tangential lol
As a reader of both manga and comics but also conventional books it's definitely interesting to see the differences and similarities between the two cultures and also seeing how different groups within those two are yet again different.
As an avid manga reader, I would only want to buy completed works, which is very difficult with manga. I would then buy the entire series in one go, and possibly never open the pages, having read every entry already, but from a library shelf.
Unfortunately it might actually be all those “self help” books
I haven't even finished the video Mina, but while you were talking about the topic of classism & book culture, it immediately took to me a memory when I was 12/13 (I'm in my 30s now) where I had to write and present a 'word of the day' for a class. I was a good student, and I read books VORACIOUSLY, so much so that many of my teachers commented on my language skills, grammar, and speech to be a direct result of the fact that I read so much.
ANYWAY, I'd learned a new word at the time, megalomaniac, from reading 'Artemis Fowl'. I chose this word as my word of the day. I presented the word to my class. Afterwards, I was told by my student teacher that it wasn't a real word & that should've run it past her first🙃Now, the internet was a thing at the time, but nowhere near like it is now. That said, A DICTIONARY WOULD HAVE CONFIRMED THAT IT WAS A REAL WORD!? And I said as much -- instead of admitting that she was wrong, she docked my grade because I hadn't told her that I was going to present the word first. Looking back on it, I do believe that both my race and my class directly impacted that interaction. This lady took a power trip on my straight A record because she couldn't believe that I would know something that she didn't in her big, grown, college-educated, age 🤨
I'm still mad about it to this day lol
I never comment, but I have a similar story to share: in 7th grade I was a big Otaku and Japanese loving girl, and so when our class began learning about WWII, I was supremely annoyed with my (white female) teacher continuing to pronounce many Japanese words incorrectly. I was unaware of the tendency in America to Americanize foreign words, and so I politely corrected my teacher. Specifically, I knew that the term Kamikaze (referring to suicidal fighter pilots, a foreign concept in general for Americans) was pronounced "Kah-MEE Kah-ZEH". My teacher pronounced it "Kamakazee." When I corrected her, she continually said I was wrong, and because I KNEW I was right on a phonetic level, certainly knowing more about Japanese language at that point than her, I kept pushing because I thought she was giving bad information. I got into massive trouble for insubordination, which has haunted me to this day. As an adult, it astounds me the way in which this teacher was reinforcing a traditional anti-Japanese, derogatory way of referring to a cultures history, as I distinctly recall her being frustrated with me for insisting on being respectful to a culture that she saw as being Anti-American and backwards. She definitely had disdain in her voice on presenting us this information about history, and I feel it was her own propaganda-influenced prejudice that prevented her from accepting my correction. Otherwise, it would have allowed the Other, the Japanese culture that her grandparents living through Pearl Harbor probably experience, some semblance of empathy and respect, which is unthinkable for the nationalistic American mindset. This ties back to critically thinking about one's self image and how one wishes to be perceived, and I've always felt that my interest in respecting all views, no matter if I fundamentally disagree with them, has been met with such vitriol even among "liberated minds" on the left that I usually align myself with. Like being literate in Ayn Rand enough to be able to counter arguments for her ideology without saying things like "free market, BAD, socialism GOOD".
ANYWAY I'm a bookseller and I miss being in school having intelligent critical discussions bc booktok promotes the same 10 authors. :/ still glad people are reading tho, and I too love my own trashy, pulpy nonsense like VC Andrews
She heard you present on megalomaniac and said “huh guess I’ll illustrate that with a real world example”
this has nothing to do with reading or books, but your story reminded me of when I was in third grade and my teacher was teaching us about Italy (landmarks and culture, etc.) I expressed a lot of interest and knowledge because I had recently been there on a trip the summer prior. I explained this to my teacher and he got so upset and contacted my parents to let them know I had been lying. I had to come to school with proof aka my vacation scrapbook. It was more likely the fact that my age and race solicited this reaction. I was also a straight-A, very obedient student with no prior issues, so....
@@rewrittengirlGood for you for standing up for the real takeaway lesson, which was how to correctly pronounce the names of imperial suicide bombers.
This reminded me of the stupid "Star reading" charts that the teachers had, they would never put a star on my chart but would always put stars on other chidrens charts and when I made a remark on it, the teachers would say "Well you dont have good reading comprehension ." or would say "we are encouraging others to read." despite the fact that my reading comprehension was actually really good and I was able to compare or contrast, summarize and build my vocabulary. It was then that I realize that the teachers don't understand what reading comprehension was at all because they still refused to give me those darn stars.
Ive been reading Northanger Abbey recently, and I know it isnt a historical account, but its such a big thing in the book that novels and especially gothic novels were trashy and girly, only non-fiction books were "high brow" its amazing to see how even 200 years later that this is still such a big theme in society.
That's exactly right and Jane Austen was ingeniously defending novels in NA as well as her other novels. I would like to recommend Dr Octavia Cox if you haven't seen her on youtube? I think she may have a video on exactly this topic, as well as many excellent videos with analysis of Jane Austen's sublime literature.
Some parts of Northanger Abbey do satirize the Gothic fiction in the 18th century.
I’ve been a reader my whole life and it’s my goal to collect all my favorite books from my childhood so my bookshelves are currently stocked with a ton of middle-grade level fantasy novels that are definitely not aesthetically pleasing or impressive material, but i am SO happy to own them. and I think that’s what book collections should be :)
This is such a cute idea! Idk how Nancy Drew, Babysitters Club, and Animorphs books would look together, but I’m excited to display my childhood favorites.
@@keke5577Who cares what they look like together? You should go for it :) I love being able to reread my favorites when I'm feeling nostalgic.
I worked for a high-end bookstore in my country. My entire job was the read all the books and basically be a walking database. I've had interior designers and stars come in asking for the latest fashion books to frame their new living room. I asked once what they like about the artist of the book and they said it was just for display.
Later on, I just started suggesting the most random books to see if they would notice the quality. They never do. It was the look they wanted.
Lucky you that you actually get to read the books you worked with 😂 A common complaint amongst my rare book seller cohorts is that we never have time to read!
My grandpa owned a whole wall sized bookshelf but later said he only read 1 or 2 of them. My mom said, at that time it was trendy or fancy to gift a book or even, in my grandpa’s case, gift tomes. So this aesthetic has never left us
Any Soviet time capsule apartment lol that hasn't been renovated and renewed in 40+ years. Walls upon walls of cheap back then classics and pulp literature where only a few were ever read even in intellectuals' homes. Looking at you, both sets of grandparents.
@@Killjoy_Mel I’m from post soviet country 👋 we eventually decided to giveaway those cheap books and left only those that interested us
I actually aspire to have this wall of books, but I'd never put a book I haven't read on a bookshelf. The unread ones go on the pile :D
As a librarian, whatever gets people reading is fine with me. I love it.
I'd love to hear more book recommendations. Can you do them more regularly? I would definitely watch. Thanks!
"People on public transit looking at their phones instead of at their books."
This presumes no one is reading books on their phone. Most of the books I own in physical form are non-fiction. The fiction books I read for pleasure are usually in epub format, loaned from my local library through apps like Libby.
even if some people read some books for show, its enough that they are reading. reading is something that stays with you forever and you'll explore different books and classics over time
I recently landed at a queer book club and they were reading The Picture of Dorian Grey. I was enthralled by the enthusiasm of these kids (I'm 35) who were so into books. I live in a state where youngsters fall prey to drugs and ofcourse, social media has got us all hooked onto unimportant crap. A group of teens and 20 somethings discussing a book AT LENGTH gives me hope.
Back in my day - 15 years ago - no, people read quietly in homes and there was no one to discuss books with.
Agreed!!!!
I'm 36 and this is CRAZY talk to me, because as a teenager EVERYBODY was reading Harry Potter voraciously and there was so much discussion around it. And because of Harry Potter people were reading other fantasy/ya books and discussing them too.
@@TexTheBestyeah not to mention the Twilight series after HP!
Worth noting that neuroscientists have backed up the act of reading with evidence that it fires up the same regions of the brain responsible for critical thinking, so it's a healthy practice to keep up with, whatever the motivation.
Funny enough, my mom's favorite is Of Human Bondage, and my grandma's fave is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn!
6:57 dante alighieri was an italian writer and he is depicted with a book by bronzino, which reports the text of his work, in order to be recognized by the people watching the painting (the crown of laurel is also a symbol, in italy, for a poet), so it's not just a prop. Also, everything in the painting is symbolic, and the sum of symbols create an allegory, that's why it's allegorical. Dante is looking at a mountain in the distance, which is the purgatory mountain he described in his book, which he wrote in a moment when the purgatory discussion was still open and thriving; the light shining over it represents god etc etc, because he said that he experienced what he wrote in his book in a dream shown to him by god's will and then he reported it in written form for all of us readers. Also, the nose is part of dante alighieri's traditional iconography. Everything about this example is wrong: he's not looking at the book because he's looking at what inspired him to write it, because he was an intellectual, and a great one, not because bronzino wanted to depict him as such.
I forced myself to get back into reading in a big way (after college broke me of the habit) by reading on my breaks at work. It gets me to read and to stop looking at a screen.
I've got a pretty good system now where I'll request books from the library through their website and then pick them up later that week. I'm extra spoiled because my library has a drive through window :)
That sounds so lovely (:
a drive through window??! That sounds amazing
That is so cool!!! During the pandemic, my library had a service where they would bring books out to you curbside style. It was really convenient but it'd be so cool if all libraries had a drive-thru...especially for the elderly or disabled 🥹
@@Jessica-wt2sm it's a big part of why I go to that particular library out of the three that are closest. It's also the most convenient drive
I hate how a lot of colleges discourage people to read. It's not helping students it's pushing them away, the same way a person would be pushed away if you tried to force certain foods on them.
A video on my recommendations was discussing how women writers’s books gets shelved into YA, despite saying their book is not for that age group. It’s interesting and I feel like Mina was getting close to connecting that related topic. It’s weird how I’ve never realized it…then again, I’m usually in the tiny Graphic Novel/Manga corner 😂
Omg! I was reading an explicit book where the characters are 19-25 so i guess they’re young adults technically??? But when I think about all the 12 year olds reading y/a… like please do not conflate having young women in a book with a book genre that middle schoolers gravitate towards
I love reading manga
@@TofuDinoNugsI think there’s a new genre called new adult. That’s the genre these books should be shelved in
Yes! Yikes. I started reading acotar and got it from the library and was so shocked to see they’re classified as YA here. Ick. The later books should NOT be. It’s so weird to me.
I think its frustrating that YA is for teenagers when a young adult is typically 18-26 in any other context.
as a librarian this makes me SO happy! i need job security lol
love this comment 🤣
im into fashion and into reading. I find myself matching my outfits to the book im reading that book or that week because I don't have a set aesthetic. I just think its fun to let your mood and aesthetic play off of your books. Nothing matters lets just have fun babes
braiding sweetgrass by robin wall kimmerer is an amazing essay collection that marries botany and indigenous spirituality together. i haven’t finished it bc it always makes me cry, but im just sensitive and indigenous so it hits hard. other indigenous books i’d recommend is moon of the crusted snow by waubgeshig rice, a horror/thriller about a reservation that loses all power and connection to the outside world over the winter, and our land was a forest: an ainu memoir by kayano shigeru which isn’t american indigenous but an amazing personal account of someone of the indigenous ainu ancestry in japan. make sure to read books by indigenous people too, no matter where you’re from, our voices will never disappear ❤
braiding sweetgrass is my favorite book! im not a big reader tho so it took me over 6 months lol
Thank you so much for these book recs! I've had braiding sweetgrass on my tbr for ages
I love this book ❤
loved how she wrote, had to read this book for a school asignment and enjoyed it, the indigenous culture is beautiful
I just finished the first chapter of braiding sweetgrass yesterday and im loving it so far. I highly recommend it! Im going to use it as a resource for my ecology students to look to as we work through what is traditionally considered the "correct" way of approaching ecology in academia
As someone who reads, and yes often in public spaces… the amount of times I’ve been asked if I am actually reading the book I hold in my hand (within the course of the past few years) is actually comical. Now I see the culprit may just be social media.
I’m not on tiktok or any other social media sites besides youtube, so from an outsider’s perspective: More readers, and more books, will always be a good thing.
That's why I make my own ambiguous dust jackets whenever I read in public, it's just annoying to have people side eye you
Oh... people regret this with me because I like reading nonfiction and then forcing people to learn with me if I can.
You wanna know if I'm really reading this? Lemme tell you about two Merovingian era queens...and a very simple rule to follow: if a gal makes it to "Queen/Consort" from a lowly position...be the *most* afraid of her...
And then they fucking evaporate. But upside is the Bartenders all have high class degrees and are pumped to pass the time talkin bout Lovecraft or weird French history.
@@petitmains I do the same exact thing actually, and I love it! I make them listen to me rant about biographies, historic battles, declassified cia files, and more! If they dare to ask me, they best be prepared for 10mins straight of literary babble.
People are so werid why would anyone just randomly carry a book to look cool it's not like you taking photos of yourself in public I would never assume that someone carrying a book with them are doing so to look cool and haven't actually read the. Book
also I feel like People who do this especially towards women do so because of misogyny like it's reminding me of when women wear band tees and men will question them on if they actually listen to the band or are they just wearing it to look cool because how dare a women be interested in anything other than make up and clothes
If physical books are popular again, why is there virtually no market in second hand books? It’s really hard to pass on read books to charity shops as they never have space for them as no-one is buying their stock. Are people actually buying books for the pleasure of them?
There’s definitely a market! My mom owns a second hand bookstore. She has a website “Werdz Quality Used Books”. Her dream is to open a brick and mortar shop. Might take some digging in your local area as most of these businesses are small shops without much (if any) promotion
The US has a pretty thriving for-profit used books market. There’s a national chain called Half Price Books that has large selections of mostly recently published used books. For some reason pristine books seem to be more trendy than well worn books, so I think people who can afford it do prefer to buy books new for the aesthetic, but in the US at least, the used book market is still going strong
I like the illustrated romance covers as a way to visually identify rom coms. Dark romance isn't my thing, so when I'm browsing at a store or library, it's helpful to have visual cues about the tone of a book.
It's actually an indication of a specific niche genre "upmarket women's fiction" (or it was) that is tracked separately than the steamy romances. They're supposed to be more modern day, still romantic, but having a major focus on interior women's lives that might not center the romantic aspect. Like the romance has to have a secondary plot that focuses on the woman's life (usually career/ personal journey/ other relationships).
Reading being trendy is great honestly. I was a huge bookworm in school with little options to read because I was in a poor school. I ended up reading the same books repeatedly. The more demand there is the more kids like I was will have access to things they want.
For reference my high school had almost no books in the library.
My high school had a massive library… full of computers. I think there were maybe 500 books in this GIANT building. It made me so sad.
I am that girl who will carry a book to a party or read while walking, and I’m definitely on the spectrum. So, I must say something: is not always pretentiousness. I just feel uncomfortable in certain scenarios and yeah social anxiety (I don’t like using airpods or similar) so is my safe place. Ps. Pardon my english i’m from Peru:)
That's great actually I wish i could read in public 😔
yess, im also autistic and read in public mainly just so that people dont talk to me
same here, though sometimes I read e-books on my phone and people probably end up thinking I'm just on my frickin phone again lol
I hope it is an expression, but who brings books to a party. If you wanna read why go to a party in the first place
@@Sun.Shine-parties can be really fun! but they can also get veryyyy overstimulating very fast. i enjoy parties, but whenever i am overwhelmed, it's wonderful to have a book on hand so i can escape the moment and enter into another world. it helps me enjoy the rest of the party because instead of having to leave, i can just read and calm down and re-enter the scene :)
Some clarity on the the Martial quote; "bookshops" in the ancient past where not a place for the buying of physical books, rather they where a place where you would pay someone (whom was literate) to read out loud. Choosing which book to listen to was pretty much walking down the street to the orator to you'd want to hear, and at times at the public baths.
Love that more people are reading and also LOVE love love the library. I always read books from the library and if I really love it and know I’ll read it again, I’ll buy a copy. I don’t want to waste money on books I dont like, plus it makes all the books I do own feel special, and I always have my favs to lend to others. I also super recommend checking thrift stores for books, it takes some digging and luck but I’ve found both very popular and very rare books for a fraction of the price!
This is exactly what I do too! It's basically rent before you buy except even better, because the renting part is free!
I find the whole, "big words are pretentious" argument as misguided. When I was growing up a large vocabulary meant that you could be more precise with what you wanted to say. The whole point was to be more understandable to everyone. Most people would have been offended if you dumbed down your language when speaking with them and would have found it vaguely offensive if people thought that using the accurate word was classist - as if the poor are too dumb or unworldly to use intellectual words. My mom was black, dirt poor and lived through Jim Crow and she had a banger vocabulary.
Completely agree. The problem is that lots of people nowadays get offended by *not* understanding a word and instead of being fueled by their ignorance to learn new words, they attack the supposed source of their feeling of inferiority.
Precisely correct.
The point about using complex vocabulary because you like vocabulary and are interested in learning how to use new words really makes me think of Ruby Granger. I caught myself thinking she had become a bit pretentious after she started at Oxford and started using so many words that I didn’t know. But then she did a video on her pocket notebook and she showed that everyday she writes down new words she hears and spends 15 mins looking them up and writing sentences learning how to use them. Showed me (once again) that you shouldn’t judge other people and also that if you are putting in the work then it should be okay to just show it.
Conversely, if you cannot express yourself in lay terms, then your speech is of poor quality, no matter how florid it is. Language is for communication and someone who keeps spitting ten dollar words that confuse most people is showing off alright, but also being a poor communicator more interested in basking in the light of their own knowledge than getting their message across. Saying this as a degree holder in English philology and literature. My idea that refined language is the one that uses big words a lot flew out of the window within the first few months I was studying, and I have no patience for people who insist on talking through a rosebush for the sake of it.
Isn't deliberately keeping track of new words from an elite university kinda the definition of pretentious, though?
@@NShomebase No
I used to write down words I came across while reading that I didn't understand and look them up in the dictionary afterwards. It's so much easier now with an ereader.
I feel like another thing to add to the "book as status object" thing is the fact that a lot of books Marc Jacobs poses with for IG are hardcover first editions, which depending on the author/title can sell for hundreds of dollars now. Not just owning the right books, but owning near-mint, vintage, first edition copies is the ultimate status symbol for books imo
In fact, Franz Kafka would NOT have loved Lana del Rey
Wow, that rewired my brain. That sentence.
the best part about this current book craze is that there are some really fun and current titles on thrift store shelves. I recently got five books for $23 and most of them were books I was thinking of buying new (the books were Red, white and royal blue, lessons in chemistry, a magic steeped in poison, the darkness between us, and we were liars, for anyone curious). Support your local charity shops!
Also loads of them in free little libraries. I live in a city so the one near me is actually not so little and usually well stocked. Also a good way to pass on your own books
we were liars was so good prepare to be shook
second hand stores and charity shop are also usually well stocked in classics!
And i’ve volunteered at goodwill before i know theres bins of books in every store they just really slack on putting out the books cause they are the cheapest thing ($1 and $2)
Secondhand book stores tend to have a larger variety than chain bookstores as well
People were ready to jump Marie Kondo when she suggested getting rid of books you don't read. Idk I've always been a big fan of the library, and I've only just now started to buy books that I actually really love. It's a form of consumption, just like sneakers.
That's so weird. Of course you should get rid of books you won't read again! I do have a small number of books that I keep for sentimental reasons, but mostly the reason I keep books I won't reread is because I forgot I had them😂.
Marie Kondo speaks some hard truths that a lot of people are not ready for.
That was a meme. She never said that, but it was easy to believe because it sounds like something she would say. Her book has a few good tips, but she was so annoying! 😂 She would secretly throw away her family’s stuff and she says that inherited photos were pointless and you should get rid of those because those aren’t your memories.
She admitted she was annouing and that it was bad for her to do that lol. She was a kid, it as in the bio section of her book. @@AzulTurquesa
@@AzulTurquesaAs for inherited photos she said throw them away of they don't mean anything to you, which like she has a point.
I love whenever people share book recommendations 😍😍😍
The part about interior design and books is so true as someone who worked in interior architecture. It’s also something I’ve noticed in Tv Shows and movies when it comes to set design. Books are now curated aesthetically on shelves to show you who a character “is.” Books were not always presented like that in media. Like in gilmore girls- there is this one episode where we see Rory’s books in her room and what struck me about her books is that they are so uncurated. Obviously she is a big reader and the show was made prior to social media but what is jarring was the books looked used and worn. They are not an aesthetic object; they have a purpose and function for Rory and also for the story. The content is curated -- most of the books on the Rory Gilmore reading list are high brow European and American “classics” -but they feel like real objects and not props. Books in shows and movies today don’t feel like they are actually used by characters- they are just there to fill up space.
I’m a writer and if people are carrying books as fashion props, idgf! Overconsumption of books? Who careeeeesssss! Writers are starving out here! Buy all the books you want! Keep us alive😭
The thing is though the people who are consuming so many books are only buying the popular books
@@usernotfound.......1918 buying popular books can ensure the livelihood of an entire industry, it’s always been like this and in every possible sector
My thoughts regarding people who use big words:
I think there absolutely can be people who use them to try and make themselves look smarter etc. But I do feel like sometimes the big words can better encompass a feeling or describe a situation in more detail.
Also some more literal examples, my spouse has a stutter and sometimes he finds it easier to switch the word he was trying to say to a different word to help avoid stuttering. This often results in him using big words that most of us don't in our normal vocabulary. It's been fun learning new words with him lol
I am not a native speaker so the way I had to learn English was through rigorous study of grammar and memorising vocabulary. My English can get extremely pretentious. One native speaker once told me that my English is very beautifully spoken, but nobody fucking talks like that in real life, and we had a good fat laugh about it because it's true. I still use ten dollar words but I hide behind my accent. 'Not a native speaker!' And suddenly instead of ughs you get ooohs.
@@Killjoy_Melwe should all be trying to talk like you!
@@Killjoy_MelEnglish is not my first language either and I had to learn the same way as you.l did. I read mostly books in English so I can learn new vocabulary and I use “big words” in English and Spanish, but not to be pretentious, that just comes out naturally after having read so much in my formative years.
@@Killjoy_Mel i believe those big words are the ones which has their roots in latin. does your native language descend from latin?
mina will post a video of almost an hour with a crazy amount of sources, and in the end says "idk who am i to judge anyone", and i love her for that hahahahaha
You know, as an aspiring writer I would very much love there to be groups of people who make my stories their entire personality. I want at least one person to consume the narrative so deeply it becomes part of them (as I have with many stories-it is such a feeling!)
I love that people are reading again, I just hope people USE their libraries. You don’t need to buy every book you want to read.
the LOTR font in the beginning text editing snippets... oh how I love a throughout concept queen ♡♡
I have so much to say about this!!! In Brazil, the most popular cultural capital symbol was to have an encyclopedia at home, a full collection that probably no one would ever touch!
I used to teach sociology at high school, and I must say booktok can be a good thing for teenagers that are so immerse on the internet! At the same time, the educational system have been talking about lowering the educational standards because most of brazilian kids can read, but can't correlate with the reading...
That being said, I highly recommend a brazilian classic author called Machado de Assis!
seeing you talk about latin poets and writers made me want to see a video of you explaining the vogues and trends of Rome during the republican era and also the empire and how it might have helped in shaped european culture as a whole when the empire fell at the beginning of the medieval times! That's because I love history, fashion & your videos!
Happy to say library use is also up in 2023! 🎉
Discovering Libby app was one of the best things to happen to me in 2023!
I think it’s a positive outcome from Covid.
I like the point about physical books and e-readers. Reading on my kindle and reading a physical book are two very different experiences and activities. My trash is on my kindle, the fluffy nonsense I inhale. The substance and well thought out purchases are on the shelves. Often I’ll read something on my kindle and then buy the physical book because it meant something to me.
For around 8 years I couldn’t read books, I was too deep in the depression hole to try. I went through the motions and still collected great books. I’m grateful because my books have always been my comfort even if I couldn’t physically read them. In the last year I’ve read 100s of books and I feel SO good about it.
I use the iPad to bring books when I travel because 1 iPad=all my e-books. And less back pain!
I have struggled to read new books during depressive or stressful times, but have some great books that I re-read frequently and feel like I am visiting with old friends.
I went through the same thing! It's the first time I've heard someone else who experienced this. I also mostly stopped listening to music for many years. It sucks how depression can kill your passions and hobbies like that. That's how I knew I eas getting betyer, because I started listening to music again. Books took a bit longer though. I'm so glad to hear you are doing better now and enjoying reading again! 💜
@@rhythmandblues_alibi Music was the first to go for me too! And we’ve found each other on this little corner of the internet to send well wishes!
Hope you’re well, safe and thriving. Keep going ❤️ I didn’t know for many many years that there was another side to depression, I thought I was in for life. Enjoy every moment
@@lololpoppy you really made me smile 🥰 so thanks! Wishing you health and happiness too, my friend 💖
My parents both love reading and taught that love to to my siblings and I. We pretty much all always have a book that we are reading at any given time, we all also each like different genres (chick lit romance, fantasy, history, mystery, astronomy, and cowboy stories🤠). Recently we were talking about the different books we had read and we all said essentially the same thing “the market is over saturated with half assed written stories”. My family has always been physical book people by either buying books or more often going to the library, but due to the current price of books in Canada (around $20), the speed at which we read them and the overall disappointment and dissatisfaction with the new stories coming out we have all been either going to the library or downloading an ebook now. The owned physical books in our homes have gone wayyyyy down.
Mina this was such a good video! A few things:
- I feel like the rise in books can coincide with celebrities writing memoirs like the Britney Spears book
- unrelated, but I feel like there has been a slow shift away from social media to everyday life? I’ve personally deleted social media off of my phone and now have the time and energy to do other things. I feel like a lot of people are getting exhausted by social media and are looking for new ways to entertain themselves, as social media is oversaturated and does not provide new insight (like materialistic obsession with clothes, food, and Stanley cups)
- for me personally, my friends and I started reading this past year because we finished our degrees and now have personal time again, so reading is no longer a chore for school but rather a thoughtful journey
As someone who is trying and failing to read, I love openly judging book choices.
I downloaded Libby on my phone and use it to fall asleep. The number of books I have not finished is mind boggling considering I used to be one of those if-I-start-it-I-have-to-finish-it people, but I've found some interesting stories that I never would have read otherwise. I don't love audiobooks because a lot of times the reader's voice or the over-the-top production of the book is annoying but I like that I can read and play games on my phone at the same time.
Have you tried ebooks or audiobooks? I have ADHD so I listen to audiobooks and I consume on a low end estimate over 100 a year (I'm als oa historian so like reading is 90% of what I do).
@@DrAnarchy69 Audiobooks are expensive
@@crystalcharee57 Thanks!
@@PokhrajRoy. there are MANY free ones here on youtube, you just have to look for them.
oh i been WAITING for this one
my bookshelves are shaking
When I was younger I would read a lot of books. I was influenced by my older cousin. She was a total bookworm and I wasn't. I would read a book just to have something to talk about with her. Maybe she was only 1 year older but I looked up to her so much I would read books that she was reading and I had so much fun I even started to really like it. Now that I'm older I miss my younger self that was obsessed with reading. I really need to go back to reading for my own pleasure and not just for my uni classes.
Regarding ppl who use a large vocabularies:
I use a larger vocabulary because sometimes more obscure words to convey information more accurately. It used to piss off hubby bc he did think I was trying to show off. Fortunately, after many conversations about vocabulary, he gets that I just do it bc i’m a vocab nerd 🤓
I think this a point worth noting: Colleen Hoover was always pretty popular in the reader community before booktok, same with Sarah j Maas books, and many other books that are now labeled “booktok books”. Although I know TikTok definitely has made these books more popular, I just think it’s an important tidbit to include because a lot of people neglect the fact that many of these authors already had a dedicated fanbase and popularity, and it kinda creates this false narratives that booktok alone propelled these books.
Sarah J Maas was huggeeee on booktube back in the early to mid 2010s. Her and Cassandra Clare ruled that space.
@@TalkAsSoftAsChalkYESSSS that’s actually how I started reading SJM and the shadowhunter chronicles years ago! Polandbananasbooks was my booktube queen haha
Colleen Hoover wasn't traditionally published until she blew up on BookTok though, so her books literally weren't in bookstores. That applies to a lot of self-pub authors (mostly romantasy) these days. (Not to SJM, though - she's been huge for like a decade.) There is a massive difference between the reach and fanbase of a self-pub novel you can only get on Amazon, vs a trad published novel that's physically on the shelves at bookstores everywhere.
@@Midhiel Guess I didn't actually see a bunch of copies of Ugly Love in the Staff Picks section of my Barnes and Noble in 2016 then lmao
i feel this so hard. i've been watching booktube since 2015 and it was so funny to see tiktokers act like they discovered sarah j maas and coho. i remember when ugly love came out and everyone was going feral for colleen hoover, and the throne of glass series pretty much was the poster child for the mid-late 2010s ya fantasy craze. like, i've never been a fantasy or romance girlie, but it was pretty impossible for me to not recognize those titles and authors because of just how oversaturated they were on booktube.
During covid, in academia (I'm a phd in medieval studies) it was a proper flex to have your background as your bookcase on a video call
So many people did it, some purely bc they were rich professors who had an office set up like so. But others I noticed moved around their office/call taking place to also give the impression they have books. Reading is a big thing in my profession, but you could tell which phds had family money/family members with phds and who didn't very easily. Academic books are very expensive.
You also get academics who use rare words for pretentiousness. sometimes when i look them up, they dont mean what makes sense in the rest of the sentance or they really could have used more basic words now and again in the sentance too. Or they dont define those words for the reader. Imo pretentious writing is bad writing, bc the purpose of writing is it relay info to the reader. If the standard reader of that kind of material cant make sense of it, its bad writing.
Ohhhh yah. Neurobiology here and yep. My background was carefully assembled of favorite books in subject, tongue in cheek objects (phrenology head, antique microscope), "wonderkammern" items out the wazoo, my best insect pins, annd the aggressively weird nature meets Culty stuff art I love so much!!
But...I must confess. I got the idea to arrange the background like that from CZcamsrs!!
Like, I think the reality of having read a book is different from owning that book, especially the multitudes of expensive ones. In academia especially, there's a difference between having read Dante's Inferno and owning 5 copies or whatever.
Concerning your last point, I think that is why Hemingway is such a classic author. His sentences are so basic yet classic- never convoluted. Vs authors that have aged poorly and are harder to understand
The thing that really gets me is that women were pioneers of the novel as a genre! In the 18th century (in France at least), 30% of all novels published were written by women. This might not seem like a lot, but it is HUGE when you remember that very few women got taught to read & write, and even fewer got an education beyond that. Novels were historically seen a 'feminine' (& therefore lesser) form of writing, and you can see this with how many 18th c male writers who wanted to be taken seriously wrote everything BUT novels. The novel has been seen as a particularly good medium for expressing emotions and interiority (& so suitable for women whereas political essays weren't, for example). It wasn't until the 19th century where more men started to write novels, that the novel took on legitimacy and cultural capital.
It's just saddening that female authors and readers are still being delegitimised & seen as less artistic or worthy, despite how important they are to the history and modern day market of novels.
I love how anime and books are a hot girl thing because its finally my time to shine
I've struggled to get into the more online book club type scene because honestly it feels like a lot of book clubs focus on the most recently published and marketed books and are more vehicles for selling books than an actual indicator of quality. I love that your recommendations are all books that were published some time ago because that means they've stood the test of time outside of whatever their own original marketing push may have been. I love Octavia Butler but have not read Kindred yet, so I'll definitely check that out when I get the chance.
I may be showing my age, but facebook has some great groups based on author or genre, at least for my favourite genres!
I also found a local book club through Facebook, and they're all around my age and read mostly YA/fantasy stuff, not stuffy middle aged women reading romances like I expected - and that's on me for stereotyping!
I’ve been homeless three times in my life, so many of the books I own are on my phone. Now that I finally have a relatively stable home, I started piling up the physical books, and it’s absolutely for status. But as long as cha boi Capitalism is kicking around, anything that is perceived to have value will be co-opted as a status symbol. So really, our options are “books are cheapened into status symbols,” or “nobody values books.” So… #ShrugEmoji
So happy to know my messy disorganized book piles are now chic.
Throughout school I was never a huge reader, especially in elementary school. I was always behind in my reading level. In 2019 when I was a junior in highschool I started reading fanfiction that I feel in love with. I only read romance and I was wanting to read more, but I’ve read every fanfic ever already. So in 2021 I started reading a lot of books. I’ve read 23 that year. That might not seem like a huge number, but to me it definitely was. I fell in love with reading and loved it so much. Sadly I’ve read less and less since then, but I’m trying to read more. Book Tok also helped me with what to read.
For anyone who loves the visual arts and history, Tracey Chevalier is where it’s at. She wrote ‘Girl With The Pearl Earring’, and ‘A Single Thread’. Both are stunning books that are incredibly eye opening to the art of craft and care, staying with me for months afterwards.
oh man, it's been so long since i read girl with a pearl earring! i remember it being such an enjoyable read of class and gender in the space of dutch art.
excellent recommendation yes. I loved The Lady and the Unicorn and The Virgin Blue
Omg Girl with the Pearl was massive when I read it probably 20 years ago! I still think about the story 💜
I started reading again since highschool during the second half of 2023 and Im so glad i did, i feel like i get more out of reading than just watching youtube!! I honestly miss my life before i heavily used social media, I recently deleted Instagram and i feel i made the right choice.
Yeah I relate with that A LOT
I did this in college and it was the greatest decision I've made in the past 10 years. Vividly remember the day I took the bus to the library after class to sign up for a new card. I feel like it has really helped my attention span and made it easier to get school assignments and now work assignments done.
In Poland a ,,poor quality steamy romance novel" is reffered to as a harlekin. I had no idea that this name is comming from a publishing agency's name😅
I love seeing your looks in the ad! So many different and creative styles! I'd love a video where you talk about developing your own style (and how you got the confidence to wear them out, which is something a lot of us struggle with when taking a leap of fashion)
points were MADE! as someone who works in publishing & hopes to publish a novel, the monolithic and superficial elements of booktok have made me verrrry jaded 😓 tiktok has totally transformed modern publishing and it’s refreshing to hear a thoughtful critic such as yourself speak on it!!
anyways based on your taste i think you might like motherthing by ainsley hogarth. it’s a disturbing, gothic, but super funny novel about a woman whose mother in law comes back to literally haunt her
Not the Jane the Virgin clip at the beginning. 😭 That's a heartbreaking scene.
i love your video essays!! i felt this one personally after losing faith in booktok due to a colleen hoover book. i wish you’d make a video (or even blog post) of your research process as someone who wants to get into video essays as well. finding sources for niche topics is my biggest struggle
I love a tree grows in brooklyn and kindred!!! You are the first booktuber who I've heard talk about both of those which makes me so happy.
Its kind of nice to find people who read certain books to like "be cool"? In college, when you've read the classics, you're cool and smart for most people. Though it somewhat feels off that some just read in order to fit in, its still a comforting thought that people made reading a trend again.
I'm with you. I am a book nerd. Someone told me they thought that for a woman, I have more books than clothes, shoes or bags. I love to read. I carry books with me all the time. I wish I had more time to read. Books are a door to a world I sometime will never see, will never experience. Oh, did I say I love books? But I will admit that I totally agree with the comment you 25 min in the video. Meaning that book publisher will pick a book based on the following the author has. I will say that I've been disappointed by some recommendations coming from this form of marketing. I read Sally Rooney' s novel, Taylor Jenkins Reid, and I've not been overwhelmed by the text the same way everyone seems to have been. Not that it was bad, but it wasn't great either. Like I said, I love to read. But, I want to read stories that will transport me in an unknown world, life, experience, no matter the experience. I am so immersed in it, I don't want to drop it!!
I am the biggest fan of John Steinbecks works and the Grapes of Wrath has to be one of my all time favorite stories. It's about family and perseverance as they go to California during the depression in search of better lives but are met with a much more sad reality. It also speaks volumes to the socio economic state that we live in today. I could talk about it til I'm blue in the face tbh.
That book was beautiful, I was blown away by how much it impacted me
I really liked the editing of this video, especially with the structuring of sections as chapters and the conclusion as the epilogue :D
I started reading because I was sad and lonely in high school. There was a book on my small shelf that I had tried to read multiple times and always DNFed, so on Christmas break I forced myself to finish it. I spent the next year reading book after book as a form of escapism. I love books now and am a writer, but I no longer need escapism, so I find it harder to binge a 500 page book in a couple days. I’m ecstatic that reading is gaining popularity again! I’m even fine with people reading “bad” books aka wattpad fiction. My only qualm is that teenagers (and even younger) are picking up books definitely not appropriate for them to read simply because it’s popular on tiktok.
I didn’t get a phone till I was 16 in 2021 so I spent all my time at the library and reading for entertainment and I actually love that ppl r reading more now
This is a really insightful video! When I read a book, I usually read it digitally first as its more convenient and then if I like it enough, I'll purchase the paperback
always love book recs, no matter where they come from. thank you mina for diving into books/booktok!
I don't care if people hoard books, id prefer people only buy books they want to read,but i also feel its important to have home libraries since public libraries are so influenced by public opinion. People shouldn't feel like they need full bookshelves to look good, but people shouldn't also feel bad if they do have a lot of books, and try to get them second hand so they're not influencing demand in printing new books.
I loved to read when i was younger, the thicker the book with no pictures the better, i need to make time to read now.
I can’t believe that my hoarding tendencies are now an interior design trend (“bookshelf wealth”). Fantastic video as always.
Of Human Bondage is one of absolute favorite books, and I'm happy every time it gets a shout-out!
I honestly really like reading books and also watching booktubers book recommendations and videos on CZcams, but you make great points about the system of it all.