The internet has romanticised the idea of buying and reading books as a personality trait. Now #bookstagram is blurring the lines between reading a book and taking an aesthetically pleasing photo of it.
When I was travelling on a train a few months back, I noticed a very familiar pink book cover in the hands of the girl sitting opposite me. I haven’t read the book and I couldn’t tell you what exactly happens in the plot or any interesting anecdote about the author. But I did know that the name of the book’s central protagonist was Lily! The only reason I knew it is because I’ve scrolled past Instagram posts discussing this very book on bookstagram.
An Instagram hashtag used by a growing community of readers who share their love for books through pictures, #bookstagram has swiftly turned into an aesthetic. It can range from a simple shot of a photogenic book cover to a picture of a reader’s favourite reading spot at home or at their neighbourhood cafe.
All you need is a smartphone to join in on the fun!
In many ways, the rise of #bookstagram and BookTok on TikTok have also enabled fandoms to thrive, giving bibliophiles free reign to find a community of like-minded readers who are obsessed with the same genres as them.
The result is a corner of the internet where anyone can freely share recommendations, point out plot holes and discuss fan theories and fan fiction without any fear of being censored.
It is as if the internet has made people rethink the activity of reading itself!
On the internet today, more and more people want to be readers. They want to be the ones posting about instagrammable book covers and latest releases that have the potential to become overnight viral trends. Essentially, bookstagram is turning the act of reading into an experience that can be sold and resold in pleasing ways. Sometimes, a book is tastefully nestled between blankets; at other times, it's next to a tray of waffles and a glass of wine.
As can be seen from the millions of search results of #bookstagram, it's not just the book that is on display; it’s also the lifestyle of the person reading it itself that calls for our attention.
The popularity of any online reading community is largely a good thing for reading habits. Seeing people read online can encourage anyone to pick up a book themselves, especially if they see rave reviews for the book or if their favourite creators are recommending that exact read.
There’s also enough diversity in #bookstagrammers' posts that actively promote books from authors of colour and books catering to a LGBTQIA+ audience apart from the usual roster of bestsellers.
In feeling like you’re reading with a community of people who are tracking your progress, there’s also some sense of accountability for slow readers who have a tendency to easily give up midway.
Still, the picture isn’t all rosy. In an Outlook piece titled “Bookstagram Is Where Reading Goes To Die,” writer Nuzhat Khan argues about how this social media phenomenon has reduced reading to “daily statistics, expediting into uncritical mass consumption where more books are hoarded than read.”
Reading, she argues, has become incidental to the process of aestheticising it.
“It has largely come to centre around: how many books do you own, how many books you bought at the bookstore, how many books did you read this month or last year?”
The dangers of the trend are easy to spot. Bookstagram, for instance, comes with a constant pressure to read all the time, which can feel less like an encouragement and more like a chore that takes away the pleasure of reading itself.
There is no way to tell whether it has indeed altered the reading habits of a generation or has instead given them an excuse to spend mindlessly on books. For bookstagram, the idea of displaying a book for the world to see, like, and comment on can at times reduce books to nothing more than an accessory.
And even though the platform it offers is wide-reaching in terms of the engagement it can provide authors, publishing companies, and even voracious readers, the question still remains: could bookstagram signal the end of reading as we know it?
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