But also, in a way, it is revitalizing a lot of people’s lost love for reading, and in that way I am very grateful for booktok

40

No it hasn’t. We have this conversation 3x a year. It is no different from any other reading trend space (tumblr, bookstagram, Wattpad, AO3–they are all prone to junk food reads and they have all been pointed at as the death of literature). It has done far more for the reading and publishing community than haters will ever realize. The way it revived physical media, helped small authors get careers, and generally reignited enthusiasm for books are GOOD THINGS, even if you hate popular material.

38

Definitely did its damage to the publishing industry, that’s for sure

32

Not really plenty of good books are coming out and it got a lot of people into reading and plenty of those people are also reading non booktok books too

19

definitely depends on the place! i’ve found so many creators that have the same interests as i do and always receive amazing recommendations. but the mainstream one overshadows it significantly. not good representation for POC, queer people, and so on. definitely making it harder to have ur work amplified if its any of this. but hopefully me and others will go into publishing and change that!

9

this is controversial but booktok and specifically colleen hoover books got me to like reading. I know people say she romanticizes abuse but as someone who has been r*ped it genuinely helps me idk i like reading about other people going through dark events because it makes me feel less alone

9