booktok: the failing of the modern reader

I, like literally every other reader, have spent more than a fair amount of time scrolling endlessly on booktok, readers’ new favorite social media. At first, I loved it. An online community just for readers? This is amazing. But the more time I spent there, the more negative things I started noticing.

Everyone wants to be an intellectual, but it seems as though no one wants to read like one. With trending aesthetics like the literary it girl and being a thought daughter, it seems like everyone and their mother wants to be an intellectual. Someone who reads Joyce and quotes Plath, inserting references and ententres into every sentence. A coffee drinker, big thinker, “let’s talk about the beat generation: Jack Kerouac or Allen Ginsberg?” type of person. Because haven’t you heard? Reading is cool again.

Model Kaia Gerber, founder of Library Science. Kinda want the shirt, I’m not going to lie.

Yet in direct contrast to this sought-after status, the books themselves are less of The Year of Magical Thinking, or Anna Karenina, and more of… well, Icebreaker. I’m happy people are reading, I’m happy that they’re enjoying it, but I have to wonder: what are people really getting out of these sorts of books? If not an expanded vocabulary, better critical thinking skills, new knowledge, and a challenged mind, then what?

While I do agree that reading should be first and foremost for the pure love of it, and there is most definitely merit to every single book, the current state of bestseller lists is a little bothersome. Why do books packed full of sex scenes have covers with cartoons, closely resembling children's books? Why are teenagers - literal children - obsessing over harmful narratives such as those shown in Haunting Adeline and other dark “romance” books? Why are 20-30-year-old women talking sexually about 17-year-old fictional characters? This should not be considered normal.

One time, I got asked this question while I was reading Wuthering Heights.

The very essence of reading, the pursuit of enlightenment, expansion, education, and connection, seems to have been forgotten in favor of uncomplicated reads. And here’s what really gets me: no matter what the genre or age range is, all books have the power to be so impactful and inspiring. Some of the most profound books I’ve ever read were YA or romance. To discredit these genres is to do both yourself and the entire literary community a disservice.

But the fact is, it seems like fewer and fewer authors (and readers) are striving for this. Instead of harboring a desire to learn, it seems like there’s nothing more than just, well, desire.

It would be folly to cast all the blame on the platform of booktok and the authors trending on it; they’re just fulfilling what more and more people are asking for. As a society, we’re shying away, even actively avoiding, depth and difficulty, casting that away in favor of shallow satiation. Because that’s what it is: shallow. The lack of complexities, intricacies, and mysteries - all of which epitomize the reality of living - are gone from most books, and entirely forgotten by even more.

In a world of cancel culture, few dare to be controversial. In a world of sex, few truly show the intimacy of emotion. In a world of reading goals and the aesthetic of being a reader, few take the time to create and enjoy a true masterpiece. In a world of instant dopamine, and dare I say laziness and fear, few dare to be challenging. Even fewer dare to be challenged.

Imagine authors like Oscar Wilde and Fyodor Dostoevsky attempting to get published, let alone famous, nowadays. While the quality and intensity of their work is indisputable, enviable, very few would choose to read their books, opting for Hoover instead. Society, as fame and fortune-oriented as we are, would have considered them failures. But anyone who has ever picked up Crime and Punishment or The Picture of Dorian Gray can tell you how incorrect that is. So I ask you this: could it be that instead, maybe we, as a society of modern-day readers, have actually failed them?

I would even go as far as to say that the prevalence of appearance, sex, and lust in books is just that: lust, not actual love. It teaches readers to value appearance more than empathy, obsession over intellect, and the body more than the mind, let alone the heart. It disguises intimacy as nothing more than physicality. It’s hard to find romance that actually shows love.

Now, this is not to discredit specific genres or levels. Every single book can, and I think inherently does, have so much value. Reading, like everything else in life, is all about balance. I definitely think you should read a variety of genres and challenges, and it can be so nice to just pick up an easy and enjoyable book! Personally, I’ve read some books that were very easy and fun, that were absolutely incredible. I definitely think we should still read these books, and I think that they are so important and informative, as they can teach us about lessons and experiences. Even if a book is technically less advanced, it can still be deeply impactful and well-written. Just think of your favorite YA book or author. Their works undoubtedly touch on larger overarching themes.

My issue is that, unfortunately, I feel like currently a lot of “easier” reads being written and read don’t really have this as much, and I think that reflects a larger societal shift. It seems as though if you want to read books with new and challenging ideas, opinions, and experiences, you have to gravitate towards books that are written to be harder. This isn’t to say that these genres cannot possibly include it; it’s just that people seem to have forgotten that these concepts belong in all literature, no matter the level.

The true problem isn’t that people aren’t reading hard enough books, though this is certainly an aspect of it. The problem is that some of the components and ideas (that are incredibly beneficial) that should be so intrinsically involved in reading, in writing, in every single book at every single level and every single genre, are appearing less and less.

It feels like, in an oxymoron worthy of George Orwell’s 1984, people are reading more yet learning less. Alas, this is a reference that an alarmingly few number of people will understand (and if you did, you’re not the problem).

I hope that you, as an individual, as a reader, as a thinker, and we as a society, a community, will be able to change that.