Here’s the typical life cycle of a reader: you learn to read in school, realize that books are a thing, become an avid reader from the ages of about 8-12, and then you get your first electronic device and realize that books are for weenies. Then, after high school or university, or when you’re 40, or perhaps, never, you find a good book and decide that maybe reading isn’t as bad as you thought. That’s not to say that this is the approach that everyone takes to reading, but when talking to many people around my age this is typically the pattern that I recognize. There’s a large period in the teenage years when everyone thinks reading is for losers. Is that changing all of a sudden?
Recently, with the rise of aesthetics and the idea of romanticizing your life, I’ve noticed that books have started to become a fashion accessory. On Pinterest and aesthetic Instagram pages, pretty people in fabulous outfits can be seen posing with books on the street or reading in quaintly decorated rooms. This carefully constructed persona of books seems to have led to a fetishization of books. Is anyone even reading the books? Are these bundles of bound paper just for the aesthetic? The New York Post even described Gigi and Bella Hadid’s books they were carrying around on the street as “hot new accessories.” This description implies that the Hadid sisters don’t read their books and only carry them around to add to their outfits. On top of that, books are not a “new” accessory. A couple of celebrities seen fashionably clutching novels should not significantly impact our perception of reading.
Is anyone even reading the books?
On the other hand, the fact that books are becoming “cool” again may be positive in a few different aspects. First of all, maybe people are reading more books because they think it makes them look cool. Surely someone will call you a fraud if you’re constantly carrying around a book but can never be caught reading it. Maybe since we’re seeing people we look up to read, like the Hadids, we will start to read as well. That would do wonders for our social media-rotted brains.
Additionally, the books presented online tend to be classics or look like they’ve been sitting on a shelf for the past 50 years for that cool, vintage look. Not only does this add to the image, but buying used books is a win all around. There’s less paper printed for new literature; you’re supporting local businesses and reusing. So it doesn’t matter if you’re buying your used book because its pages have gone a little yellow, and it will look excellent on your Instagram, or if you’re stoked about reading every classic the cool girls in the movies rave about- either way, the book is being bought.
Another contributing factor to the popularity of becoming a bookworm may stem from a new Tik Tok trend: BookTok. BookTok is a subsection of Tik Tok that features creators who talk about books, review books, and share recommendations. The popularity of BookTok has soared in recent months, and people who never read in the past are starting to go to bookstores to find the books that are most popular on BookTok. Indigo even has a section in their store called “Now Trending on #BookTok.”
With BookTok blowing books up in popularity, specific titles are flying off the shelves faster than you can say “Harry Potter.” Enter my library advocacy. Instead of buying these books as soon as you hear about them and possibly never reading them, think about checking one out from your local library! Most of us only think of libraries as the only place to study these days, but libraries are an incredible and accessible resource for anyone and everyone to use. You can get all the same books you can get at a book store but for free! And less paper is wasted than if you were to buy the same book and throw it away in 30 years when you forget what it was even about. So no matter if you want the book because it matches your outfit or you saw people raving about it on BookTok, you can always get it for free at the library.
With all of that being said, the fetishization of reading is probably overall a positive. If books are a trend, I say we let it happen, and there are only benefits to be had. So if you want a used book to look like Gigi Hadid, or if you HAVE to know what the most popular book on BookTok is all about, let’s make books cool again! We’d all get a little smarter if we spent more time reading and less time scrolling.