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Jenna Kiely

Sarah Haak

ENGL 2089 Intermediate Composition

24 March 2022

Book Bytes: Is Booktok the Future of Reading?

At this moment in history, the rise of technology is running headfirst into the world of

printed media. While not always a crossroads as things such as physical newspapers are slowly

dying out, self-publishing online being easier than ever, the decline of public libraries, etc., there

are online spaces that have opened up to the “old” way of things. One of those is Booktok, a

subsection of the widely used and popular application TikTok, a video platform. TikTok itself is

a wide, diverse place known for having an extremely large demographic. No matter the interest

or niche, there is a TikTok video, creator, hashtag, or trend out there for you. Films, cars, tech,

medicine, sports, and, arguably, the most important: books. Coined Booktok by user @caitbooks

on March 19th, 2020, the term plays upon names such as Bookstagram (Instagram), Bookblr

(Tumblr), and the most popular BookTube (YouTube), all sections of popular media sites solely

dedicated to the sharing, ranting, raving, recommending, reviewing, and general chatting about

books and bookish things. Though similar to these other platforms in many ways, TikTok is

uniquely known for its accurate for-you page, the algorithm-created dashboard that can be

endlessly scrolled. This means that although many people might not identify themselves as

readers, based on whatever content they interact with, they are just as likely as someone actively

seeking out bookish content to receive videos about books. While not necessarily “interactive”,

this feature can be changed every time someone likes, shares, or presses “Not Interested” on a

video which means it is specifically curated for each user. Thus, it is necessary to mention that
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this research is somewhat biased in the sense that my for-you page and the videos and creators I

come into contact with are not those of the community as a whole. Though there was active

thought into the creators I focused on with the intent that they each represented something

different within the community, the subtle bias is unavoidable within a community that is so

saturated with content. There is very limited research done on Booktok as a discourse

community, so this research is establishing a foundation for Booktok as a discourse community

while also critiquing and paying special note to how expanding one’s reading tastes can be aided

by diversifying the media one consumes through the medium of Booktok.

John Swales, a linguist best known for his work on genre analysis, has outlined six

necessary criteria of what makes a discourse community. First off is that a community needs to

have “a broadly agreed set of common public goals” (Swales) which can be seen in the Booktok

community through the goals of sharing book-related content, book recommendations, and

thoughts and opinions on books. An overarching theme of sharing one’s love of reading through

these videos can also be found. Given that visual media is the number one communicator within

the community, audio often accompanies it which weirdly parallels readers of days past sharing

things in person by word of mouth. While not the same, the general format of TikTok videos is

vaguely reminiscent of face-to-face conversation, so long as one is alright with a one-sided

discussion.

A discourse community also needs “mechanisms of intercommunication among

members” (Swales) which Booktok has in spades. Social media is made for communication

among members, and TikTok is no exception. Booktok creators and members alike have access

to the comment section (which one can turn off, limit the number of contents, filter words, and

delete comments), private messages (which can be made to only be available between people
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that follow each other but there are other settings, too), the option to share videos externally

(posting a link to a video, sending videos through texts, posting one on another social media site

like Instagram, or sending a video over TikTok’s own messaging system), duetting and stitching

capabilities which either means creating a video side-by-side with the original or cutting into a

video a certain amount of time through to create your own, respectably, the live stream option

(which is available to users with over a certain age and with a certain number of followers in

which there is a separate comment section to speak to the user on live), amongst others. Users

also have the option to post links in their bios, the section on their profile where they can choose

to describe their content. This feature is often used by “Booktokers” (Booktok content creators)

that have GoodReads, a popular book rating and reviewing website. This also means that their

means of communication transcends farther than even the wide scope of TikTok. Swales states

that these mechanisms of intercommunication must be used to “provide information and

feedback” which is most often done by the comment section. Given that it is the most direct form

of communication among members that is on the platform itself, the comment section is

oftentimes a free area where members can communicate with each other and the author of the

video. If someone has an opinion on a book mentioned in a video or of the creator’s video itself,

they oftentimes have free reign within the comment section.

Swales also says that a discourse community needs to use “one or more genres to

communicate”. The main genre is, obviously, the books themselves which, despite genre or form

differences, relate to one another through the creation of texts such as essays, reviews,

community discourse, and “fan edits” (videos or other visual media that are created in reference

to a book) amongst others. These genres are most often created individually but the existence of

group accounts within the community, most of which are made to advertise book-related
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podcasts or online book clubs, lead to some genres being a collaborative effort. One of the most

common activities for collaborative works involves “buddy reads” which means reading the

same book at the same time as someone else, sort of like a miniature book club. This often leads

to content creators creating videos on the same books for their probably similar, but still separate

audiences.

Simultaneously one of the necessary points of a discourse community and a large facet of

Booktok itself is the creation and use of lexis, or terminology. The name of the community itself,

Booktok, is a part of the lexis given that it is a member-titled subsection that was created through

the hashtag #BookTok. While much of the lexis used on Booktok wasn’t created on Booktok,

they are regularly referenced from book subsections on other social media sites or from readers

in general. Words such as “tropes” which describe commonly used plot devices that are so often

used in books that they are seen as conventional at this point, “TBR” which is shorthand for to-

be-read, being a “mood reader” which describes someone that does not use a “TBR”/picks up

books as they feel instead of planning ahead of time, “recs” is shorthand for recommendations

(“rec videos” are a popular genre within the Booktok community), and “new releases” are books

being released within a given time frame (month, year, etc.) are all words frequently used within

the Booktok community.

As for the last requirement of a discourse community, Booktok doesn’t have a very set

threshold of what “level of member knowledge and communication proficiency” is needed to

become an active member. As stated in the introduction, users on TikTok get their videos

through an algorithm-based dashboard which means people that have little interest in reading or

books can be introduced to the community. This obviously does not make them a “member”, but

the openness of this process allows many people who don’t need to engage with the books
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themselves to become active members of the discourse community because they can still engage

with the content being created by commenting or following users that identify as Booktokers.

You don’t need to read a certain amount of books, understand a specific amount of discourse

between users, or even know any of the lexeis to be considered a member. When questioned

about what makes someone a member of Booktok, the self-proclaimed “birth giver of TikTok”

@caitsbooks simply stated that one needs only to have a “love of reading”. One also doesn’t

need to post their own videos or even publicly interact with content so long as they are still

getting the videos on their for-you page.

My research on the Booktok community began by choosing four Booktokers who were

active posters and whose content was either solely or a majority made up of book content. I did

this in hopes of staying up to date on their content: what they were recommending, how their

followers were interacting, and what impact their identity had on their content as well as what

impact their content had on myself and the content that I consumed. I chose creators of varying

identities (races, sexualities, or gender identities) as a means to analyze through their differences

where their content overlaps, where it differs, and what effects, whether negative, positive or

something else, this has on the community as a whole. Two of the four users had never come up

on my for-you page, I chose them in hopes that it would diversify me with a part of the

community I myself was not a part of, but the other two were users that I already followed before

the start of the research. To collect personal information (race, gender, and sexuality) and a few

of their thoughts on Booktok, I sent a questionnaire to the creators. One minor setback was that I

made all of the questions non-mandatory so as to make them 1) more likely to participate but

also 2) more comfortable given that answering these questions from a stranger is not often a

pleasant experience.
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User @jaydenkouli on TikTok is a white, Australian cis-male whose content ranges

between book genres but is mostly him raving about the current books he’s reading that he is

enjoying - many of which vary in genre but are all related in that they are popular “Booktok

books”. He stands apart from the rest of the creators I chose as the only male-identifying user but

also because he takes recommendations directly from his audience and openly asks them for

them, too. He did not answer the questionnaire, but all of this information is freely given or

understood from his account alone. User @kimmybookss is a heterosexual, black cis-female

whose main focus is romance novels. She is often given “arcs”, or advanced copies, and can be

seen advertising them on her page. She also seems to be on top of trends and her

recommendations commonly start the “hype”, or popularity, around books. Her account is

unique in that she reads a lot of black-author and/or black-main character novels which are

considered a rarity in the romance genre - at least those which are considered “popular” novels.

She also did not answer the questionnaire. User @literaryfling is a bisexual, Asian cis-woman

whose genre of choice is literary fiction because she “love introspective reads that engage with

nuanced themes with thoughtful and intentional use of language” (Stacey). Though her content is

not solely book-related, she speaks a lot about working in publishing/in printed media companies

- of which she has worked in the past. Her voice is distinctive on Booktok because of how

eloquently spoken and in-depth her reviews and thoughts on books are. Lastly, I chose user

@caitsbooks. They are white, queer, and non-binary/genderqueer whose favorite genre is fantasy

because they love “escaping to other worlds and experiencing through books what [they] cant

experience in real life” (Cait). As mentioned in my description of BookTok, Cait is known for

coining the term “Booktok'' and “giving birth” to the community as we know it. Though all four

creators identify differently, their common connection to Booktok means that, for some, all four
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of these individuals could appear on their for-you page. What I found interesting in my selection

process was that among the four I was aware of Kimmy from @kimmybooks and Stacey from

@literaryfling. I have a proclivity towards literary fiction and romance books and tend to steer

clear of fantasy and most “Booktok books”, books that are popular across the platform instead of

just to a certain user's audience. This is because I often find them overhyped or lacking in some

aspects. As is it, it makes perfect sense as to why I was never introduced to Jayden’s

(@jaydenkouli) content because over the research period his chosen books consisted of three

extremely popular novels (the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Mass, Verity by Colleen

Hoover, and Den of Vipers by K. A K.A Knight) and one outlier: Death by the Nile by Agatha

Christie. I personally have very little interest in the first two authors and have actively chosen the

option “Not Interested” on videos about Den of Vipers because of how disinterested I truly was.

As for Cait’s (@caitsbooks) videos, fantasy and sci-fi are two of the genres I very rarely read

from. Ironically, one of her favorite novels is Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo which is also one

of mine, but other than that, our interests do not seem to align.

This finding - how my own for-you page has whittled my Booktok content down to

books and users with interests very similar to mine begs the main questions of my research: does

TikTok only feed you books that you could've and probably would've come across on your own?

Is that necessarily a bad thing? Should the average reader, many of which read as a form of

escapism from their own reality, attempt to change their tastes so as to gain new perspectives?

The issue with attempting to answer these is that it cannot be done concisely nor can it be done

for everyone that reads, or even every one that reads that is on Booktok. There is no one solution.

Both of the users that answered my questionnaire, Stacey (@literaryfling) and Cait

(@caitsbooks), expressed disappointment after reading books with a lot of hype. Cait also stated
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that they had forced themselves to finish a novel even though they weren’t enjoying it, which is a

common theme for more popular books on Booktok. Many express their distaste and hatred for a

book but only after they’ve finished it, almost like they read it solely to engage in the discussion

even though it had no other benefits for them (this could also be counted as a “rant review”,

which is a part of the Booktok lexis). Demonstrated by my informal interview (the

questionnaire), I’ve found it unlikely that a widespread push for opening up one’s own reading

taste would gain any traction. Though this finding is based on little data, many Booktok users

independently describe themselves as having been readers when they were younger and so their

reading tastes now are the cultivation of their younger selves and their current place in life.

Reading is also a form of escapism, as mentioned previously, and for many, that means escaping

the confines of what they “should be reading”, whatever that means to each individual.

This wasn’t a formal part of my research but I personally used the recommendations from these

four Booktokers at their word and read one book that I either had no interest in reading

beforehand or was not aware of before beginning my research. I did this in hopes of diversifying

my own reading tastes and perhaps opening up doors as a member of the Booktok community for

myself by trying out new things. This in itself demonstrates the impact that a fifteen-second clip

can have over readers as a whole as many comments like “adding this to my TBR right now” or

“I can’t handle another recommendation when I already have five books to read”, or something

of that sort, are popular in all four of the chosen creators’ comment sections. The people that feel

this way are often connecting with users who read similarly to them, but in actively choosing two

novels that I had no interest in I broke through what is typical. Verity by Colleen Hoover

(@jaydenkouli), Only When It’s Us by Chloe Liese (@kimmybookss), My Brilliant Friend by

Elena Ferrante (@literaryfling), and We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal (@caitsbooks).
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Though I originally thought that my final rating and reviewing of these novels may be of

concern to my research, I have found that they don’t truly matter. I didn’t enjoy Verity, as I

suspected I wouldn’t, but I did like We Hunt the Flame which is atypical to my own reading

tastes. I loved My Brilliant Friend, which came as a shock to no one as I already had the novel

sitting on my bookshelf at home. I also liked Only When It’s Us which is also unsurprising given

that this is not the first recommendation I’ve taken from @kimmysbooks. The point is that it

doesn’t make a difference whether or not I actually liked the novels, what is important to note is

that through the means of choosing something I typically wouldn’t have, I opened up myself to a

broader range of books than what I began with. Though my research cannot answer whether or

not every reader should pay more attention to and perhaps even broaden their own media intake

in the Booktok community, it did prove that it could be beneficial to the usual member, or at

least myself. In my own opinion, sharing language and literature is a form of intimacy, and being

able to do it so freely through the use of TikTok is a luxury. Novels, poems, biographies,

textbooks, etc. are all texts integral to both public opinion and personal life. Books have the

power of change and the Booktok community can make any novel into an instant classic, so it’s

important to note what effects it has on one’s own reading taste and proclivities.
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Works Cited

Cait. “CaitsBooks (@caitsbooks) TikTok | Watch CaitsBooks's Newest TikTok Videos.”

TikTok, 2019, https://www.tiktok.com/@caitsbooks?lang=en. Accessed 30 March 2022.

Jayden. “jaydenkouli (@jaydenkouli) TikTok | Watch jaydenkouli’s Newest TikTok

Videos.” TikTok, 2021, https://www.tiktok.com/@jaydenkouli?lang=en. Accessed 30

March 2022.

Kimmy. “kim (bree matthews version) (@kimmybookss) TikTok | Watch kim (bree

matthews version)'s Newest TikTok Videos.” TikTok, 2020,

https://www.tiktok.com/@kimmybookss?lang=en. Accessed 30 March 2022.

Stacey. “stacey (@literaryfling) TikTok | Watch stacey's Newest TikTok Videos.”

TikTok, 2020, https://www.tiktok.com/@literaryfling. Accessed 30 March 2022.

Swales, John. "The Concept of Discourse Community." Genre Analysis: English in

Academic and Research Settings. Boston: Cambridge UP, 1990. 21-32. Print.