Thoughts of a Bookworm #6: Booktok is killing literature

Booktok. One of the most exciting community spaces for a reader in the past five years. A place where there is a big online community giving insight into old and new releases. Reviewers who are receptive to their audience and you don't have to be 'somebody'. This is no branded bookclub. It is a place for all people with different tastes come together to share what they truly love. Books.

I have to be honest, I have also been a fly on the wall. Using their recommendations many a time for myself or as research to help someone else in their favourite genre. It can be a great tool. But there are times where I have thought that I was giving into the book version of 'fast fashion'.

But what do I mean by 'fast fashion' exactly? Well, have you been watching recently? Especially in the romantasy space where plots have been subverted to a simple trope. One huge example that I tend to see is 'how much spice is there?' I get it. You want certain things to make your money worthwhile. But isn't that just stifling? Don't get me wrong, I not a gatekeeper and I don't really care about what genre you read because I've probably read it myself at some point. But it does kind of feel like we are sometimes not looking at the full picture. Taking away authors hard work to reduce it to a single trope.

In other spaces of Booktok we see the special edition, the readers who are up waiting at the door to the bookstore/ supermarket on release day trying to fight their way through to get a copy of a spredge edition or a bonus chapter. As much as I am for aesthetics and that chapter of five pages my question is are you ever going to read it once? Let alone twice? What happened to that beautiful place called the library?

You must think now that I hate Booktok, but really I don't. It has helped saved many bookstores from closing. It has given new life to people who never even thought about picking up a tome before. I think it has been great in that respect. It is also nice to talk to people again about books in a way that I never could have before.

I just think we should see the pros and cons to what Booktok truly has to offer. We just have to be more careful of the consumerist society we already have and what that could do to our environment.

Comments

Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau

Mary Jane, is a novel that I have been keeping an eye on for quite a while now. It has always been a part of my reading list and only until now have I had possession of a copy. I just wish it didn’t take me so long to read it. Because without a doubt, I think it is probably the best book I’ve read this year. Set in the 1970’s it follows a fourteen-year-old girl who becomes a summer Nanny to the Cone Family. Even though the Cone Family seem to be a respectable bunch on the outside, they are quite the opposite with their messy family dynamics. However messy they are, Mary Jane becomes an important and well-loved member of their family. Drastically different from the home that she was bought up as a single child with parents who care about appearances in their community. Over the summer, Mary Jane’s world begins to open up as she begins to realise what her future would entail and what she wants from it. There isn’t much that I can fault in this book. The characters are not perfect, c...

Love is for Losers by Wibke Brueggemann

SYNOPSIS As far as Phoebe is concerned, love is to be avoided at all costs. Why would you spend your life worrying about something that turns you into a complete moron? If her best friend Polly is anything to go by, the first sniff of a relationship makes you forget about your friends (like, hello?), get completely obsessed with sex (yawn) and bang on constantly about a person who definitely isn't as great as you think they are. So Phoebe isn't going to fall in love, ever. But then she meets Emma...

SEPTEMBER TBR!

Another month ended and school is slowly creeping back on us. Well, so much for the holidays! I have to admit that when it comes to this time in the year i get so depressed. Not only the fact of school dawning once again, but the fact there will be no more lie ins! Tough luck! But it is also because i won't have as much time to talk to you guys (mental cry). Meaning being able to keep up to daily reading... Wah wah! So what have I just received in my box of goodies for this month?... Well, it has to be the entire series of Dan Brown 's Robert Langdon, as well as other novels written by him. Including Deception Point and Digital Fortress. Yay! Pages and pages of new books to read!! I must admit that I may have already started Deception Point before letting you guys know what is happening. Total betrayal I know... Yeah, so in effect it is only 5 out of the six books received are actually TBR. But never mind. Seriously, who could pass on an incredible bestseller-...

Night Owls and Summer Skies by Rebecca Sullivan

Emma Lane is a newly-minted adult who for the past several years has been living under the custody of her father. It is now summer and she is being driven to her mother's to spend time with her before she goes off into the big bad world. But not all is what she hoped it would. When arriving at her mother's she is told that instead of staying at her mother's home, her mum is going on a cruise... but without her. Instead, she is thrown into the world which she escaped from as a kid, Camp Mapplewood. Camp Mapplewood and her have history that goes way back, but one of the main points which Emma makes early on is the mental health issues which she has inherited from it. The only connection that she does seem to have left since her last encounter is her friend, turned pen pal, Jessie. Emma seems like one of those people who doesn't think before she speaks or doesn't like it when she doesn't get her own way. This is expressed when she realises that she has to spend the...

A Dragon's Guide to Slaying Virgins Tour

Review: Within the first few chapters of this book, I found that the main character, also known as Morgan is very strong and stands on her own two feet. The first chapter displays this very well when you can almost witness a side of sarcasm and fire. It can be seen as something ultimately different when looking at certain formulas that an author may use for their main. A refreshing change to the usual "wishy-washy" type of protagonists that we usually encounter within some popular books. Not going to mention any at this moment in time! Other characters such as Heather are very likeable too, in their own individual ways. I found that as the story progressed I began to enjoy her character more. The great part about this though was that even though it is in a middle of the Otherworld Realms series, you can easily be able to pick this book up and read it, without having to go back to the other books prior. Not only do I find this a good quality that this author...