#but like look at popular booktok books lmao

[insertawkwardpeacesignshere]

Dr Brennan writing smut in her murder mysteries makes it much more believable that it’s a bestseller

[transmutationisms]

freeform question any thoughts on booktok ?

well i don't use tiktok at all and i think the only book i read that was popular on there was a little life (lmao) so i guess my thoughts are more about how people talk about booktok than about the platform itself. it's very silly tho—like, the publishing industry has long made most of its money on books that are decried as frivolous, lowbrow, immoral, &c (see the popularity of romance novels but also 'genre fiction' in general) so it's just hard to take people at all seriously when they talk about tiktok like it's ruining books or purveying some kind of degenerate art form lmao. and like, the publishing industry—like all forms of art production under capitalism—stymies creativity in many ways, overworks and underpays authors, produces books that tend toward uniformity and subject matter that's only edgy enough to remain marketable—so i'm not saying that books popular on tiktok are good, necessarily. it's just that such issues are so clearly the result of, again, capitalist production that treats art as a commodity because that's the only value-form it can deal in. and tbc i don't even agree that engaging with bad or uncreative or cash-grabbing art is some kind of moral failure or social threat lol, but even if i did, again the issue here is not tiktok in itself or some kind of abstract culture issue. it's conditions of production both in the publishing industry and in the sense that tiktok tries to make money from user engagement and so is designed in various ways to maximise that. anyway though, i do think many people who complain about booktok are pretty clearly just looking for 'takes' they can dunk on to demonstrate their own perceived intellectual superiority (read: ability to engage with texts in a way prescribed by academic standards & specifically new criticism) so that's pretty boring and swaglessly disingenuous of them.

[andypantsx3]

which book I've been looking for a new one to pick up 👀👀

Oh the booktok one?? It’s The Serpent & The Wings of Night!!

I was telling the group chat that every time I saw it on tiktok I was like “oh here we go again another unrealistically badass assassin mc who has to enter some kind of trial and omg wow there’s a hot vampire here soooo original” but actually I enjoyed it lmao. The writing was almost invisible it was that well-polished and there was an actual slow burn and some character exploration of the love interest beyond “he’s dark and sexy” and they grew to respect one another which I really liked.

It wouldn’t make it onto my list of all time faves but honestly it felt like a relief to read in the face of all the other things that are popular on booktok rn!!

[mermaidsirennikita]

I was gonna ask, I didn't read the book but I do know a lot of the plot points and quotes tnx to tik tok and twitter so on the surface it looks like a good adaptation to me, plus I've seen nothing but praise for it online ever since the casting was announced. You're like the only person I've seen say basically anything negative about the show. Do you think this is a situation of people misunderstanding the book, because I'm not sure it's just a lot of people didn't actually situation. Even then I feel like I would have seen more criticism, it's a popular book after all and there are definitely people out there who have read it.

I'll be real with you, I actually do think that more people haven't read the book in full than you think. That's kind of a thing on BookTok. You get the broad strokes, you enjoy fandom, you consume a lot of fanworks, you think you get it.

I also think that because it's a BookTok book, it's a fandom thing--we're going to stan this shit because it's amazing and it gives us more stuff to consume, whereas all they had before was a book and the audiobook (which is amazing, by the way-the audiobook > the book as written, imo, because of the cast). Fandom is a bottomless pit that wants more more more because without new content MOST fandoms eventually kinda die off and you lose that connection and the high that having new shit to fangirl discourse over gives you.

What makes me REALLY think that a lot of people haven't read the book in full or read it... I don't even wanna say closely because I don't think the book needs a super close reading... is the lack of discourse over the songs changing. The songs are a big part of that book, and typically that's the type of content fandom would cling to--Impossible Woman is a song, for example, that Billy writes about Daisy and then denies writing about Daisy even though everyone, including Daisy, knows it's about Daisy. That is FODDER, and I guess it's not there? But if you hadn't read the book, you wouldn't really know that.

Similarly, Honeycomb in the show IS NOT Honeycomb, lol. The meaning is so altered, lyrics aside. It's a song, as written by Billy, about getting back to this dream life with Camila. Daisy alters the song, yeah--but not into this "we could make a good thing bad" shit, into this idea that there is DOUBT. Which especially bothers Billy because a) he doesn't want to cop to how close he is to falling off the wagon at any point but because b) Daisy herself represents doubt in his marriage. At a pivotal point, Daisy switches the lyrics back to what Billy wrote, because she is basically telling him "you WILL have this", loving him so much that though she wants that to be a certainty for THEM, she is giving him that certainty for him and Camila. Affirming THAT relationship.

... the fact that people aren't calling that out more just makes me raise an eyebrow. Because I do know of other BookTok popular books where people just don't read them yet discuss them as if they have, lmao. I know this is a thing that happens. It's the hype train.

I mean, people also don't seem to be confused about where the timeline is going--how old is Julia when she's making this doc on the show? When all is said and done in the book I believe Billy and Camila have quite a while together before she dies; she's in her early 60s when she goes. Julia is the person putting together this retrospective, and she was tiny (barely able to remember Camila and Daisy's confrontation) when the band broke up. So if that was 20 years ago when these interviews are being done, how old is she? Is she still compiling them? Camila was interviewed in the book, and Billy is later interviewed after her death, but I'm just... curious as to how this will all work.

The thing is, though, that the show just came out and many people aren't aware of the changes in full yet, so we may see more and more critique. I saw several people on Twitter going "wow, so we won't have" [X moment that connects to a specific lyric or song vibe]. People are only just now listening to the album. It hasn't been out for like... even a few days. I've seen more level-headed critiques coming out.

I mean, I read this book the month it came out, I think; I'd read TJR beforehand. I think I escaped a lot of the FANDOM stuff with it, which also makes it easier for me to have a jaundiced eye, and I don't feel like I came into the book hyped over things like I AM THE SOMEBODY. I was able to make very independent opinions, and I had nobody to discuss it with until I got my friends to read it, lol. And I'm trying not to sound condescending when I say that, but it is a DIFFERENT experience than coming into this book with the hype train made. Some of the stuff fandom is into I just... don't get. And I don't think it's a perfect book, even though I love it.

Also, I will say, professional critics really aren't super hot on the show lol, and many of them HAVE read the book based off the reviews I read. Several didn't like the book either, so maybe that's just a thing, but several did and make some pretty harsh comparisons between the book and the show.

So look, I'm sure many people have read the book and don't care (and that's FINE, if you like it then by my guest), some will care later and are too hyped right now to care, but like... yeah, I think that BookTok and booktwt especially have created a culture in which "joining in" is more important than fully consuming the material. So even if the book isn't your thing, which is FINE, you feel like you're missing out if you don't join in. And the fandom around this book makes it easier to CliffNotes it. I'm sure the MAJORITY of people have read the book. But I've seen a few comments that make me go "lol there is nO WAY you actually read the book", and it's kind of fascinating to see.

[the-conquest-of-shred]

10, 13, 19, 20 for the book ask (if you feel like it lmao)

10. i don't really have like a guilty fav, even the trash I read I'm unironically enjoying so I can't think of anything I wouldn't admit to reading

13. i do have a Goodreads and you can DM to get the link

19. most disliked popular book is literally anything booktok puts out, I absolutely fucking hate having things marketed to me by their tropes, I'd rather go into an experience fairly blind

oh yeah actually I fucking loathe The Time Machine by HG Wells and anything Richard Matheson wrote

20. what I look for in a book is generally a good cover lmao, if it's got a unique look I'm gonna pick it up and check it out, especially if there's pull quotes from authors I like

or if someone I know absolutely raves about something I'll check it out, personally vouching for books will sell me on it

[ddejavvu]

I heard about the novel you’re working on!!Mind me asking what the dynamics of this slow burn is?🛐

Omg yes, booktok is really fun if you follow a person who sticks to a fandom youre invested in but otherwise there’s alot of repetition in their recs (you’ve impressed me in your way of book choosing <33)

my favorite books as of lately are:

The picture of Dorian Gray by oscar wilde (the dark academia vibes id kill for), the seven husbands of evelyn hugo by taylor jenkins reid (mainstream ik ik but soooo good) and ready player one by earnest cline (genius. just. genius)— what are your favorite books?!

so sorry i didn't see this earlier, thanks for checking up again!

one has amnesia and can't remember that she was childhood friends with the other but the amnesia is torture/trauma induced so the one who knows doesn't wanna hurt the one who has amnesia by reminding her of their past just to get a leg up on their future but she also doesn't wanna pursue a relationship with her without telling her the truth about who they used to be to each other!! it's very sad and angsty :')

yeah lmao i can't even count how many times i see the same book recommended over and over again as a generic rec and it sounds like ass 😭

omg yessss dorian gray gets me so good!! i just saw a twitter joke abt it today i was like dorian!!!!! i still haven't read evelyn hugo omg i'm not good about reading the popular ones!! i'll have to check it out - i wanted to read rpo a while ago but i never did omggg

aristotle and dante discover the secrets of the universe!!!!! i tend to gravitate more towards YA (when i'm not looking for smut lmao) and their story was so cute :(( i did so many reports on it for school anytime we got to choose the book we wanted to read it was that one :')

sixteen scandals, the book i just finished, was actually pretty good! it's one of my favorites of the books i've recently read, but i think i'll have to marinate on whether it makes all-time-favorite status

the outsiders. you don't understand the chokehold that book has had on me since the eighth grade- it was the reason i got into fanfic!!

[pallases]

pachinko by min jin lee and the atlas six by olivie blake ((hope you’re having a great weekend 💛✨))

pachinko: never heard of | never read | want to read | terrible | boring | okay | good | great | a favorite

the atlas six: never heard of | never read | want to read | terrible | boring | okay | good | great | a favorite

— send me a book!

[mediawhorefics]

Hello! I saw your tag about “you can be both” reading fics and books and how? Because since I started to read fics in 2020, I only read one back and it was in 2021🤦🏻‍♀️ Can you give us some tips or something? Because there are so many books I want to read but now it’s like easy to read fics but idk, nothing makes sense lmao

omg yes i can ABSOLUTELY give you some tips because as a huge reader who lost a lot of interest in reading original fiction for a while, i worked hard to nourish my love of reading and get back into it.

a little background info: back when i was doing an English lit degree, i was reading all the Classics (which was interesting from a ~learning about literature pov but not from a 'i'm having fun reading' pov ....) for uni and it was a LOT of reading yk? and while i'd be lying if i said i read all the assigned stuff, i did my fair share. none of it was really me reading for pleasure though. and in my time off, i read fics cos that was easier to get into/didn't require as much digging to find what i liked. it was more lighthearted. etc etc.

but at one point i realised i hadn't read a novel for pleasure in years and as someone who ALWAYS described herself as a huuuuuge reader, that really fucking bothered me. so here's a few things i did/do to boost my ~reading original fiction stats.

1. take the time to think about what you like to read & to find the right book

just like fics, there's a lot of choices and there's no point trying to read award-winning novels/the books everyone are talking about if it's not something you're normally interested in. for me, that meant leaning into the fic thing. i thought about what kind of fics i liked reading and why (fun lighthearted romance + queer rep were two reasons) and i tried to look for books that had similar vibes. that meant looking into the romance genre, which i'd never been a big reader of before, and into lgbt+ fiction (both adult and ya). and i found lots of fun stuff that way. i als went back to my first loves: fantasy and historical fiction. i looked into what had been published recently, what was popular, what lots of queer people around me were reading, what movies/shows i had liked were adapted from books, and what other books were recommended a lot alongside those, etc....

2. find people who read a lot whose opinions you trust/who have similar taste to yours and check out what they've been reading

i was following a few blogs of big readers at the time so i tried a few of their favs and once i realised which my taste was most aligned with, i kept a close eye on their recommendations (and still do for a few of my key favs!)..... it can be tumblr bloggers, twitter people, people on booktok or booktube, writers you enjoy, hell you favourite actor/musician who shares their reading lists............ it doesn't really matter. but keeping engaged in the conversation is one of the biggest motivators for me! i keep seeing people talk about cool books and i'm always adding to my tbr pile and that keeps me turning the pages haha.

3. give yourself a challenge!

ok this might not work for everyone but i like the idea of focusing my reading on one contained challenge. i do a goodreads challenge every year with a goal of x books each year ofc, but that's not quite what i'm talking about here. i'm talking about how, in 2019, i decided i was gonna make a huge dent into my tbr pile by banning rereads for the whoooooole year. (i'm BIG guilty of rereading. i enjoy it so very much). it was great and it was hard (all i wanted to do was reread ofc because it was forbidden!!!) and it allowed me to discover lots of new favourites and read things that i had meant to for literally years. this year, i decided i want to try and read more Classic Queer Literature (started with brokeback mountain and now i've just moved on to angels in america). stuff like maurice and a single man and the price of salt, etc. maybe you could try and read ten books written by women of colour, or ten books from ten countries you've always wanted to visit, or five biographies, etc etc. it kinda makes it easier to chose what to read next and it's fun! there's a toooon of preexisting challenges online too so if you don't really know, googling will give you a bunch of lists you can base yourself on.

4. mix it up with the length/medium

this is a big one for me! sometimes i find it hard to focus (between *gestures vaguely at the world*) on big novels so i like to mix it up and read a few comics in a row. maybe a poetry book. or a few plays. things that can be read super quickly and give you a sense of accomplishment. when you haven't read a lot in a long time, the feeling of beginning and finishing a book is pretty satisfactory, so giving yourself a chance with shorter novels/shorter stuff, is totally fair game IMO. esp. as you ease back into it.

5. have a daily goal.

ok this is the big big big one for me..... with my mentally ill brain being what it is, at some point, i had to Force Myself to read. esp. during quarantine since i felt soooooooo blurgh. and now it's part of my daily habit and i wouldn't go back. i've done it differently over the years. sometimes i'll do 15 min. of reading a day (either in the morning or before bed).... and lately i've done reading one chapter per day! and i don't go to bed until i've done it. it's just as part of my routine as brushing my teeth. (just looked at my habit tracker app and i've done the 1 chapter per day thing for 188 days since i started tracking it.) and that really helps me. it's a small enough goal that it's totally doable every day and it really adds up over time. and when the book is good, sometimes one chapter turns into five lmao.

6. audiobooks ?

this isn't exactly one that works for me since i can't focus on books i've never read on audio BUT i know it works for lots of people so i thought i'd mention it. listening to audiobooks while going through the motions of life can be a great hack! while you do daily chores, or while you commute, or on your lunch break.... you can be reading a book through someone else reading it to you. and it totally counts, so!

sooo, it's not a lot but hopefully, that helps a bunch ??? ?

[aroaessidhe]

5, 8, 16, 21!

5. What genre did you read the most of?

hm I'm not 100% sure but I'd guess it's fantasy?

8. Did you meet any of your reading goals? Which ones?

I don't really have reading goals other than wanting to read more than I did last year/maybe 200, which I have (/ I have 15 to get to 200...probably doable)

I also in general try to have at least 50% of what I read be by authors of colour, which I think I'm more or less at. tbh it should be a lot more than that but I think books by white authors are just often more accessible?? (I read mostly library books, so,)

16. What is the most over-hyped book you read this year?

I already said the house in the cerulean sea which I know you agree with lmao, I'm trying to think of another....... honestly everything else I read that I thought was meh is like. still not that popular overall? (I guess I also tend to judge 'popular' by size of fandom/fanart/etc which isn't always an indication of popularity.) ANYWAY I dunno if it's overhyped but I think A Dark & Hollow Star is.....not that great.

21. Did you participate in or watch any booklr, booktube, or book twitter drama?

I don't participate other than the occasional private 'yikes' post, or I guess I made a post about the n/f/t thing lmao. but watch? well, I am on twitter and booktok (somewhat) and it is unavoidable,

(I don't like actively look up things other than trying to understand context of vaguetweets or whatever lol)

[letterstotheflre]

I'm curious, why do you hate booktok? I follow some booktok accounts that I like (I can think of two of the top of head), but other than that I also hate booktok. I'm just being nosey and wondering if we have similar reasons for hating booktok. P.S. Yes I did resend this ask to you because I spelt a word wrong :( lol

hehe i’m gonna answer this one then :) it’s gonna be long cause i have a lot of opinions, and mostly based on the grishaverse content i’ve seen cause that’s most of my fyp (along with marauders but that’s a different topic)

basically, i just find the people very close minded and extremely policing of the content others enjoy. a lot of people need to get off their moral high horse and realise that at the end of the day, it’s fiction and the content one reads doesn’t necessarily reflect the kind of person they are.

a lot of them seem to have this… agenda of making sure everyone likes the right characters, the good ones, the unproblematic ones. and it’s so fucking annoying; i assure you making sure no one likes the darkling is not the big activism you think it is.

relating to that, i’ve seen words related to abuse thrown around like it’s nothing. the amount of times i’ve seen people saying that those who like the darkling/darklina are dumb (“they completely miss the point of leigh’s inspiration behind the character and their relationship!!”), naive, easily manipulated, that they condone pedophilia and abusive relationships is insane.

just as an example, i fucking hate snape. truly, i loathe him and don’t understand how people think he is a good person. however, i don’t go on posts/accounts of people talking positively about him and start bullying them, nor do i make posts about how evil he is and why you should hate him. i just ignore it and stay in my corner of the internet like a normal person fucking should.

also, the popular books everyone recommends are just meh. some of them are amazing (*cough* the song of achilles *cough*) but others, if i’m looking at them through a truly judgmental eye and not as an easily entertained woman, are barely 3 stars. like i’ve seen that book about meeting people on vacation or smth like that going around and everyone loving it and like?? seriously?? that book is the one you give 5 stars to?? (it sounds so snobby, i promise i’m not but i think you get my point?)

i think my second biggest problem (the first being that initial paragraph) is the people. idk why but they annoy me so much, it’s just something about their faces or their vibes that makes me wanna slap them lol.

another thing is the content is repetitive and boring. sometimes downright annoying lmao, like those tiktoks where it’s like “enemies to lovers recommendations…. therapy” haha so funny it’s not like i’ve seen 20 other identical tiktoks haha just give me the name of the fucking book.

i’m also just tired of everyone praising the soc duology. look, i’m sorry to say it but it’s not as amazing as everyone seems to think. yeah, the characters are really cool, but the plot is messy and boring. i liked the trilogy more than the duology, and i would appreciate it if people just stopped bashing it.