Last year sophomore Aya Abdelrahman found book related content on TikTok as she was trying to select books for her summer reading. After seeing a video of a content creator reviewing books , including “The Red Queen” by Victoria Aveyard, her interest in seeing more book related content on her “For You” page grew.

Though reading is mostly regarded as a solitary activity, readers across the globe have taken to social media to abandon this perception by sharing creative book content on various platforms, labeling trends such as Bookstagram, Goodreads, Booktube and, more recently, #BookTok which as of 2021, has amassed over 19.4 billion views on the TikTok platform.

Junior Mulyn Kim, an avid TikTok user, stumbled upon the popular hashtag last summer, after seeing a book recommendation video pop up on her “For You” page. 

“I was really interested because I had liked reading previously,” Kim said. “So I just checked out some of the book recommendations and slowly, with the TikTok algorithm [recognizing that] I was liking book-related videos, I got onto #BookTok.”

Sophomore Pranati Kotamraju, though not as actively involved in TikTok, has seen a lot of #BookTok content, noting that TikTok users are naturally drawn to its community because of the aesthetic and creative ways creators can display books in their videos.  

According to Kim, the most common topics on #BookTok are book recommendations and reviews. Creators compile sets of books fulfilling specific plotlines and tropes — “books to get you out of a reading slump” and “books that will make you cry,” as well as  genres such as dark academia and dystopia are such examples of trends. Kim especially notes  that TikTok users are “all over” the “enemies-to-lovers” trope in particular.  

Abdelrahman has also seen creative twists on the typical “book recommendation” videos, including TikTok users recommending a set of books for people based on their zodiac signs. Other common #BookTok content ranges from discussions on problematic authors and representation of minority characters, to multimedia approaches such as mood boards, edits, fanart, book hauls, memes and jokes. 

Authors and book retailers have also jumped onto the trend,  recognizing the large reading community on TikTok and its potential to boost book sales. Several older books, such as “They Both Die at the End” by Adam Silvera, “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” by Taylor Jenkins Reed, “The Song of Achilles” by Madeline Miller and “We Were Liars” by E. Lockhart, have seen a resurgence in sales and returned to the bestseller list after being promoted on #BookTok. Barnes & Noble has a section of their store dedicated to the most commonly talked about books on TikTok. 

One creator who has capitalized on the influx of book content is Chloe Gong, the author of “These Violent Delights” — a Romeo and Juliet retelling based in 1920s Shanghai, China — is one of the youngest authors to hit the bestseller list in 2020. Gong actively promotes her books on TikTok, and Kim accredits the massive success partially to the author’s engagement in the #BookTok community and subsequent viral videos. 

Kotamraju also recognizes how sharing book content on platforms such as TikTok makes books more appealing to a wider audience in comparison to forms of promotions without video. 

“[TikTok] gives you more of an insight [than other platforms like Instagram],” Kotamraju said. “With pictures, it’s only one frame but [on TikTok] you can flip through the book or show certain parts.”

In April 2021, after talking with a friend, Abdelrahman decided to create BookToks of her own, which she posts under her username, ayasbookshop. She was pleasantly surprised at how quickly she gained  followers on the account — a thousand followers in two weeks. 

@ayasbookshopin honor of my last vid lol #booktok #bookworm #booklover #favbooks♬ original sound – karebearsk8

In April 2021, after talking with a friend, Abdelrahman decided to create BookToks of her own, which she posts under her username, ayasbookshop. She was pleasantly surprised at how quickly she gained  followers on the account — a thousand followers in two weeks.

“It’s really fun and it’s a great way to meet other people,” Abdelrahman said. “Right now [I’m] making a bunch of book rec videos and it’s really fun when somebody asks me for a book rec because they care about what I think on different books.”

Kim, too, was inspired to get her own original videos into the #BookTok community. Though she is not as active on TikTok at the moment, she notes that one of her more memorable experiences as a content creator was when one of her videos did a lot better than she expected. 

“And over time, I would just say it feels more and more like a family because there [are] so many super popular #BookTok books that are staples, you have to read [them],” Kim said. “It’s really nice to discuss the books or understand the inside jokes when you’re scrolling through [your] ‘For You’ page and everyone’s talking about the same thing.”