Exactly. I wouldn’t care if grown adults read only children’s picture books. It’s not my business what they read or what they DONT read. I do understand being frustrated with a lack of book recs that fit their preferences but literally just search it up and switch your algorithm up.
thank you for this video! there are literally so many good books i've found thanks to booktok, and sometimes people don't understand that it's an algorithm and booktok is as diverse as people’s reading tastes. you can influence what content you see and find people with similar reading tastes and books that you like too 🙃
this is a really great video! i love that you mentioned the sexism of the thought that when women popularize something it is seen as stupid and could not possibly be deep or intellectual or good, like romance and fantasy books and definitely the entire idea of chick flicks. it’s something that really annoys me. also the idea that book tok equals bad because a lot of more popular booktokers are also women, specifically young women. so thank you for this! like maybe you need to diversify yourself and your for you page rather than decide that book tok is bad and that’s it’s all romance and fantasy. also! fantasy and romance can often be written well if you actually look for a good book also while watching this video i literally kept thinking that you look like Madeline argy, you’re literally so gorgeous.
great video!! the new “anti intellectual” discourse on tiktok annoyed me so much because it’s only reiterating the same criticism of booktok over and over again. once people understand you can curate your fyp and seek out the type of reviewers/books you enjoy, the world will be a better place
I've been interested in reading I who have never known men after it caught my attention at the book store. Since then I've seen recommendation after recommendation of it however I'm afraid to pick it up because it feels like one of those books that will leave me feeling so empty afterwards
LOVE this video and your commentary on this topic 👏 I don't engage with booktok personally. Not because I think any less of it, but because nearly all I interact with on IG and YT is book content and I need one app that is not flooded with books lol. but I am so over this "anti-intellectualism" and gate-keeping on reading. if someone thinks booktok gives bad recs, fix your algorithm. let people read what they want.
Another factor people always miss is that booktok is the gateway to getting people reading again. For many of us, reading was an escape during childhood. But as life went on, we became busy and entertained ourselves with other means. Booktok has enabled countless individuals to pick up a book again. Not to mention getting non-readers interested in reading at all! While yes booktok is promoting a whole new type of consumerism and mass publishing, many books are rushed and not thoroughly edited, it is still the CHOICE of the reader to actually pick up that book. While yes, many books have been published that lack quality, plot, and prose, many others have been eloquently written. While yes, mediocre authors are getting a lot of attention, smaller and more niche authors are also being recognised. So sure, maybe we started off with a Maas or Hoover book, but that inevitably led us to pick up Atwood, Morrison, Baldwin, Ferrante and so much more!
Are we not all pro-"anything that encourages reading"? BookTok should be celebrated! If anything it's an opening for people to books both new/old that they may have otherwise never ever been exposed too. I love walking into the handful of bookstores I go to and seeing the BookTok section, because you can almost guarantee that someone is in there at the same time as you that is buying something they've seen via it. Again, WE SHOULD CELEBRATE BOOKTOK!
omg yes i absolutely LOVED I Who Have Never Knew Men! Literary Fiction is def not one of my top ‘genres’ but this book made me want to read so much more.
Thank you so much for this video and especially for mentioning All’s Well. It is one of my favorite books I’ve read this year and I really don’t think that people talk about it enough. Although I don’t have TikTok, I have heard that people mostly talk negatively about the Booktok community. Maybe because of the “Booktok” shelves in certain book stores. I hope that people don’t generalize and bring to the community instead of judging from afar💞💞
I read "All's Well" last year and it was a 5/5 but it was heartbreaking for me to read. I took 2-3 months to read it because I related to the chronic pain too well. I have a condition that widely varies from cane or bed ridden to "perfectly fine". It was so hard but it is a book so many people need to read imo
This was just recommended to me and I’m so happy!! You hit the nail on the head! Why are we so mad at women reading and finding joy?! I used to frown down at romance and only read what I thought was *smart* - and it was silly and narrow minded! Now I’m reading primarily romance with eveything else sprinkled in because it’s FUN and feels like I’m escaping into a cute movie. Anyway, thank you for making this!
I've only just started the video but the comment you put on the screen reminds me of when I was watching an ASMR video of someone unwrapping books they had read and I saw a comment of someone being "so glad the books in the video weren't booktok books." Now they mentioned Colleen Hoover, too, so I'm assuming they actually meant something much more specific than just "booktok books" but it irked me so much I rant replied to them- and I'd like to think still constructively replied to them- because the books in the video were The Secret History, The Bell Jar, The Midnight Library, and something by Virginia Woolf- I don't remember which title atm. And I was like, what is this commenter talking about..?? those ARE booktok books, those ARE popular on booktok..... Especially as someone who loves classics and literary fiction, TBJ and TSH in particular were soooo popular, specifically in like 2020 and into the following couple of years BECAUSE of tiktok. At the same time, though, I don't necessarily categorize them as booktok books myself because I'm not very active on booktok. A vast majority of the book content I consume is from booktube, and those books have been talked about endlessly on booktube before tiktok's resurgence. I definitely think there are booktube and booktok 'darlings' and 'books of the moment,' but all books on booktube and booktok are just books. That's the only classifier they have in common: Category: Books. I don't really know where I was going with this; I thought I'd just share the anecdote.
Great video. Also, I would like to add that our culture at large dismisses different age groups of women in different ways. (You probably know this already, but maybe someone in the comments doesn't.) Young women are portrayed as silly, childish, dumb, shallow, etc. and now as I'm aging out of "young woman" in my early 30s I am seeing content labelling women over 30 as soccer moms and housewives - both derogatory and connecting with impressions of being boring, sad, unattractive, etc. It's certainly not a new phenomenon, but it is still disappointing to go from one group to another and find out firsthand that the same problems persist in a different mask. Sigh.
I think people also forget that videos are curated to what you view, so if someone is only getting romance booktok novels they aren't really searching for books that interest them. When I had Tiktok I got the most popular booktok recommendations at the time (It Ends With Us, ACOTAR and others from a few years ago), now I've used Instagram and TH-cam to actually search genres that I love and low and behold I get books recommended to me that I actually like. (Also no issue with only reading the most popular booktok books because some of the ones I've read have slapped!)
HI, you are smart and articulate (in my opinion). But with this one, you may have proved those complaints complaints> BTW, please try The Virgin Suicides and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (smile)
They could have just said thanks for recommending books they hadn't seen before. I don't think it is kind to praise one person at the expense of another (in general).
So many great books. I love how you unpacked how misogynistic and shallow the anti-booktok rhetoric is just by speaking about great books that are praised in booktok.
I enjoyed this discussion very much and might even add to it on my channel. But please don't cake ANY criticism of booktok and its effects as misogynistic perversions. From what I've seen, the majority of criticisms have called out short-form content whoever happens to be holding the camera. Some of us who have misgivings about booktok (and tiktok as a whole) are simply pointing out that the bouncy, restive nature of reels cannot possibly delve into the mentioned books in the same way that prolonged TH-cam videos or written reviews can.
I love that distilling all of Booktok down to something “anti-intellectual” is in itself anti-intellectual like-you genuinely think such a large community of people only read 1 or 2 types of books? 🤪
Reading 1 or 2 types of books isn't what the anti-intellectual conversation is about, though. Or at least started out as. It's probably spiraled, especially as people misinterpret it.
Hey Cameron , really nice video ! I was wondering if I could help you with more Quality Editing in your videos and also make a highly engaging Thumbnail and also help you with the overall youtube strategy and growth ! Pls let me know what do you think ?
your microphone baby and I spending this entire video staring at each other 👁️👄👁️
(you're going to influence me into reading all's well i fear)
Besties 💖
I also don’t get the shade thrown at booktok - if people are reading, that’s great, it doesn’t matter what the books are
I mean yes but if colleen hoover is all they‘re talking about its just annoying💀because its not good literature
@@ninakenda but they are binge-able which gets people into reading. after a while you realize her books suck but they are a good start lol
Exactly. I wouldn’t care if grown adults read only children’s picture books. It’s not my business what they read or what they DONT read.
I do understand being frustrated with a lack of book recs that fit their preferences but literally just search it up and switch your algorithm up.
thank you for this video! there are literally so many good books i've found thanks to booktok, and sometimes people don't understand that it's an algorithm and booktok is as diverse as people’s reading tastes. you can influence what content you see and find people with similar reading tastes and books that you like too 🙃
The uk/aus cover of a certain hunger should be a crime.. it is a such bad alternate
this is a really great video! i love that you mentioned the sexism of the thought that when women popularize something it is seen as stupid and could not possibly be deep or intellectual or good, like romance and fantasy books and definitely the entire idea of chick flicks. it’s something that really annoys me.
also the idea that book tok equals bad because a lot of more popular booktokers are also women, specifically young women. so thank you for this! like maybe you need to diversify yourself and your for you page rather than decide that book tok is bad and that’s it’s all romance and fantasy. also! fantasy and romance can often be written well if you actually look for a good book
also while watching this video i literally kept thinking that you look like Madeline argy, you’re literally so gorgeous.
great video!! the new “anti intellectual” discourse on tiktok annoyed me so much because it’s only reiterating the same criticism of booktok over and over again.
once people understand you can curate your fyp and seek out the type of reviewers/books you enjoy, the world will be a better place
i looooved boy parts and also found it through tiktok! such a brilliant book
Off topic but your voice is so soothing.
I've been interested in reading I who have never known men after it caught my attention at the book store. Since then I've seen recommendation after recommendation of it however I'm afraid to pick it up because it feels like one of those books that will leave me feeling so empty afterwards
LOVE this video and your commentary on this topic 👏 I don't engage with booktok personally. Not because I think any less of it, but because nearly all I interact with on IG and YT is book content and I need one app that is not flooded with books lol. but I am so over this "anti-intellectualism" and gate-keeping on reading. if someone thinks booktok gives bad recs, fix your algorithm. let people read what they want.
Another factor people always miss is that booktok is the gateway to getting people reading again. For many of us, reading was an escape during childhood. But as life went on, we became busy and entertained ourselves with other means. Booktok has enabled countless individuals to pick up a book again. Not to mention getting non-readers interested in reading at all!
While yes booktok is promoting a whole new type of consumerism and mass publishing, many books are rushed and not thoroughly edited, it is still the CHOICE of the reader to actually pick up that book. While yes, many books have been published that lack quality, plot, and prose, many others have been eloquently written. While yes, mediocre authors are getting a lot of attention, smaller and more niche authors are also being recognised.
So sure, maybe we started off with a Maas or Hoover book, but that inevitably led us to pick up Atwood, Morrison, Baldwin, Ferrante and so much more!
I am d3ad at the Kewpie covering the microphone, that's so me lol
Are we not all pro-"anything that encourages reading"? BookTok should be celebrated! If anything it's an opening for people to books both new/old that they may have otherwise never ever been exposed too. I love walking into the handful of bookstores I go to and seeing the BookTok section, because you can almost guarantee that someone is in there at the same time as you that is buying something they've seen via it. Again, WE SHOULD CELEBRATE BOOKTOK!
omg yes i absolutely LOVED I Who Have Never Knew Men! Literary Fiction is def not one of my top ‘genres’ but this book made me want to read so much more.
your little sonny angel is so cute! i haven't seen that before
Thank you so much for this video and especially for mentioning All’s Well. It is one of my favorite books I’ve read this year and I really don’t think that people talk about it enough. Although I don’t have TikTok, I have heard that people mostly talk negatively about the Booktok community. Maybe because of the “Booktok” shelves in certain book stores. I hope that people don’t generalize and bring to the community instead of judging from afar💞💞
I read "All's Well" last year and it was a 5/5 but it was heartbreaking for me to read. I took 2-3 months to read it because I related to the chronic pain too well. I have a condition that widely varies from cane or bed ridden to "perfectly fine". It was so hard but it is a book so many people need to read imo
I've been watching booktube literally since 2012 and before booktok was a thing it was "omg not the bookstagram books!" 😂
This was just recommended to me and I’m so happy!! You hit the nail on the head! Why are we so mad at women reading and finding joy?! I used to frown down at romance and only read what I thought was *smart* - and it was silly and narrow minded! Now I’m reading primarily romance with eveything else sprinkled in because it’s FUN and feels like I’m escaping into a cute movie. Anyway, thank you for making this!
Love the books in this video and also love the sonny angel microphone 👼✨
I love a lot of these books too! I recently read The Water Cure on your recommendation and I loved it :)
love the way you spoke about this :')💗
Have u read Annie Bot ? If not u gotta do a review
I loved A certain hunger but did not like Bunny 😂 I found the writing in Bunny boring. I do have Rouge to try though 😊
I really wanna read I who have never known men!!!
I've only just started the video but the comment you put on the screen reminds me of when I was watching an ASMR video of someone unwrapping books they had read and I saw a comment of someone being "so glad the books in the video weren't booktok books." Now they mentioned Colleen Hoover, too, so I'm assuming they actually meant something much more specific than just "booktok books" but it irked me so much I rant replied to them- and I'd like to think still constructively replied to them- because the books in the video were The Secret History, The Bell Jar, The Midnight Library, and something by Virginia Woolf- I don't remember which title atm. And I was like, what is this commenter talking about..?? those ARE booktok books, those ARE popular on booktok..... Especially as someone who loves classics and literary fiction, TBJ and TSH in particular were soooo popular, specifically in like 2020 and into the following couple of years BECAUSE of tiktok. At the same time, though, I don't necessarily categorize them as booktok books myself because I'm not very active on booktok. A vast majority of the book content I consume is from booktube, and those books have been talked about endlessly on booktube before tiktok's resurgence. I definitely think there are booktube and booktok 'darlings' and 'books of the moment,' but all books on booktube and booktok are just books. That's the only classifier they have in common: Category: Books. I don't really know where I was going with this; I thought I'd just share the anecdote.
Ireland has always had an amazing literary scene. It's a country known for its writers. Have you read Fiona Scarlett's Boys Don't Cry?
Great video.
Also, I would like to add that our culture at large dismisses different age groups of women in different ways. (You probably know this already, but maybe someone in the comments doesn't.)
Young women are portrayed as silly, childish, dumb, shallow, etc. and now as I'm aging out of "young woman" in my early 30s I am seeing content labelling women over 30 as soccer moms and housewives - both derogatory and connecting with impressions of being boring, sad, unattractive, etc.
It's certainly not a new phenomenon, but it is still disappointing to go from one group to another and find out firsthand that the same problems persist in a different mask.
Sigh.
This was great. Thanks
Actual recommendations start at 3:58
This is needlessly shady, her intro is valid.
@@LimaBeanxx uh???
Also, I reas All's Well based on your recommendation and I'm in love now.
ive read a lot of these books, they're great! booktok is great if you find the side that fits you, i
I think people also forget that videos are curated to what you view, so if someone is only getting romance booktok novels they aren't really searching for books that interest them. When I had Tiktok I got the most popular booktok recommendations at the time (It Ends With Us, ACOTAR and others from a few years ago), now I've used Instagram and TH-cam to actually search genres that I love and low and behold I get books recommended to me that I actually like. (Also no issue with only reading the most popular booktok books because some of the ones I've read have slapped!)
HI, you are smart and articulate (in my opinion). But with this one, you may have proved those complaints complaints>
BTW, please try The Virgin Suicides and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (smile)
We’re very glad you’re back!!!
They could have just said thanks for recommending books they hadn't seen before. I don't think it is kind to praise one person at the expense of another (in general).
love this video!! booktok is soooo much more than ACOTAR lol
Girl what’s that lil elf
It's a Sonny Angel- they are really cute figurines that people love to collect! My daughter has a mini collection and she gave me a couple as well
So many great books.
I love how you unpacked how misogynistic and shallow the anti-booktok rhetoric is just by speaking about great books that are praised in booktok.
Can you please list these titles in the description box or pin a comment!
I enjoyed this discussion very much and might even add to it on my channel. But please don't cake ANY criticism of booktok and its effects as misogynistic perversions. From what I've seen, the majority of criticisms have called out short-form content whoever happens to be holding the camera. Some of us who have misgivings about booktok (and tiktok as a whole) are simply pointing out that the bouncy, restive nature of reels cannot possibly delve into the mentioned books in the same way that prolonged TH-cam videos or written reviews can.
I love that distilling all of Booktok down to something “anti-intellectual” is in itself anti-intellectual like-you genuinely think such a large community of people only read 1 or 2 types of books? 🤪
Reading 1 or 2 types of books isn't what the anti-intellectual conversation is about, though. Or at least started out as. It's probably spiraled, especially as people misinterpret it.
👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻 🎤 ⬇️
90 percent of booktok is lowbrow art. And it is not booktok that is ruining a multi billion dollar industry, it is the other way round.
Anyone here can recommend a few literary fiction book club on Discord that I could join? 😊
Hey Cameron , really nice video ! I was wondering if I could help you with more Quality Editing in your videos and also make a highly engaging Thumbnail and also help you with the overall youtube strategy and growth ! Pls let me know what do you think ?