As a kid, I was always, always reading. I was the epitome of the girl who always had her nose stuck in a book, whose parents would have had to take away her books to bring her back to real life. However, during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, I noticed this passion of mine drastically shift, and recently, it’s been really difficult for me to read the way I used to. For years, I’ve been trying to figure out what went wrong, whether it’s not being able to find books that align with me anymore or just lacking the time to feel truly immersed in my reading, but I think I’ve finally figured it out. It’s the fact that it truly seems that fewer original and thoughtfully written books are being published.
Capitalism is a very prominent societal function in the United States, and it is the reason our businesses are as successful as they are. However, this system has many downsides, and the commercialization of creativity is one of them. Unfortunately, books have become the victims of consumerism. It’s gotten to the point where I wonder, will we ever have another great literary phenomena? A book published that everyone knows, understands and agrees is authentic and unique? Sure, we’ve had tons of famous and popular books in the past few years. But it’s been a while since I’ve read something truly life-changing and earth-shattering, that actually made me want to keep reading into the night.
On my quest to understand why on Earth I couldn’t read the way I used to, I started to think about the influence of social media on the way we read. During the pandemic, a subgroup of the internet became extremely popular: BookTok. This is a subcommunity on the app TikTok, where people talk about books and give book recommendations. When it first cropped up as a more mainstream thing, I was a bit shocked at how much people fed into it. Before BookTok, reading seemed to be seen as an antisocial and nerdy hobby to indulge in. As soon as it became relevant on social media, suddenly it was a “cool girl” and “mysterious” hobby. I noticed, however, that when I started taking book recommendations from the internet, I often found myself more disappointed in what I was reading than ever.
While there are some amazing books finally getting the hype they deserve thanks to social media, it seems that recently a lot more books are being churned out every year to meet reader demand, and they all seem the same. I wish I was kidding. I don’t know how many books I’ve read now that seem to be the same story, even though they have different characters written by different authors! The worlds collapse into each other, making it impossible to achieve the escapism that reading once provided me. It’s made me feel a bit burnt out from reading, because it doesn’t even give me the same feeling that it used to.
To add on, there’s a huge communal emphasis on quantity over quality when it comes to reading, which I’m sure influences the way authors write. With apps like GoodReads and seeing that people have nearly unattainable reading goals online, it makes me feel like reading isn’t enough unless you’re winning some invisible challenge that shouldn’t even exist. I always read when I wanted to, for myself and not because of anyone else. Opening your phone and immediately seeing that someone has already read 20 books a month into the year automatically makes me feel like I’m falling behind in a nonexistent race. Conversely, readers striving to meet these standards for how much they “should read” has likely led many writers feeling like they need to produce more books faster.
While we owe thanks to the World Wide Web for the progress of many things, I will say that the route that the publishing industry is going down doesn’t really deserve an expression of gratitude in my eyes. Again, there have been some great books published recently, but I’ve realized that I’ve often had to find them myself, not relying on the internet to point me in the right direction. This might just be a personal preference for genres or worldbuilding or plots, but it seems like a lot of the books being pushed by the internet just aren’t for me.
So, with the rise of social media at an all-time high, will we ever have another literary phenomenon? Think “Harry Potter,” “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Animal Farm,” “Pride and Prejudice,” “The Outsiders,” “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” “The Hunger Games,” “Anne of Green Gables,” the list goes on and on and on. When I stumbled upon the thought “maybe we won’t …”, I stopped dead in my tracks. The idea of never reading another book that changes the way I view the world makes me feel a little lost to myself. How could something that was once my whole world become something that, when I try to do it, now leaves me feeling incomplete?
It scares me,but I’m still hopeful. I know that our current world is full of creatives who truly put their whole heart into the work they produce, and I know that one day I will walk into a bookstore and pick up a book that actually makes me feel and think something once again.