Booktok and anti-intellectualism (ft. 'the booktokers who don't read')

Comments · 1.8K

• AC

  @accordingtoalina · 1 year ago · pinned

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• DA

  @daughterofyith5393 · 1 year ago

  The problem here isn&apos;t that they&apos;re reading what they like how they like. The problem is that they make brands around it, and prop themselves up as these accomplished readers when they in fact don&apos;t even read full books.

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• LA

  @LadyKitsunetsuki · 1 year ago

  There was this one reviewer who rated a book low on YouTube because she said that she was forced to read every word to understand the book she was reading. I don&apos;t understand how it counts as reading if you are not reading every word.

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• KE

  @KellyLoom1s · 1 year ago

  Confession: I skimmed so many pages about the French sewer system in Les Miserables.

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• CO

  @Copotency · 1 year ago

  The problem isn&apos;t skimming a read. The issue is giving an opinion to sway someone towards or away from a book that wasn&apos;t read or internalized by the reader before giving an opinion. Let&apos;s call it what it is- lying for profit.

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• AL

  @alisonrae · 1 year ago

  With a 9-5, working out, socializing, other hobbies, and therapy... I managed to read 21 books last year. I&apos;m shocked that some people claim that they read 300 books a year 😅

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• SK

  @skygirl-xn1bw · 1 year ago

  I can’t help but to think this all circles back &amp; is related to our culture of overconsumption as well. Faster you go through a book, sooner you can buy more &amp; move onto another book. Who cares about the writing? Just get to a point so I can move onto another book. These book influencers are just another means to reach out to ppl to buy more whether they are doing it willingly or not.

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• FL

  @Flaulicower · 1 year ago

  I don&apos;t know if it counts as skimming a page, but often when I&apos;m so hooked into the story I catch myself looking at the bottom of a page and accidentally spoiling myself, to the point I have to cover the rest of the page with my hand 😅

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• XZ

  @XZeroDragoonX · 1 year ago (edited)

  I think there&apos;s a difference between skimming, say, in an academic setting for an academic purpose over reading and recommending entertainment pieces as a content creator that likes to brag about 300+ books a year. Skimming is absolutely a skill and necessary too--and some overwritten books are deserving of having some lines (or in egregious cases, paragraphs) skimmed. BUT, I will say its strange how every low-effort wattpad fanfic being praised as the pinnacle of fiction is being followed by &quot;Lol I actually skip to the dialogue exclusively&quot;. It&apos;s starting to make a lot of sense...<br><br>On a side note, if there are readers that care about dialogue exclusively, then why are they buying 600+ page chapter books instead of looking into Manga/Comics or even just playing Visual Novels? Those are quite literally dialogue driven mediums I don&apos;t understand why anyone would pick up any book structured with prose and then try to force it to be something it&apos;s not?

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• GO

  @gokuxsephiroth4505 · 1 year ago (edited)

  I think it boils down to them liking the idea of being a reader more than they like to read. They like the aesthetics of shelves filled with pretty books, the cosy coffee shop with the frothy latte and the warm dark brown vibes, but they don&apos;t actually like to read, so all they read is either YA level reading with sex scenes in it (No insult to YA of course - YA authors spend eons making sure their worldbuilding and storytelling is top notch, I&apos;m just saying they&apos;re not expanding beyond YA level reading) or they skip most of the entire thing.

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• DA

  @Dachusblot · 1 year ago

  To me what upsets me about those videos is not the fact that they are reading fast or skimming, but that they&apos;re basically bragging about it. It&apos;s just weird and infuriating to see people who are supposed to like books complain about books being books??? To me it&apos;s just another manifestation of an issue that has plagued our whole society for decades, where displaying sincere interest or passion for something intelligent is seen as boring and uncool, but bragging about how much you hate intelligent stuff makes you cool. I&apos;m not saying these women are unintelligent: it&apos;s that they&apos;re putting on a performance of unintelligence.

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• ZO

  @zoebrugg7594 · 1 year ago

  I&apos;m a writer and slow reader; this hurts. Collage did burn me out and hit my reading habit hard, but I blame teck for training us to expecting things faster and getting things more immediately. One reason I hate TikTok and shorts and prefer YouTube long content.

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