FFrom celebrity book clubs to glamorous literary party revivals, there’s a lot more to what it means to be a book lover. Dior has launched new editions of its book tote, decorated with the covers of classics such as ulysses And Dracula. Earlier this year, Coach cooperated To create miniature literary backpack charms with penguins – fully readable miniature versions of the books, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings to Sense and Sensibility. Miu Miu Hosts a literary club; channel it Rendezvous Writer.
We’re told it’s sexy to be bookish now. id magazine Recently an article was published on the Whitney Review – a New York-based literary magazine – declaring its team to be part of the “hot literary reinvention of criticism”. The founder has described the review as “sexy, surprising, stubborn” and its contributors as “curious and beautiful” (confirmed by a put-together shoot in which the Whitney team looks more like a group of models than anything else). But the piece raised eyebrows in i-D’s comments section instagram page: “The definition of empty and boring”, writes one user; “No place for ugly writers, only hot ones,” says another. Should we be skeptical of the prevalent reading turn?
Author and content creator Siham Naik believes that reading has become “hot” due to the economic pressures faced by young people today: “Gen Z is a generation that will probably never own their own home, and so we are more committed to investing in taste. So you buy books, art books and niche ephemera to differentiate yourself from peers or signal your taste.”
Celebrity Book Club Perhaps this trend is also underway, says Naik: people like Dua Lipa, Kaia Gerber and Reese Witherspoon “share books by authors who need their own platform… It works great, but it’s unfortunate as a sign of the times”, reinforcing the idea that “something is only worth sharing online if you’re conventionally attractive.” Focusing on how they engage critically with a text, as opposed to how they look while reading, inadvertently creates a new, exclusionary barrier around literary culture – you must be excited to participate.
This trend no doubt originated in BookTok and Bookstagram, where creators share aesthetically pleasing reading spaces, shelves full of beautiful books and special editions. Books creator Sol Noya (@booksconleche on Instagram) believes this trend is a good thing, “a welcome change from previous stereotypes of readers being dull or weird, especially given that there is still a very significant percentage of the population that barely reads for leisure.” According to YouGov polling last January, 40% of Britons had not read or listened to a book in the past year.
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“Reading has a positive impact on critical thinking and empathy, which are two traits that society desperately needs. So in that sense, reading from the ‘inside’ is something I’m in favor of,” she adds. However, she says that the aestheticization of reading is too focused on consumption; Reading as a new form of “micro money signaling”. “Having a huge book collection means having cash to spend on buying books and space to store them.”
Still, in an age when young people are trying to find ways to disconnect from the Internet and move toward analog, it’s a positive thing to have role models who encourage buying and reading books. Bookstagrammer Diana Clough (@literarydiana) tells the Guardian: “Choosing analogue media on our phones is something we should wear with pride and feel sexy about – no matter how surreal it is.”
“Engaging explicitly with the written word stakes our claim to the pleasure of reading, reclaiming the narrative of it being a solitary act. And that can get very hot, as the popularity of romance attests. If reading is trendy, it will only encourage more readers, which is never a bad thing.”
However, Nike is a little more cynical: “I’m glad to see people consider bookworms and reading worthy of being cool again, but is this a fleeting trend, and are we going to notice this next year? Who knows!”
