The in-between of book girlies
Navigating booktok, online brainrot, and the elusive “literary it girl” status
Disclaimer: this article was pre-written before the results of the 2024 U.S. elections.
Ever since coming back to Substack regularly in August, I tend to scroll through the app whenever I have some downtime. It pairs well with afternoon cups of coffee and I like seeing what other writers on here talk about as well as how it could inspire my own writing here.
Wanting to keep my mind off the dread over culmination of election season (and the possible start of election deniers season), I came across a Substack article by Hannah at notes on about the stark competing contrasts of BookTok and its potential brainrot and those “literary it girls” everyone wants to be.
I’ve heard this topic been brought up on several occasions and in different mediums and contexts, but for some reason this article stood out to me. Perhaps it’s one of the first articles I’ve read that fully dives into what it means to be a book girl (or girlies if the mood is right) in online spaces. Perhaps this topic seems to be one of the Substack hot topics that writers on here love to talk about. Maybe it’s just because I just find myself outside the binary of these two contrasting ideas of being a reader online.
So here I am, the in-between of book girlies.
I’m not downplaying or shaming the people that want to read Sally Rooney or Joan Didion or whoever “lit it girls” are supposed to be reading in order to seem cool and “on brand” in this article. I’m not downplaying or shaming the chronically online readers that find themselves filming BookTok hot takes in order to get on the algorithm’s good side (though some of them might really need to reconsider their “hot takes”).
Personally, I’m somehow both of these ideas.
I try to read “those books” that everyone associates with the lit girl aesthetic; some of them I liked and some I didn’t. I can get too invested at scrolling through my bookish social media feeds instead of actually reading (but I’m pretty sure that’s a universal problem at this point).
At the same time, I do understand context when it comes to reading and ultimately deciding whether or not I’m the right fit for a book. I’m the antithesis of what people fear about BookTokers being anti-intellectual.
Yes, to some extent we shouldn’t be relying on tropes as the main selling points for promoting a book, and I know that there are other readers out there who did try to go beyond tropes to talk about why a book is good or not.
No, I’m not going to go online and complain about books having “too many words”, though you may find me complaining about a book that’s longer than it necessarily needs to be or if I think a graphic novel is too text-heavy than is absolutely necessary.
Yes, my reading tastes are a bit eclectic and my TBR can be a bit all over the place in terms of genres and the types of stories i want to consume. And I don’t plan on changing that any time soon.
So here I am, the in-between of book girlies.
My feeds aren’t super on aesthetic. Content from me varies depending on what I’m reading and how I’m feeling at a particular time.
But I can provide context to how I think about books and a genuine love of them. And I think that’s all anyone can ask of us.