This is probably a criminally unpopular opinion, but people whose walls are covered in brand new booktok books are just as complicit in trend-driven overconsumption as the Stanley girlies or the showertok creators with 80 treehut scrubs. I don't necessarily mean the romance girls either, so don't think the 'my year of rest and relaxation' crowd gets a pass here.
Literally the amount of people I talk to who say reading is their favorite hobby and they read like 3 books a week then will tell me that they don't have a library card is insane. How much money do you guys spend on books without any guarantee that you'll even like it? Why not just read a library copy then buy the book if you really liked it?
"But why would I buy a book that I've already read?"
Why did you buy it without knowing you were going to want to read it more than once??? If you didn't like the book then you've just got a $25 piece of wall decor lmao.
I think that this also opens up a broader conversation about the commodification of hobbies on social media. Reading used to be a means to an end to consume a story you enjoyed, and now it's an aesthetic to be performed on Instagram, just like any other trend but with an added air of superiority.
I'm just ranting but if someone can explain to me how buying endless books that'll be read once and then left to collect dust on your shelf is different than buying an eyeshadow palette that'll be used once then shoved to the back of a drawer for years, I'm all ears.
