Is reading is becoming a fad?

I remember the day that I got home from school and my Aunt handed me the first four books of the Harry Potter series. I never expressed any desire to get them or read them. Why did she buy it for me? She noticed that I’ve been checking out books from my school’s library very often. Yes, I was in grade school. Most of the books that I checked out were Goosebumps. Ironic, I don’t read such books anymore, because I don’t like scary books.

Though, the Harry Potter book was a challenge from her. She said, ‘If I find you finishing these four books, then you can continue to ask for more. Especially when the series continues.’. And I did. Though, with the last three books, it was my dad who bought them for me and my Uncle, I think.

Anyways, I am here because I’ve had my fair share of eye-rolling seeing TikTok videos where “book influencers” recommend “books”. Yes, in double quotes. I’ve been reading for a long time, like I said, I was still in grade school. Though the books I’ve read are not as extensive and sophisticated as others would say. The most complicated books I’ve read so far in my 35 years on this earth are The Great Gatsby, The Bell Jar, and The Secret History. Well, the book that I couldn’t really let go and couldn’t find anyone to talk to is The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.

So, I’ve encountered the most idiotic thing lately talking about booktok influencers complaining, who:

• Are younger than I am,
• Most read dragon smut or whatever, or
• Read books that romanticizes DV (you know what I am talking about),
• Read a book that has a line that says, “He puts his **** in her *****.” (seriously, what is wrong with you?),
• Practically reading no longer morally gray but morally black books,
• And these kids, claims to be reading 100~200+ books in a year (usually skimming through and just avoids a whole narrative because they want dialogues. Ghad.)

These booktok influencers are complaining that their Kindle/Kobo shows a long paragraph, complaining how they could even read it. Or their paperback/hardbound books show them tiny words/letters, which in a way should, as most books they read are around 700+ pages. Either they skim, like I’ve mentioned, or they use AI to summarize the book and call it reading.

Reading has become a fad. These influencers show red flags, like overconsumption. Before you say anything, I am guilty of such capitalism. However, I don’t go around and tell people to buy them. Because, I don’t have such influence and I admire my and other people’s individualism and differences. I may recommend such books but I always say, it is their call if they’ll buy it or not, or if they’re up to reading it electronically, I’ll share an epub file or two.

This is such a frustrating thing to me. Because I read for fun. I read for pleasure. Because I enjoy it, I learn different things, some facts, or just random things. I haven’t travelled a lot in real life, but I’ve reached and have been to different places and time with the books that I read. I like the narration, description by the authors. I get so invested when I see big paragraphs, because it fills in the cracks of the questions I have in my head. I see the picturesque scene when describing the location. I get the roughness of the main character after being a slave for numbers of years, etc.

I get that reading isn’t for everyone. I do understand that, but these kinds of influences shouldn’t take the fun out of something that doesn’t take much effort to do.

It’s sad that reading has become a fad and others see it as performative now.

I know it’s been a while since my last post. I meant to post something about old 2000s digital cameras and film cameras coming back in the ether but I didn’t have much to say, I guess. So, do you think like the old digital and film cameras, reading is becoming a fad?