The next time you see someone who goes over a highbrow novel on the train or posing with a philosophical Tome on social media, you should not automatically assume that they read the book.
“Performative reading” is a trend that is sipped down from the celebrity world to everyday mortal, with some who concludes that there is more value in seeing an impressive title than actually reading it.
Bookstylists
It is known as “performative reading” as “the reader” wants “everyone should know” they read, wrote Alaina Demopoulos in The custodian. They signal that they have the “taste and attention buckles” to “pick up a physical book” rather than “to put in Airpods”.
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The phenomenon has its roots in 2021, when a “boom” in book clubs is led by celebrities along with “Booktok”, the episode of Tiktok Dedicated to marketing and discussing commercial fiction, transformed favored books into a “trend -driven accessory”, says Sarah Manavis I The new statesman.
Booktok is “in itself performative”, with “trendy books” that go viral, but not because of the “quality of literature” but because it suggests an “increasingly fashionable, pseudo-intellectual aesthetics”. And when reading becomes a competition, with “countless users boasting” about reading more than 35 books in a single month, probably quality takes a rear seat to “show yourself to be a ravenous” reader “.
For some members of Gen zBooks have become “a symbol not by intelligence” but by “hotness,” said Allegra merchant in The times Last summer, an “accessory” to be worn with “a good outfit, wedge at the bottom of a design bag” or “pretentious tote”. Performative reading is everywhere, from “tattooed creative, smoke cigarettes while staring at Marcus Aurelius” Meditations “on a beach in Ibiza”, to single man who reads, or “at least seems to read”, Feminist literature “In the hope that beautiful girls are slipping into his DMS”.
Finger -tinge
“Commodification of Intellect” with books is not new, said Manavis, “neither social position” through books. But what is new is the “unique unique unique” way social media “rubber stamps” the idea of books like “an accessory, rather than an art”. And there is a danger that it can lead to publishers focusing their efforts on books that are “feed -friendly”.
But the uncomfortable truth is that the virality of literature has led to a top of book sales, said Chloe Mac Donnell in The custodian Last year: In 2023, 669 million physical books were sold, the highest total level ever registered with Gen Z a great driving force for these sales, along with an increase in visits to UK Library.
One of life’s “simplest pleasures” remains “that falls into a story” and “sueing the world”, without “worrying about what someone will think of you,” Demopoulos said. Enjoy the story. Many people still do exactly that, so rather than “fingers” about performative reading, the next time you see someone with a book in a bar, cafe or park, maybe leave them alone because “this is not for you”, they are just “enjoying the vibes”.
