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Book Clubs, Book Bars, and BookTok: Examining Why Everyone Suddenly Wants to Be Perceived As Well-Read

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2024-12-22 18:30:04

All products featured on Architectural Digest are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Growing up, I could usually be found with my head buried in a book. My favorite places to go were not amusement parks or playgrounds, but libraries and bookstores where my imagination could run wild. Reader, if it wasn’t already obvious, I’m an only child. For the record, reading has not always been a solitary pursuit though; I’ve been involved in a number of book clubs over the years and continue to enjoy finding community through a shared love of literature. Now, as an adult, nothing has changed in the slightest—I recently got back from a weekend in Toronto and the highlights of the trip were visiting the Toronto Reference Library and picking up a copy of Sally Rooney’s highly anticipated new novel, Intermezzo. I proudly identify as a bibliophile; books are in fact my love language.

Evidently, I’m not alone. Despite ongoing attempts to underfund the public library system and ban books in schools across the country, reading remains a beloved pastime for so many Americans during these unprecedented times. Could books be the cure for brain rot? At the top of the year, bookshelf wealth emerged as the definitive trend of 2024, igniting online discourse about the optics of seeming well-read based on the intentionality of your curation. No coffee table or shelf is safe, everyone is judging your books by the cover! (I would be remiss to not mention the spectacle that was Nicholas Sparks’s home tour for The New York Times.) What you’re reading has become a bit of a performative spectacle, but we could be subscribed to worse status symbols. Mandy Harris William recently posted a graphic on Instagram that reads as follows: “seeing someone reading all about love [by bell hooks] used to mean that you could consider having a relationship with them… now it might mean you’re about to get gaslit. lol”