Many people find themselves addicted to their phones and vow to cut back on screen time, yet have nothing to replace it with. 

Reading for fun is an entertaining and productive substitute that has significantly increased in popularity since “BookTok” started trending on TikTok. 

Reading provides a way to relax and unwind as well as improves memory and concentration.

“I enjoy reading for fun because if you find the right story it’s very interesting and it’s like stepping into someone else’s world,” said Maylan Hardisty, sophomore at NHS. ”It also makes me feel productive and gives me something else to do besides sit on my phone.”

BookTok is a community on TikTok where book lovers share book recommendations and discuss what they read. BookTok started in 2020 at the beginning of lockdown and has only gotten more popular since. 

It is so popular that Barnes and Noble even has a section online and in store dedicated to BookTok recommendations. 

It is safe to say that TikTok is once again responsible for another trend, this time increasing book sales. Young adult authors such as Colleen Hoover, who wrote It Ends With Us in 2016, and Taylor Jenkins-Reid, who wrote The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo in 2017, have seen these books drastically spike in sales in the past year. This climb is undoubtedly thanks to TikTok as these two titles have remained some of BookTok’s most popular recommendations.

“My favorite book is It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover because it was very intense and I was interested throughout the whole book,” said Hardisty.