About Books, social media and other

 

With all honesty, I don't even know how to start this post, considering I haven't post anything in over two years. Can I blame it on the 'wild-international-bug'? (in part it was because of it, since my life has been quite messy due to it) Anyway, while I was picking up today's book (it's The Thursdays Murder Club by Richard Osman, which so far has been quite fun) I thought about how I got to know this book because of Booktok (funny, because I don't really have a TikTok account)/Bookgram/Booktube/Goodreads mentioning it a lot. I've been thinking a lot about how these social media platform have exploded the art of reading during the pandemic. Not that these didn't exist before it, but I believe it's changing the game for marketing and recommendations, especially towards younger generations.  

I've obviously seen good and bad recommendations appearing. There's a certain type of book, depicting rather toxic relationships based on fanfiction that tens to get way more attention than they should. But I've also seen really good books that got shadow-banned in the past jumping into the front row and providing writers a second change that rarely appears in the editorial world.  There's also really good book-influencers who have taken their time not only to review books, but also to talk about important issues that connect books and our daily lives. While it's usually scoffed about, pop culture is very well connect with the lives of those who consume it and important lessons can be learnt from it. For those from Portuguese-speaking countries (or those who know Portuguese), I  recommend you Elga's  project Quem Me Lera, since she reviews and discusses many of these issues at her blog and instagram. And with a different tone, Jake Edwards iconic reviews are hard to pass - I love how he dissed celebrities book tastes and even got one really annoyed by it. 

Nonetheless, I've seen others - and experiencing it my self - some kind of pressure regarding the number of books I've read in a year and how long it takes. It's this silent competition no one started but somehow we all in it. And once we get caught on it, it's really hard to get out. This is my reminder to be kind to yourself and read what, how and when makes you feel good. I have a friend who says she is never alone when reading a book and I wholeheartly agree with her. 

If you were looking for a review on the book I might do it next week, or another. Basically when I finally finish it and decide to post about. 

I guess I'm back to this corner. Now let's try to keep me here a bit more, shall we?