It is perhaps not a surprise that a survey by the Booksellers Association has found that people think bookshops are cool. It is, however, cool that people seem to think so, albeit a little surprising that this latest finding is considered a new development. I just checked an article I wrote for The Guardian about the coolest bookshop of all, the Albion Beatnik, and was flashed a warning informing me that my article was more than eleven years old.
The Rise of Physical Books
ALLi News Editor, Dan Holloway
But cynicism aside, this latest piece of news is part of a movement we are seeing become more and more prominent—a movement that is recognizing the value of physical books. I’ll get to that. But it’s also a movement that recognizes the value of long periods of immersion. In an attention-hungry world (we’ll get to that in a paragraph or so), we are seeing an increased emphasis on immersion, deep work, and long, slow, mindful activity. And it is this aspect of browsing bookshops that the survey emphasizes.
BookTok’s Influence
It is also worth noting that the obvious influence of BookTok is cited. BookTok has driven people to the video-friendly setting of bookshops and the experience of flicking through physical pages. And there is often concern that this has led to seeing books and reading as an aesthetic rather than an actual activity. But I found one comment in this report a fascinating corrective to a trend that the Albion Beatnik’s owner and I used to talk about a lot eleven years ago. That was the number of people who would come into the store, browse the shelves, get their phones out, and order the books on Amazon. This latest report has people discovering books on TikTok and then waiting to buy them from a brick-and-mortar store.
Talking of low attention spans—and also talking of aesthetic reading trends, in particular dark academia—my home institution has been in the news this week. In fairness, “Oxford professor says something controversial” is not the most unusual story. But this week Jonathan Bate (to give the full title as the papers love to do when trying to embarrass Oxbridge, Professor Sir Jonathan Bate) has been on mainstream media decrying the fact that people are not reading books because they are too busy with their phones. He notes in particular that “instead of three novels in a week, many students will struggle to get through one novel in three weeks.”
Call me cynical, but I can’t help wondering whether he might be less concerned about this latest incarnation of moral panic about “the youth of today” if he spent more time on his phone scrolling through BookTok.
Thoughts or further questions on this post or any self-publishing issue?
If you’re an ALLi member, head over to the SelfPubConnect forum for support from our experienced community of indie authors, advisors, and team. Simply create an account (if you haven’t already) to request to join the forum and get going.
Non-members looking for more information can search our extensive archive of blog posts and podcast episodes packed with tips and advice at ALLi's Self-Publishing Advice Center.
