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She also noticed that this trend is most common amongst teenage girls and particularly about books written by Colleen Hoover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt Ends With Us,\u201d for instance, is Hoover\u2019s most viral book and has been on the bestseller lists at both Kinokuniya and Borders since 2021. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The number of questions were so many that they created an entire shelf and multiple tables at the entrance of the store dedicated to trending books on TikTok, which made it easier for customers to find them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lubna Abdul Aziz, a creator on BookTok and a UAE resident, said she doesn\u2019t think there is a bookstore in the world today, both large and second-hand, that doesn\u2019t have a dedicated section to these popular books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey recognize it\u2019s [TikTok\u2019s] power and want to use it to their advantage,\u201d <\/strong>Abdul Aziz said. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Many customer service employees at bookstores echoed this, adding that they see TikTok in a positive light: as a marketing platform for their books or a way to attract sales. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Aizza Quinones, who has been working at Borders for over seven years, said that \u201cthe book related videos are great for marketing to young people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, what exactly converts a viewer on Tiktok into a buyer and reader at a bookstore?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conformity is one of the main factors that affects this, said Suraksha Mukesh, an avid reader and UAE resident. <\/p>\n\n\n \u201cPeople, especially young girls, want to conform to the norms and the trends on TikTok to feel accepted,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n The \u201cit girl\u201d trend is a prime example of this, where many female creators will post videos of the books they read along with their aesthetic lifestyle. This content promotes the idea that if others do not have the same taste in books or lead the same life, they are not of the same value and do not fit in, Mukesh said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This had an influence on her as well, since she bought books about self help or feminism solely because it was trendy and her favorite BookTokers were reading them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moreover, the \u201cFor You\u201d page on TikTok is highly personalized to each user; thus, there is more of a sense of intimacy and trust between audience and creator in comparison to a platform such as \u201cGoodreads.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mukesh highlighted that she feels the creators are speaking to her directly when they are recommending books.<\/p>\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve never intentionally searched up book related videos, but it is as if the creators know what type of books I would like.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n As a result, she felt that there was a corner of TikTok that was a community of similar readers that could share their opinions in the comments section, relate to each other and gush over the books they love together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI even joined a discord server that I found on TikTok with readers, and we would all talk about our favourite books or recommend some to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Abdul Aziz felt the same way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs a BookTok creator, I love seeing the comment section of my videos filled with people talking to each other, making friends and connecting over something so universal: reading,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When checking her analytics, Abdul Aziz also realized that her most viral videos are short funny ones about book jokes; however, her most saved and shared videos are the longer videos such as book reviews or hauls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI feel like I can connect with my audience more if I am talking to them directly. These are the videos I personally love to watch as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mohadessa Meherali, another reader and local resident, agreed with this. In her opinion, the most attractive videos were ones that had a summary of the book as well as how the creator honestly felt about it, without the unnecessary hype. <\/p>\n\n\n \u201cI also think videos on books written by authors of color, or those that contain diverse characters are very likely to be popular on TikTok,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n Meherali emphasized that the BookTokers on the platform \u201care often critical readers and quickly spot hidden biases or problematic ideas.\u201d However, they also give the authors credit where credit is due, which she finds to be a wonderful balance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBookTok has made some great progress in helping readers diversify their shelves. I myself took a step back and thought \u2018damn that’s a lot of white authors on my shelf\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Abdul Aziz is a hijabi, and as a physically Muslim creator, she thinks she has a role to play in adding to this diversity on BookTok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPeople in the region are able to relate to me more and therefore be more trusting of my recommendations.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n She said that she enjoys reading and sharing books with Muslim leads and positive representation of Islam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mukesh added that because of this, she was finally able to identify with main characters in a book after looking for diverse representation ever since she was a child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t think I will ever go back to traditionally buying books. The list of book recommendations from Tiktok in my notes app is ever growing and will remain with me forever.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" TikTok has made reading trendy again and a variety of factors have caused teenagers in the UAE to flock to local book stores. By Zahra Rashid \u201cSorry, it\u2019s sold out.\u201d It was a Saturday evening in the United Arab Emirates\u2019 largest bookstore. A teenage girl was at the customer service desk with the \u201cFavorites\u201d folder […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3494,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,28],"tags":[17,46,31,45,25],"class_list":{"0":"post-3493","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-feature-articles","8":"category-features","9":"tag-community","10":"tag-culture","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-leisure","13":"tag-sharjah-uae"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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