Is the Book Aesthetic Bad? Is It Any of Your Business?
Many complain that social media has made reading into an aesthetic. People love posing with books, but critics point out that that doesn’t mean they’re reading them.
Or aren’t they? Those critics may be making huge assumptions about those Bookstagrammers and BookTokkers. Not to mention raining on their fun.
As many voracious readers know, our bookshelves are often far from aesthetic. Yet I still like looking at my chaotic bookshelves. Call it my personal book aesthetic. Would some critics fuss because my shelves contain books they think are inferior? Would they dare to snidely imply that I don’t read?
In a Facebook group I belong to, a post popped up selling “bookish” T-shirts and mugs: books and cats or whatever. A writer I otherwise respect grumbled about how he hated “book culture” or something like that.
As someone who reads a lot (but who also owns bookish shirts and mugs), I wanted to step in and ask, “Are you implying that people who buy ‘bookish’ shirts don’t actually read?!”
But I didn’t want to start a fire. (Also, I couldn’t find the post again!)
Books on Display?!
People have criticized celebrities for posing with their bookshelves in photo shoots. People criticized actress Ashley Tisdale after a photo shoot of her house for Architectural Digest because she revealed that she and her husband had to buy about 400 books to fill the shelves in their new home. The Twitter post about this had hundreds of thousands of likes.
Never mind that Tisdale cleared up things and said she put many of her own books there. Never mind that, as she pointed out, “any interior designer would have done the same. They do it all the time, I was just honest about it.”
Let’s shame her. But we’ll leave her husband out of it for some reason. Hmm. It’s starting to smack of misogyny, isn’t it?
My bookshelves are far from aesthetic. But I do sometimes display cover artists I like by making some books face the front — I love George Ziel covers, for example. Does that make me one of those book aesthetic types? Or just somebody with the good taste to like George Ziel Gothic covers?
Anyway, celebrities are far from the only people who use books for show. Companies like Books by the Foot sell books for display. Their customers range from home decor companies to clothing stores to major hotels. Even movie and TV studios will buy books in bulk to display them in a scene.
Yes, book lovers often think it’s awful. Yet somebody has to make the library in a movie look authentic. Somebody has to set up those displays in Architectural Digest photo shoots or in boutiques.
Sure, it would be cooler if people would just read their books instead of displaying books they bought by the foot. But even voracious readers don’t have the time to read everything they own.
The Usual Complaints About the Book Aesthetic
On Twitter, a writer once said, “julia fox is important representation for the girls who are enamored by literature but don’t read books.”
Oh, how very clever. Yet… Why aim this just at women? Oh, excuse me. Girls. (Note that actress and model Julia Fox is 33.) (I’m assuming he lowercased her name in that tweet for aesthetic reasons of his own.)
On Mashable, Meera Navlakha wrote “Twitter asks: Are books just an aesthetic?“ — an article that brings up some of the same questions.
Yet again, the main examples involve women.
Maybe that’s because many of the “bookish” products — such as the ones you see on Etsy or at Redbubble — are aimed at women. Or maybe the critics are just being jerks.
Yes, You Should Read!
Yes, of course, books should be more than an aesthetic. (They should be a way of life, damn it!)
For the Michigan Daily, Reva Lalwani argued “Reading should be more than just a Pinterest aesthetic.”
She has some great points. The reading aesthetic on Pinterest is fun to look at. But reading is more important. And good for your mental health.
What’s bad for my mental health might be the critics who look down on readers for their choices.
The Snoots Strike Again?
I was about to label certain critics of the “book aesthetic” as elitists. But then I realized that would imply that they have something to feel elitist about. So let’s just call them the snoots.
The snoots are not just critical of people (often women, you’ll notice) for posing with books. They are also critical of people for reading what they enjoy. That is, for not reading the “right” books. You must read “literature,” or the snoots will condemn you.
Has everyone forgotten that many classics were not respected by the literary establishment when they were first published?
Let It Go! Let It Go!
If someone is into the book aesthetic just for the looks (blooks?), why is it an issue to you? Also, how do you know? Are you a mind reader who can pass your brainwaves through the computer and gaze into the mind of every person (especially a woman!) who poses with a book online?
Didn’t think so.
Sure, people admit that they go to book clubs and drink wine more than they talk about the book. Why does that anger you? Did they spill that wine on your carpet? Show me on the doll where the book club hurt you.
Yes, some people will pose with their gorgeous books while using the #bookstagram hashtag on Instagram — without actually reading those books. That is their right. You have no way of knowing who read it and who is merely posing with it.
Yes, some people are into the #booktok hashtag on TikTok. Perhaps they, too, pose with books they haven’t read.
Or maybe you’re just being a dick when you attack them.
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