The readerships is growing in shadow. The literary society is trapped in major influence. Wherever I see, I find the talk of those three hundred titles that had been hyped enormously. Everyone is talking about Animal farm, housemaids, silent patient, godan, Colleen hoover, monk Ferrari, the shining, etc. why don’t we discuss about millions of other books? And, majority of them are average books that marketed well. I m not against those books but it feels like a trap where readers read the same books and recommend the same. I may be wrong but what’s your view on this perspective??
by Neoplastic_neurone
11 Comments
Because that’s just online discourse. Irl people read a lot of different books you wouldn’t have ever heard about
Marketing budgets, corporate influence, literary networks and goodwill garnered by authors with influencers, media, and other influential figures, and what is called the Web of Collective Belief. You can write the most amazing book in the world but no one will read it if no one knows about it.
The hyped books are the ones people have read, and therefore the ones that get upvotes when people talk about them. Same reason you got to r/movies and find people bitching about how nobody makes good films anymore because Marvel sucks now, even though none of them bothered to watch Sentimental Value. Similarly I could talk all day about how great the 2025 republish of Eric Foner’s book on Reconstruction is, but nobody will have read it.
That said, be the change you want to see in the world. Post about books you like. Nobody’s stopping you.
It’s so annoying because unless you follow niche creators you can’t find it. Like sometimes I also want to watch mainstream book creators but what they post is shit.
Then people tell you to watch niche creators but I already do it’s not the problem. I don’t think we should have to be chronically online and spend so much time to look for creators just to get content that is not repetitive.
Big book creators should definitely broaden their book content so that everyone can enjoy and find recs.
Same reason people watch Stranger Things and listen to Taylor Swift. Popular things are popular and you have to dig a little deeper to get past it.
Cream rises to the top. Same thing happens with movies, TV, and music.
My take is that most people only read 10 books or fewer per year.
I read a lot. And I do talk about some that are underappreciated gems.
Author here. Marketing, especially for smaller or indie authors, is incredibly difficult, time-consuming, and often expensive. It’s very hard to get the word out about your book, let alone get people to read it and talk about it. Big 5 publishers have a ton of money, connections, and reach, so you’re going to hear about those books more often. Then you have creators/influencers who are trying to make money off their content, so they’re more likely to talk about books that everyone else is already talking about to get clicks on their videos.
Unfortunately the rest of the good books are now lost in a sea of AI drivel.
I avoid most of social media in general (except you guys because you’re awesome, clever and always show me great books).
My book purchases are usually because I find a topic that I want to know more about, or I see a narrative that sounds really interesting. Sometimes I know nothing about the book at all when I buy it and some of those mysterious ones have been so much fun, also some terribly awful – but I love them all equally.
I would worry if I was guided by these talking heads and their sponsored reading material – I would have ended up thinking the Hoover & Rooney texts were the peak of modern literature.
My one little dip into this pond is getting an email once a month from Service 95 to see what book Dua Lipa has read – she gets some cool stuff and I like her vibe.
You can discuss whatever books you’d like to. It just depends on how much effort you’re willing to put into that. Some are easier than others.
But it’s not that difficult to start a book discussion group. Read a book and meetup and discuss it.