I tend to not only reject stereotypes but detest them. All except for the one that informs the world that an introvert’s safe space lies in a book. While I am aware that this isn’t true of all of my fellow introverts, the statement holds true for me and has done so since my early childhood.
My earliest memory is sitting in my kindergarten classroom reading the David! series. A couple of years later, I gained a profound love for the Magic Treehouse books. I soon graduated to anything written by Jacqueline Wilson (honorary mention to My Sister Jodie). Middle school came, and I was whisked into the fantastical land of Harry Potter, Katniss Everdeen, and, of course, Edward Cullen.
However, the second I walked through my high school halls, reading seemed to become a mere memory. I went from the resident bibliophile to a “casual reader.” I didn’t even pick up a book during my first semester of college. I can say with the utmost confidence that this was fifth grade me’s worst nightmare.
My second semester of university was when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and I was confined to the walls of my bedroom with nothing but my phone, my dog, and my old dance costumes to entertain me.
I, like many others, spent most of my time on TikTok. This didn’t last long, though, as I was quickly swept into the early beginnings of “BookTok.” It had been almost a year since my last read at that point, and I didn’t realize how much I missed it until I saw a whole community of people who were essentially a memory of who I once was.
I had never really experienced the fear of missing out (FOMO) until the moment I saw a group of individuals discussing whether they liked Atlas Carrigan or not. I quickly went to purchase It Ends With Us, which in turn ended my almost year-long reading slump.
The pandemic, through my eyes, was a series of me trying to remember what genre of books I enjoyed reading. I enjoyed Colleen Hoover’s books for a short while, however I’m still a mystery girl at heart. Agatha Christie rose to the top of my list, and Freida McFadden’s psychological thrillers did not trail far behind. BookTok receives a lot of negative feedback, but I will always be thankful for the phenomenon that gave me my sparkle back.
Thank you, BookTok, for making me into a person that 12-year-old me would be proud of. For you, I will be eternally grateful.