Celebrate Engaging With Books
Don’t Be a Jerk About This
Recently, I saw young people engaging with books at Barnes and Noble. Yay! We should celebrate this. Yet across the Internet, I’ve seen people scoff at this.
Many readers (especially younger ones) are enjoying the books they love both online and in the real world. They are annotating books — for fun! They are making BookTok videos and Bookstagram posts.
Watching these fans has drawn me to new books and authors. So why do some readers hate this sort of activity with the passion of a thousand paper cuts? Elitism? Gatekeeping? Misogyny?
I want to be the author whose books engage people this much. Who wouldn’t?
Did I Spy on Book Lovers?…
On many weekends, I “get away from it all” by going to the local Barnes and Noble bookstore on one of the days. This store has a Barnes and Noble Café complete with several “regulars” (including me). I buy something at the Barnes and Noble Café and look over the books I’m currently browsing.
Whew! You can tell I like to live dangerously.
On this weekend afternoon, I put my books on the table at the Café and settled in. Before long, I realized several young people nearby were all gathering together. Several young women and a…
