Literary elitism and the toxic side of #booktok.

If you read the title of this article and immediately clutched your literary pearls, then I think you might be in the right place. I may offend you. I may alienate you. I may be your next TikTok rampage victim. And honestly? I’m good with it. Because it needs to be said.

If you have a Master’s degree in French Literature or Shakespeare, there are books that you may pick up in the bookstore like they have a disease. Or you don’t touch them at all, you just side-eye them like I do the cranberry jelly cans at Thanksgiving (honestly, it’s not sauce).

Some seem to hold the opinion that specific genres are too formulaic, simplistic, or poorly written. Others think widely loved or commercially marketable books are “less serious.” Some may think anything that centers on sex or desire is dismissed as indulgent.

But that’s the point. Emotional interiority, escapism, distraction…that’s the point.

But hear me when I tell you, it’s not for you to decide what is worthy of consumption. It is not for you to decide that only classics matter or that one should pick up a real book. One, because they don’t matter to everyone. Are they important? Sure. Do people spend years studying them for a reason? Yes. But not everyone is reading for the same reasons you are. Not everyone wants to have to take notes or think about a dissertation as they are reading.

Sometimes, in the same way you want junk food or a dirty martini, a smutty romance is what we want. It isn’t a wheatgrass and matcha smoothie, it’s a bag of gummy worms and a Mountain Dew. It doesn’t nourish you. It doesn’t improve your life. But it is my life.

Have I read all or at least most of the classics over the years? Absolutely. The Count of Monte Cristo is one of my favorite titles, and it takes eight and a half thousand years to read. But it’s work. And our brains are tired. And when we log on to TikTok to escape the world for a bit and hear about books we like, being met with judgment and intellectual posturing disguised as better taste, it’s irritating.

Social media is a platform for sharing opinions. Yes, we have freedom of speech. But the culture has taken a violent shove from sharing opinions into condescension and literary elitism. This mentality, “I’m better than you because I read War and Peace last week,” is destructive, and honestly? It’s bullying.

I think that BookTok can do better. We should be celebrating diversity of taste and complexity, encouraging curiosity, and recommending books outside of one’s comfort zone without pressure or judgment. We should be advocating for and supporting critique without condescension and contempt. Most of all, we should never assume that loving romance or widely marketed books is a reflection of one’s intellect.

I’m not asking for anyone not to have opinions. You do you. What I am saying is that the hill you are trying to die on is where you need to take a seat, and that maybe Booktok isn’t for you. I’m going to kick back and enjoy reading Heated Rivalry for the eighth time. And I’m not going to feel the least bit bad about it.