Are Books the New Fast Fashion? – The Oxford Student

I’m currently reading On the Road by Jack Kerouac. I curl up with page 1 in front of me and before I know it I’m halfway through, enthralled by Kerouac’s Beat Generation references but unable to fully immerse myself. I’m just itching to add it to my Goodreads.

Something about reading a physical book just feels right. Maybe it’s the sense of tradition, or that new-book smell. Either way, print book sales are on the rise while ebooks fade. However, a single tree only produces 25 books, and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone has sold over 500 million copies. It’s no wonder that the publishing industry is a huge contributor to global warming, causing 3.4 billion trees to be destroyed annually. If anything, e-reading is probably the way to go, at least until the thrifting trend extends to support secondhand book shops. Reading is undeniably chic again—but why?

In the season five episode of Gilmore Girls titled ‘Say Something’, we see Rory Gilmore in a witty graphic tee, sporting the phrase Reading is Sexy. The TikTok revival of the show has, inevitably, inspired a new generation of Rory Gilmores. Reading is but one of the constituent parts of a distinct aesthetic—autumn leaves, hot coffee, even the beauty of the Rad Cam. It’s enough to be the type of person who would read. A hot girl who reads, if you will (as we’ve learned, reading is sexy).

Reading is undeniably chic again—but why?

Fundamental to the reading renaissance is ‘BookTok’. Admittedly I speak as an outsider, but it is hard to ignore the fact that many members of this community seem to not actually enjoy reading. Several times screenshots from BookTok creators have gone viral, videos complaining about the length of books, the lack of dialogue, the difficulty of the vocabulary. Disdain for intellectualism aside, I would argue that the very nature of the community encourages needless overconsumption. The internal pressure for me to finish On the Road is just that: internal. But it is instigated by a general culture of productivity and the need to tick items off a list. Subconsciously, all I want is the feeling of being ‘well-read’.

It is not difficult to see the parallels between modern book consumption and fast fashion. The environmental implications, the neat division into ‘tropes’ and ‘aesthetics’ respectively, the incessant need to post fresh book or fashion content online. Perhaps it’s a good thing that young people are discovering how fun reading can be, albeit through low-stakes, hyper-consumable YA (young adult) novels. But as we have seen, the disposable culture fostered by BookTok and overconsumption in general may point to something worrying for society at large.A mix of (guilty) materialism and competitive spirit mean that I still can’t fully engross myself in On the Road. My reading list for next term is mountainous enough that reading for pleasure has also become a chore. There’s nothing wrong with Kerouac—in fact, On the Road is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. Maybe one day my identity and reading habits will feel separate. But, for now, I’ll keep resisting the temptation to skim and start something else.

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