Long live Booktok: no bookseller knows me better than my cell phone

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Out of boredom and out of habit, I open the Tiktok app. My algorithm sends me to Booktok and I see the first video books. I am prompted by the “Law of Nature” by Solomonika de Winter. The title is a mixture of Fahrenheit 451 and The Hunger Games. So the decision was made quickly: the book is required! After work, I run to my favorite bookstore and… I can’t find a book. When the bookseller sends me to the back of the store—a section I never go to—I finally find it hidden between two crime novels.

And that’s why I think Booktok is great. In bookstores, I get lost in variety and stand in front of the shelves for hours. Is this novel really that exciting or is it just a PR text? Is the story as cheesy as the cover suggests? Are there dragons too? These questions are now redundant. Depending on which influencer or booktoker I follow, I’m offered books according to my taste, which I definitely wouldn’t look for in a store. On Booktok, I am among like-minded people. Because no one knows me better than my cell phone, and unfortunately no bookseller, no matter how good, can keep up with it.

But be careful! If you let the algorithm influence you too much, you risk missing out on good books. Hence my advice: select a book on Booktok and then pick it up at a bookstore. Because who knows, maybe next to the one you want, there is another book that you like too.

Source: Blick