BookTok is a popular community on TikTok that discusses and makes book recommendations.
The New York Times describes BookTok as a “best-seller machine.”
New and old books have found success, whether for the first time or becoming popular again, as a result of having gone viral through influencers’ reactions.
Sections of Barnes and Noble are dedicated to books that have been recommended on BookTok.
How much has BookTok boosted book sales?
According to a report by Circana, the increase in book sales over the past few years in adult fiction is a result of TikTok’s influence.
Adult fiction books saw an increase of 8.5% in sales in 2022, per Publishers Weekly, which was directly influenced by TikTok.
Circana Bookscans reported that in 2023 that increased by a further 1%. Other genres which saw an increase were dystopian, romance and thriller.
Circana predicted that 2024 would be “the year of ‘romantasy.’” Romantasy is a combination of the genres fantasy and romance, both of which are popular on TikTok.
Top books to read according to TikTok
According to Preply, which compiled a list based off data from Barnes and Noble, Goodreads and Google Search, these are some of the most popular books on TikTok:
“The Book Thief”
Price: $10.99
“Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books,” per Amazon. “With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.”
“The Summer I Turned Pretty”
Price: $8.99
According to Amazon, “Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad.
“They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer—they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one wonderful and terrible summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.”
“The Hunger Games”
Price: $9.99
“In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV,” according to Amazon.
“Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister’s place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to death before-and survival, for her, is second nature. Still, if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.”