The Reading Race

 

I had an exchange on social media recently with a fellow blogger who was voicing similar concerns and frustrations to those that I have been experiencing for some time now as my ‘career’ as a blogger and book reviewer declines before my very eyes without my really knowing the reason why. This blogger admitted to increasingly falling off publisher lists and feeling overwhelmed by many of the end of year bookish posts. I also found myself wondering what the motivation is behind folk announcing how many books they had read in the previous year and how many they intend to read in the new year. People were setting themselves reading goals and reading challenges. I also saw somewhere on social media someone bemoaning the fact that a user was posting how they had read 14 books already and it was only January 1^st! (Maybe they were easy to read comic books or graphic novels?) 

 

But when did reading become such a competitive sport? What does it matter how many books you read? Isn’t the point of reading to entertain, to inform, to educate, to provoke thought and discussion, but above all to enjoy?   It isn’t about which books will make a pretty photo or video surely? But it’s becoming that way, and it seems to me that if you don’t do all these things on Twitter (X), Instagram, Threads, TikTok, Blue Sky, Snapchat, Reddit, Pinterest, Facebook – have I missed any? – you are not considered as pulling your weight as a reader. 

 

I also wonder whether people actually read blogs or book reviews anymore? It’s almost as if they are not immediate enough to compete with an image. It seems to be more about the visuals than any kind of intelligent response to a book that might be helpful to potential readers. There’s less conversation about the books. My social media posts just seem to be floating about in the ether. The majority of my blog views are comprised of referrer spam from Russia and Singapore! I know the digital/cyber world is ever changing. Perhaps I have grown too old and too cynical to see the picture clearly but I feel immensely saddened by all this. Nothing will ever stop me reading of course but it’s harder to share and discuss in a meaningful way nowadays. I find myself on the periphery. I receive fewer and fewer review copies now and when I do, I’m usually so excited I rip open the package…without filming myself doing so which seems to be another prerequisite of the online book community. It seems you have to make yourself visible in order to be taken seriously. I’m simply not comfortable in front of a camera. I keep posting sporadically; on my blog, the two social media platforms I inhabit, but I wonder for how much longer before I withdraw from the race?