From trends to friends: Bookstagram tales

By Meghna Rodborne 

 “Not many share my love for books so I decided to do something innovative on Instagram. I noticed that as I kept posting book reviews, it drew people on my page through comments and the number of followers, too, kept growing. This was when I discovered the bookstagram community” shares, Firdaus Samad, a Shillong based book enthusiast.

‘Bookstagram’ or Book instagram is a section on popular social networking site, Instagram, popularised by the hashtag #bookstagram has become a platform for book lovers around the globe, where bookworms share aesthetically clicked photographs of their books, libraries and stacks collected over the years. A rapid growing trend, has found inroads into Meghalaya as well.

Akin to popular name tags of fans and followers of celebrities and clubs capturing the essence of an umbrella term such as ‘Beliebers’ or ‘Potterheads’, members of bookstagram are called bookstagramers. On asking bookstagrammers across the state what prompted them to join the community, the most common response was that they did not have many people around them who shared their passion for reading so they switched to a welcoming space online, which eventually led to the discovery of a whole community of avid readers.

Going beyond its original goal, that is of sharing reviews, ideas and thoughts on their literary discoveries, bookstagrammers have created communities with bonds that outlive the confines of the virtual world. Running a page of her own, another Shillong-based bookstagrammer, Cheryl Aqualina Rynjah, said she met some of her closest friends through bookstagram. “I have some offline friends whom I met through bookstagram and now we meet at least once or twice a month to discuss books” shares, Rynjah, who along with six others has formed a book club.

“There are seven of us in our book club and each month a different member of the group picks a book that we read for that month. We then meet on the last weekend of the month with a set of questions about the book which we then discuss as part of the club,” Rynjah added.

Asked whether they felt pressured to generate content for their bookstagram pages, the bookstagrammers unanimously agreed that in the beginning they felt the need to put up aesthetically pleasing pictures, but with time that notion faded. A subscriber of one such book account, Baphira Shylla said that when she begins following these pages, it is primarily because of its content. “I follow an account based on what it offers to its viewers, especially the genre of book recommendations it provides. I look for pages on Instagram that refer to books which are different from the ones available elsewhere.”

Reading culture in the state

In the backdrop of the waning reading culture, a Jowai-based bookstagrammer, Emitre Kyndiah says, “I wish more youth developed the habit of reading so that their perception of the world and knowledge may be enhanced.”

Less number of bookshops, lack of proper libraries and reading spaces are common factors contributing to the dwindling habit of reading in the state. “I once went to a cafe, took out my Kindle and started reading, only to realise that people were staring at me as if I was doing something alien,” adds Kyndiah as she recounted her experience of reading in a public place in the city.

While the sizable decrease in the number of bookshops is also factored by the uptake on e-books, owing to its economic feasibility, portability and access, some still vouch for reading as a habit, continually, albeit remotely. Wardibonlang Pakma, another Jowai-based bookstagrammer, expresses, “During the lockdown I started reading e-books as it was convenient. I have also developed a taste for audiobooks, especially because I travel almost an hour to and fro university.”

As bookstagram opens up a whole new world for booklovers to share their shared passion, it can also be a place for prospective readers who are building the habit of reading with the myriad of options available, navigating through the different genres of books trending, while also exploring infinite options based on recommendations.

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