In Which I Think About Performative Reading

Greeting, as a note, I wrote this months ago but never hit published because I was likely editing a troublesome chapter and didn’t have time to go through this post again. So this week, I decided to delve into my drafts and pull out something and post it.

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This is a subject that largely comes from YouTubers tackling the subject of folks on TikTok who basically read for the aesthetic. They made reading performative and devote space for pretty books that are supposed to just look good.

And to be honest, as a reader, I pay zero attention to TikTok as a reader. I do not care what is popular. Because I promise you, 9 out of 10 books they overhype are books that will waste my time. I don’t read books that waste my time. I don’t buy special editions, and I don’t arrange my bookshelf by color in neat hardcovers. I’ve a lot of paperbacks.

And if I flip the coin, I don’t read books to look smart either. I’m not going to pick out a book or an author just because all the “intellectuals” and writers who want to swing the pendulum on social media, including Substack, trying to disguise, “I’m better than you” as reading better books because all books outside these classic are worse. It’s all performative.

I don’t like performance.

These are the reasons I read:

Because I want to. (Below are sub-reasons)

1. Entertainment

2. Knowledge

3. Curiosity

Reading is not:

Performative

Because to perform is to not be me, but the me dressed in a way that others like and find acceptable, which is still a lie.

By the way, we can’t pretend that this sort of thing didn’t exist before social media.

Performative reading, has always existed in it’s many forms. And I think this case is the funniest case.

My reading habits haven’t changed all that much over the years, aside from using the internet to pinpoint me in the right direction to improve book searching. And even then, if I see something fascinating at a bookstore, I’ll get it.

And for the record, I refuse to join any book discourse via online groups, especially fan spaces. People have shown themselves to be unsensible individuals. Where they spend way too much time putting a piece of their identity into a series or author and making it all about them. And the same things goes for the hate train as well.

It’s especially eye-roll inducing when they try to disguise their personal hatred as criticism and fail three ways when their wordy rants are filled with assumptions and generalization because they clearly never actually look into what they are talking about. Which seems to be the default state now.

At this point, I tend to read mostly in private now. I might announce a book here and there. I might be willing to talk about one if I feel it’s worth it. Even though I am on The StoryGraph, I’ve yet to make friends with anyone or even have the desire too because I don’t want to compare reading or interact with anyone. I rather look at my reading data myself. I want to rate my books so I can get the recommendation I want and not be all performative about it to get attention because if I’m writing a review, it’s going to be here.

Reading was always, and still is, an enjoyable activity. Something I like because it’s my chosen form of entertainment. It supplies me with what TV and video games doesn’t. It doesn’t have to be more than that, and sometimes I feel others want it to be more than that. They want it to be a status symbol, which is ridiculous in my mind. That whole, “I’m better than you.” I guess I’m tired of that feeling I get around readers who perform online, and I tire of it from writers.

I’m likely going to start back editing soon, and I’ll have a final date on the return on the last Season of Claws of Ice Wings of Fire. It might be further into September than I originally thought.

Thank you for reading.

God Bless.