Reading books is sexy.
asserted
Reading → read → books
Apparently fed up with social media, young women (and some young men) are turning back to this ancient form of communication where you actually have to think.
asserted
you → feed → communication
“She’s back – and hotter than ever,” writes Issy McElroy for Nasty magazine, a compendium of what’s called “the dusky side” of fashion and art.
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what → ’ → fashion
Accompanied by photos of a blonde model in her undies getting stuck into Lolita, the article introduces us to the hot reader: “The ones with good eyeliner, sharp minds and zero patience for bullshit.
asserted
article → accompany → bullshit
They’re not just reading – they’re reprogramming.
asserted
they → read → ?
Tired of AI regurgitations and influencer-fed ignorance, they’re reaching for pages like it’s survival.
asserted
it → feed → pages
It’s resistance.”
asserted
It → ’ → ?
Nasty points to online book clubs such as Dua Lipa’s Service95, Kaia Gerber’s Library Science and author and influencer Sophia Tuxford, all helping to make reading books the glamorous thing to do.
asserted
reading → help → books
Sometimes such pointers lead to fluffy romances, but more often than not they highlight meaty history or science tomes, or literary fiction.
asserted
they → lead → history
There’s a performative element: it is cool, apparently, to be reading War and Peace or Crime and Punishment or Love in the Time of Cholera on the train, so everyone can admire your beautiful brain.
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everyone → ’ → brain
Or for something more contemporary, Frankie magazine suggests Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.
uncertain
magazine → suggest → Humankind
Pan Macmillan got in on the act with a list of “Books you’ll want to be seen reading: Classic and contemporary masterpieces that are sure to turn heads.”
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that → get → heads
So if you’re in a coffee shop reading Percival Everett’s James, or Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty, or Don DeLillo’s Underworld, or even Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, you will impress your fellow bookworms and elevate your reading game.
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you → ’re → game
They are a rarer breed, but highly sought after in the dating stakes.
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They → seek → stakes
Samantha Leac in Bustle magazine says it’s much better to flirt with brains than with brawn.
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it → say → brawn
The bonkers version of this trend is happening in South Korea, where teens have been queuing up at convenience stores and pop-ups to buy buns with wrappers designed to look like book covers, with collectible bookmarks showing characters from the books as cute cartoon creatures.
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teens → happen → creatures
Of course this craze isn’t directly selling books, but titles have seen big increases in sales as curious young buyers go on to discover what’s inside the real covers.
asserted
what → sell → covers
It’s all down to ingenious marketing by Minumsa, a venerable Korean publishing house: sales of Pride and Prejudice have jumped 50 per cent; Chekhov’s About Love, 223 per cent.
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sales → ’ → Love
“In the past, books were viewed as something you should read to acquire knowledge – a tool for self-enrichment,” Jo Ah-ran, the marketing director at Minumsa, told Korea JoongAng Daily.
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ran → view → Daily
“Recently, however, the role of books has started expanding as a channel for self-expression, where people use books to show their self-identity and lifestyle just like clothes or music.”
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people → start → clothes
Young readers won’t turn back to books just because they are told it’s good for them.
asserted
it → turn → them
I only hope that everybody drawn back to this quaint old-fashioned piece of technology will actually do the harder work of reading the books right through, thinking about them, and talking to others about them.
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everybody → hope → them
As Nasty says, “Reading helps you talk better.
asserted
you → say → ?
It’s not deep – it’s just the truth.”
asserted
it → ’ → ?
What else is happening in the book world?
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What → happen → world
- This novel is the raw, moving reality check Australian fiction needs
- Blood, lies and cartels: Five new crime books to read this month
- ‘Landmark achievement’ wins $80,000 literature prize
-
asserted
achievement → move → prize
A giant Mao looms over Hong Kong.
asserted
Mao → loom → Kong
The Aporia
