TikTok is encouraging its users to log off and read with a BookTok partnership with Barnes and Noble.
BookTok — the TikTok community of creators who post book recommendations, reviews and discussions — blossomed over the past two years. The popular videos inspired a fresh wave of interest in literature, with retailers like Barnes and Noble creating special displays to feature trending books.
Now, TikTok announced announced that it is partnering with the bookstore company to connect new book releases with the the #BookTok community. Customers will be able to scan a QR code at Barnes and Noble displays that takes them to a "dedicated hub" that features videos from popular BookTok creators. The creators featured in the collaboration with Barnes and Noble include aymansbooks, bookpapi, kendra.reads, kevintnorman, maistorybook and thebooksiveloved.
“The BookTok community has been such a driving medium in discovering favorite paperbacks and bringing worthy titles back to the forefront of customers’ minds,” Barnes and Nobles head of social media Michele Laikowski said in a statement.
TikTok is also pushing users, especially teenagers home for the summer, to discover and read new books and share their thoughts on the app with the #BookTokChallenge tag. The creators featured in the collaboration recommended a few summer reads — like Gabriel García Márquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "When Women Were Dragons" by Kelly Barnhill — and encouraged followers to respond with their own recommendations.
"I may be biased because I'm a summer baby all the way, but summertime is the best time to visit new places, experience new things, learn about new cultures and do the things you haven't done before," TikTok creator bookpapi said in a recent video about the challenge. "But of course the easiest way to travel to new places is by reading a book."