Welcome Back, BookmarQ

Vacation is over! Class is back in session, and I’m so glad to have you here! For my new students, especially those coming from my BookTok channel (@emmmmmreads), welcome! I’m thankful to have you here on my personal literary journey. Let’s get reacquainted, shall we?

In 2018, I began working on my Masters degree. I was also working as a consultant at the time, starting my week in Seattle, pitstopping in St. Louis, then ending in Chicago for weekend class. I can’t even begin to describe the exhaustion of landing in a city and wondering if I both completed my assignments and booked a hotel for the night. People ask me the best part about my program, and I respond with the lifetime Titanium Elite status I earned at Marriott.

For a year, I didn’t pick up anything other than a textbook. It took almost two before I rediscovered my love for reading, which conveniently coincided with the genesis of BookTok. During lockdown, a friend mentioned how she wanted to read all the books on her fyp, but if she started one and didn’t like it, that might be the final straw to set her over the edge. Sounds melodramatic now, but what wasn’t unnecessarily aggressive in 2020? Seeing an opportunity to maintain community with friends displaced across the country in each of our own personal hellscapes, I started my BookTok account.

In the corner of my parents’ basement, I set up my stack of books and reviewed everything I read with a simple formula: title, rating, and worthy of a recommendation or not. I kept each review to a minute, front-loading the recommended stamp of approval, followed by my analysis of the book’s character development, plot crescendo, and overall style of writing. At the end of the month, I’d do a 60 second recap of every book I read with a thumbs up or down.

It was terrifying. This is coming from someone with multiple state tournament qualifications in speech & debate, someone who was the lead in my high school’s drama department productions, someone who presents in front of C-suite executives consistently. None of that is a flex; if anything it shows how pathetic I felt knowing I had a plethora of public speaking experience but exaggerated stage freight in front of my iPhone. To be entrusted with the intimacy of someone’s mind, how they will spend 10-20 hours fully entranced and dedicated to an ending they don’t know – and to do it on the front-facing camera! – terrifying didn’t begin to cover it. It was a vulnerability I’d never experienced before.

As lockdown lifted, so did my self-imposed, hypercritical veil. I started reading books that weren’t on anyone’s radar, partaking in the app’s trends, and expanding my content. As a consultant, one of the few joys I had was buying a new book every Sunday from a Hudson News. Certain locations allow you to swap out books for free once you make a purchase with them, and I heavily relied on this system as I tried to make ends meet living as a 20-something in Seattle. On my Thursday flight home, I’d stop in the same Hudson News, making the airport my personal library. I shared these tips on my channel. On the road in a new city, I always visited local independent bookstores, so I started making content about the shops I’d visit, highlighting their staff recommendations and community programs. My community grew, and while still small by comparison, it’s engaged and faithful.

The most gratifying experience has been people enjoying one of my recommendations. To know that someone trusted my viewpoint enough to invest their own leisure time, instead of doing a host of other passions, brings me a spark of joy that never dulls. I can’t imagine how authors must feel when someone connects with their words.

These words I’ve written are rusty and out of practice, sat on a shelf to collect dust, so bear with me while I regain my voice. In the meantime, stick around for more book recommendations, an overhaul of the personal library I’m building in my first home, and a potential business venture in my hometown. I appreciate each and every one of you who have once again shared your time and attention with me. Class is dismissed (for now)!