Despite all the distracting odds — TikTok, Instagram and endless streaming services — young adults still love a good book.
While it may come as a surprise, reading and falling in love with a story means as much as it did when we were 11, waiting in line to meet “The Hunger Games” author Suzanne Collins at Wild Rumpus.
There’s something romantic about being 20-something, coming home for winter break, and reading the entire Percy Jackson series in 48 hours.
Or meeting up with friends to wander a bookstore and investigate its sticker collections. Or adding a book recommendation to the list that never ends.
Books and stories take us back down memory lane, reminding us that we control just how much we grow up.
Curling up with a good book is not necessarily a 20-something universal truth, but finding some way to connect to reading still rings true for most.
Throughout my own life, I’ve found that if they can find the time, just about everybody likes to read.
Not everyone reads 50 books a year, but even one makes a difference in our creativity, imagination and joy. Some of us love to relive middle grade classics, and others want to stay informed with the New York Times top nonfiction or most recent celebrity autobiographies.
Outside of academic reading, my school friends bring books back into their lives by flipping through photo books, doing dishes to the tune of an audiobook and relaxing into poetry. Apps like Libby, an online public library database, inspire us to download a book right before hopping on a plane, or even in line in the dining hall!
Book reading trends are also enticing us young adults into expanding our library collections, and our minds! “BookTok” (the book reading niche of TikTok) creators have even started to popularize buying sticky tabs to match a book’s cover for those who like to write notes throughout their reading.
There’s nothing more satisfying than seeing the color of ombre lining of your page turner! I am pulled in by mystery book grabs, where a book is wrapped in brown paper packaging and labeled with a genre or trope and cryptic quote.
Though the book may be unknown the surprise alone guarantees your entertainment. Supporting public libraries is also becoming a youth-driven trend as we learn more about the crucial economic and social resources provided by libraries in our cities — so let this remind you to sign up for your free library card today!
Whether we love reading for the memories inspired, mind expansion, or just keeping up with trends, trust me that though my generation might not always read from the traditional paperback, the art of book loving has not died.
And, within the fractured world we have inherited, books provide an escape — a healthy way to come to terms with our emotions and possibilities as we strive for different futures.
A bookshelf, whether physical or virtual, says a lot about a person. From the books that kept us up all night in eighth grade to the ones we read to bolster our understanding of current events, we will always come back to books.
