My Two-Year Journey In Bookstagram

My Two-Year Journey In Bookstagram

The Bookstagram is a community on Instagram where book lovers talk and share about books and book-related arts, merchandise etc. It’s basically a place where book lovers get to meet fellow bookworms, participate in and host fun activities related to books, share book-related content, recommend new books, or help authors promote their books and share reviews and thoughts, etc. It’s like content creator accounts for booklovers. Some get paid for reviewing books by money, merch, books etc. This community is also a great place for authors to promote their books. I stumbled upon this community while looking through my explorer page on Instagram back in 2020 and instantly got intrigued.

My journey in the bookstragram started in August 2020 during quarantine. From the moment I joined, I was pleasantly surprised by how warm and hospitable everyone was towards me. My initial posts mostly consisted of my favorite books, authors, genres, some reviews of my current reads etc. As a beginner, I enjoyed browsing profiles for creative inspiration and learning. It helped me improve my photography and editing skills. I had around 2k followers there after a year, and the journey to get there was equally exhausting and enjoyable. There were times I had to spend around three to four hours just to get a couple of post-worthy shots and more hours to edit it. But it was all worth it in the end. I had fun reviewing books, and ranting about my current reads, and sometimes also got the opportunity to review ARC ( advance read copy) for some authors before the release. Once I also got noticed by one of my favorite authors there which was pretty exciting. I also had the opportunity to become a brand ambassador in one of the merchandise shops. These were some pretty great experiences in bookstagram. 

In addition to reviewing books, there are many activities to participate in or host here. One of the most enjoyable activities I've participated in is called a Readathon. It's like a marathon, except instead of running, you read a list of books over the course of a month. There are usually two teams who each receive a list of prompts to complete. The prompts could include reading a book with a red cover, a particular genre, or a specific trope. Team members read these books and then discuss their thoughts in a group chat. Sometimes it becomes a competition between the teams, with bragging rights going to the winners. This activity is a great way to achieve your Goodreads reading goal and discover new books, genres, tropes, and people.

I participated in two readathons and co-hosted one with some friends. We organized seasonal readathons, one in Winter and one in Summer. During the one I co-hosted, we had four teams named after fictional creatures: witches, mermaids, dragons, and vampires. Each team had five prompts to complete by the end of December. I stepped out of my comfort zone and read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, but it wasn't my favorite. Our team won the first readathon, and the second time I participated, I finished around 14 books in a month. I completed the prompts for my team and some extra ones. Overall, it was a great experience.

Other than participating in all these fun activities, the best part of joining bookstagram was getting to know so many new books, tropes, and genres. My reading journey started back in 2018, so I had yet to read so many new books. My all-time favorite genre is fantasy and romance and I found so many new books in those genres. Some of my all-time favorites are Throne of Glass by Sarah J Mass, The Folklore Trilogy by Holly Black, The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V.E Schwab, etc. I had a wonderful time finishing these books. I was also introduced to this favorite booklover app called Goodreads. It’s an app that has reviews of books, you get to add books you want to read on your TBR shelf, and you also get to set a reading goal at the beginning of every year and keep track of your current read, read, and TBR list. It’s a very organized and handy app if you are a bookworm.1

Overall my experience in bookstagram was incredible and thrilling. At the moment, I’m on a hiatus due to study and not being able to give as much time as I need. You need to be very active and post at least four times a week to keep your engagement due to the new Instagram algorithm rules, so that part becomes a bit tiring and exhausting. But I still miss the book reviewing and ranting part, the part where I got to share my creativity there and the friends I got to make and just meeting new people and books. However, booklover has made a new dominance in TikTok where now they call themselves the Booktok community. But the bookstagram still has its own charisma and fun.

[ note: All photos have been taken by me and from my own account @galathynius.reads on instragram]