Have you ever opened up your Instagram explore page to see aesthetic pictures of books in the company of nature, candles, and/or the occasional scrunchie? If you have, you may have stumbled into the Bookstagram Community.
Books are an incredibly important part of life, they give us stories, friends, escapes from our everyday lives. Books come in all different shapes, sizes, and mediums. Meet the community that champions the art of storytelling.
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Bookstagram is a literary Instagram community that takes aesthetic images of books and book-related items, that encourage their viewers to go pick a book and read. These accounts cover everything from physical books (aka hardback/paperback), e-books, and audiobooks.
These posts are oftentimes tagged with terms such as #bookstagram, #book(s), #reading/reader, #booknerd, #bookaholic, #bookgasm, and many more.
How Aesthetics Effect the Brain
Viewing aesthetically pleasing images and objects is a pleasant and rewarding experience for the brain. Aesthetics can trigger emotional responses, which can affect the decisions we make.
Aesthetic Definition: Responsive to or appreciative of what is pleasurable to the senses
I hazard to guess that at some point in your life, you've heard somebody say "don't judge a book by its cover" and whether it was literal or metaphorical, you've picked a book because it was pretty. But why do we do this? The simple answer is humans are visual creatures. As people, we like things that strike use as "pretty" or in some way visually interesting.
By creating visually pleasing images of pieces of literature, these accounts are successfully having a positive influence on people's reading habits.
Benefits of Reading
The brain is a muscle, and like all other muscles, it works better and keeps longer the more you use it.
An undeniable upside to reading is the expansion in vocabulary it brings you, but there are other advantages that you may be unaware of. Reading has shown to resist symptoms of depression; this comes from the experience of being able to escape your own world, it also reduces stress. Along with fighting depression, reading also combats age-related cognitive decline.
These are only a few of the multitude of benefits from reading. Even at this very second, you are helping strengthen your brain. If you are interested in doing more research on how reading affects you, here's a great place to start!
Accounts to Check Out to Get Started in the Community
Leli's Book Club:
@lelisbookclub features both physical and e-books. Her page has a lot of earthy, southwestern colors, and promotes books of all genres. Leli's Book Club is the perfect place to start introducing yourself to the Bookstagram community, and the woman who runs the page is an absolute pleasure to talk to.
Her account is geared towards young adults and includes interactive posts. Her post descriptions include questions such as "Are there specific aspects of book covers that instantly made you 'add to TBR'?" among others-That are meant to engage you in conversation about your reading preferences.
What Lucie's Reading:
@whatlucisreading has a fun, sweet, and colorful aesthetic. Her page is full of bright colors and cheery setups that bring your attention to the titles of the books. Lucy engages her audience in her post captions in ways that engage her audience in both a literary and nonliterary sense.
This account is geared towards young adult novels and classics. Her page also features literary accessories such as book-themed candles, scrunchies, and clothing.
My Book Features:
My Book Features is personally one of my favorite Bookstagram accounts. This page is run by Elizabeth Sagan and James Trevino. Together they've created an earthy-fantasy aesthetic that is calming and serene. This account has a balance of beautiful literary displays and humor.
My Book Features is geared towards teenage and young adult, whimsical-fantasy novels. They occasionally hold book give-aways which increase their audience's accessibility to books.
Similar Communities
Don't worry, your love of books doesn't have to end on Instagram! YouTube and TikTok both have their own literary communities. If you're looking to expand your access to book recommendations, reviews, and literary conversations, BookTube, and BookTok, may be the communities for you!
