The hot debate in the bookish community on social media this week is about open books being photographed. For those who have not been sucked into the latest hullabaloo, an article was published on Vulture two days ago about ‘An annoying new Instagram trend : Throwing yourself on a pile of open books.’ It says those who take pictures on books as backdrops are ‘literary hermits…seekers of beauty and truth and a shit ton of unearned likes’.
I beg to differ.
As someone who takes pictures of products, including books, for brands and loves the particular type of picture that Hillary spoke strongly against, I felt I should write my thoughts on book photography. We all have different tastes in the images we choose to consume, and that is acceptable. I have adored Carolyn’s (@theslowtraveler) picture (which was referenced in Vulture) of coffee on a book spread, Dasha’s (@dashapears.art) picture of a wall full of book pages, Bronte’s (@bookishbronte) picture of a botanical flatlay shot and Andrea’s (@littlefamilylondon) picture of books and flowers. They are aesthetically pleasing and eye catching. More importantly, I feel happy when coming across beautiful images as these that use books in a creative manner.
Of book walls, interiors and stock images
Books are and have been used for interior decoration; sometimes even collected to elevate one’s social prestige. Big private libraries, rare book collections, manuscripts bought at exorbitant prices in bids, you name it. Bookish décor has creeped into many modern cafes as well. One of them is the Fika Café in Toronto, which I first heard from Yeldah (@beautiful.bibliophile). It has a wall full of books! Totally Instagrammable, you might say, a phrase that has become synonymous with beauty. Being a book lover, I adore this wall. I’d love to visit here and have a cup of coffee, maybe take a picture or two. Those books on the wall are stuck or nailed in place. I am sure some would find it appalling that books have been used to decorate a wall. And that’s alright. We can like different things.
I came across another interesting fact while writing this post. You might be familiar with the image below which has been featured in countless digital articles. In today’s terms a ‘viral stock image’ seems to fit the description. It is taken by Patrick Tomasso, coincidentally at Fika Café. Does Patrick read? Or did he take a picture because the book wall at Fika Café caught his eye? We’ll never know. But what we do know is many love the picture, for its composition, and its pleasing framing. The picture is available on sites like Pixabay, Unsplash, and others; and remains one of the most popular stock images used by bloggers.
Talking about book spreads and book walls, I have loved Dominique’s (@allthatisshe) headboard made of books and admired it for a long time. (She has a DIY post on her blog to make it at home, if you are interested). Again, those are real books used to uplift the décor in a room. Some might cringe that real books were flattened and used to make the board. I, along with many others, adore this head board. The point is, we might all not like the same things and it should be okay to carry on that way.
Pretty doesn’t make you less of an intellectual
An understanding of what Instagram stands for is crucial to argue in favour of these book spreads. At the end of the day, Instagram is a visual platform not a book critique gathering. It is about taking pictures, and sharing what inspires you. The bookish community of Instagram, fondly called Bookstagram is a close knit community with all kinds of readers. It is only a matter of finding the group that is right for you. Some might think Bookstagrammers take only pictures of books but the number of read alongs, buddy reads and reading challenges tell another story.
The disagreement towards pretty book pictures seems deeply on the same lines as the age old myth (that we are furiously breaking apart) that women who look pretty aren’t as clever. Surprise! You can be both. You can dress the way you wish AND be clever. You can be a reader AND a book photographer. As a general rule, we must not forget there can be any number of ‘and’s in every sentence.
No rule book
Studies have shown that readers are one of the most tolerant people in the world (Harry Potter case study in Journal of Applied Social Psychology; (Ref 2) Independent). Why aren’t we tolerant when it comes to books of other people?
Somebody’s books. Somebody’s shelves.
Not anyone else’s business, really.
It is time to stop the bickering and policing; time to stop dictating terms and let others enjoy books the way they want.
Make rainbow shelved books if that’s your jam (not my cup of tea to be honest, but that shouldn’t stop YOU from showcasing YOUR books the way YOU want.
There are no rules here. Instagram is only a platform. YOU can choose to shape your account the way you like – with books, without books, with coffee, with cats, with book reviews, without humans, anything that you fancy. Curate your feed by following those accounts that speak to you and inspire you. The article on Vulture begins with the sentence, “Over the past several years, we book lovers have endured quite a bit”. I implore, “Please don’t endure. Unfollow. Move on.”
I wrote about being more tolerant readers, to stop the bickering and policing and just enjoy books as they are. Also about book photography and why it is NOT an annoying trend Click To TweetDiffering opinions
We are real people, miles apart, with different ideologies, scrolling through books on Instagram. There are bound to be a lot of things we’d disagree about. How boring would it be if we all thought the same way and took the same pictures? We don’t see ourselves bashing the movie tastes of others, so why the sourness for books?
I’ve been in the blogging about books for nearly three years now and during this period there have been many debates: classics vs YA, pretty book pictures from unreal readers vs actual readers who don’t try to beautify pictures, dog earing and annotating books vs keeping them in pristine condition, audiobooks vs physical books , do reading challenges matter, do readers who read a lot of books enjoy them (Beats me. I guess the person who reads has a say in this, right?) and so on. Why are we so quick to judge and adamant that ‘our way is the right way and the only way?’
On the other hand, there are some trends that I had felt very strongly against. There were a few cases of burning books and photographing them a year ago. This was utterly horrifying for me because that is a symbol of oppression and reminded me of the horrors of Nazi regime. Those in favour of this argued that the books were very old ones or those sold to recycling; but I still disagree with the trend. Josephine wrote a wonderful piece on Word Revel strongly condemning this. She has wonderfully put her point across without sneer or mockery, in sharp contrast to the Vulture article in discussion.
When I asked my Instagram followers their opinions on the said article, I received many DMs. Though a majority seemed to agree on ‘do what you want’, there were few who expressed concern about books being used as a backdrop in pictures. They had totally valid points too – fear of breaking spines, fear of books getting folded, fear of books getting dirty etc. We had a fruitful discussion but what I really want to emphasize here is how they justified their concerns without judging or forcing others into what they prefer while at the same time staying strong in their beliefs.
Courtesy: @beautiful.bibliophile
Uninspiring bits
I would not be the first to say that the article against book flatlays has ‘a nose up in the air’ tone. ‘God bless the childless?’, ‘presumed to bicker over merits of particular genres and titles’ (who said we don’t? Or does an Instagram update be posted every time we do?), ‘shit ton of unearned likes’ (Why is it unearned?) to list a few phrases. There are many travel influencers and bloggers who earn a living through their work. Berating that to ‘people paid to people paid to stay at luxury hotels and take pictures of themselves lounging’ is too crude. If only things were that simple!
The complaints move on to pictures not being inspiring. “These photos are not inviting you in to enjoy or critique or loathe or interrogate the books. They’re not even telling you the titles of books” – that is because the purpose of the picture is NOT to inform you the titles or invite you for a critique session and (un)fortunately there is no rule that you can only photograph books with their titles clearly seen. Demanding apples from a basket of oranges is ridiculous. As for being uninspiring, it is true; many might not love those kind of pictures. But wouldn’t it really be easier to have your feed curated to your liking than hinting at others to post what you like?
About the Instagram trend of open book photography being called annoying and why it isn't really anybody's place to call it so. Click To Tweet
Am I an intellectual?
Going by the Vulture article, I don’t think I am. In fact, I might be christened as an ‘anti-intellectual’. It doesn’t matter that I read over 150 books last year and 60 books this year. It doesn’t matter that I talk about books on various platforms. My bed side pile is often turned with the spines facing inward (though my shelves have spines facing outward). Does that make me less of a reader? I think not. Do my pictures give “hints of how utterly devoted the Instagrammer is to her literary pursuits” as the article claims?
Sara Tasker (@me_and_orla), whose picture was included in the Vulture article wrote an article in response to it. She argues elegantly in favour of ‘book selfies’ and says “Women’s crafts and creativity being derided as “unintellectual”; people of relative privilege dictating how education and literature should be consumed,” something worth thinking about. (On a side note, I was uncomfortable with the teeny phrase at the end of Sara’s piece about being okay with the book she authored being burned in an anti Instagram demonstration but I also know this was said in jest and not symbolic of anything else.)
Social media does not define you.
You can read and not post about it on your Instagram. Been there, done that.
You can have no bookish posts on your grid but just cats, dogs and greasy fries and STILL be valid as a reader with opinions. You can have pictures of books, not talk about them on Instagram but rather keep a private reading experience and you will still be valid as a reader. How you choose to photograph your books is up to you, let no one tell you otherwise.
Your creativity and your reading life are two different things and there is no need to limit one in order to be proficient in the other. I wrote about book photography and the snobbish attitude that should be kept at bay Click To TweetPerhaps Hillary was trying to be funny (I would’ve loved a funny piece with an opposing opinion and laughed at the antics of ‘open book spread lovers’), but humour was not the vibe that came through to me (and a majority of Bookstagrammers). The article seemed to be a bit lost about the whole purpose of Instagram. Let me assure you there are no Abrahamic sacrifices being done over books. Let me also affirm that a picture is a suggestive picture not an actual scene straight out of life in case anyone had the wrong impression. I have pictures of me taken when I was unaware I was being photographed but those comprise a minority of the shots. A picture of a person reading a book or a tea scene with an open book is staged. If you do not have a friend taking your pictures for you, you actually take a shot of yourself by putting on the timer on a phone or camera; so, Bookstagrammers are not reading when a shot is taken; they are simply staring at the book and hoping they’ve nailed the shot. But that in no way concludes that they do not read at all.
To be blunt here, Instagram is not the intellectual haven where only books with titles can be photographed or only book criticism can be posted. There are other platforms for such kind of debates. To be fair, there are readers who post strictly book reviews and book discussions and they are pretty amazing (Personal opinion about the ones I follow) too. To a majority, Instagram is a place to play; to create and have a chat with others. And it will remain that way.
Being a reader myself, I would always urge you to pick a book and read. But don’t let that stop you from taking pictures the way you want. Your creativity and your reading life are two different things and there is no need to limit one in order to be proficient in the other. If you don’t like these pictures, don’t endure them. Unfollow and find your people. There are many paths on Instagram. Walk your path, find your chums and have a happy life. Meanwhile let me fill the room with open books and sip my cup of coffee (because ‘no one on Instagram goes anywhere without a mug of goddamn coffee’).
—
Update:
Here are some more response posts to the article:
The Slow Traveler — It’s no secret I love books
Bookish Bronte – Are Bookstagrammers just showing off the books they have?
Agree with you Resh. I would say “books are books”. Period. As objects they can be beautiful. Inside and out. I had not seen those “bookographies” but I find them… fun and pleasant to the eye. And may trigger a reader’s curiosity?
Tolerance (or lack thereof) seems to be the key here. (Drawing the line at burning books… shades of the nazis and Farenheit 451…)
Intolerance will soon forbid men from writing Anna Karenin or Madame Bovary…
And above all you are right: books and tolerance go hand in hand.
Cheers.
(How do you say “Bye” in Malayalam?)
😉
Happy to hear that you agree. To each, his own. If you do not like what a particular person is photographing books, don’t go look at their pictures, right? How can one dictate terms on someone else’s time, money and books! I don’t think taking a picture makes anyone less of a reader. We could all just read the books we love and happily coexist instead.
PS: There are words for ‘bye’ in Malayalam but we use the English ‘bye’ itself when bidding bye.
“Dictate terms”? The root of the word Dictator, right?
We have included “Bye” in French too.
So what would the Malayalam word for “Hello”, greetings?
(Have a lovely week.) 🙂
It is namaskaaram. But we say hello usually
Haha! Well, namaskaaram does sound nicer to my ears. Will use on occasion. Thank you Resh. (That will be another question) 😉
Be good.
I’m moved to respond to this post because it lately it seems that the trend is to be affronted by other people and their likes and dislikes in a way that I find bemusing. I’m not just talking about book bloggers or readers now but everything on social media seems to be about taking a position and disagreeing vehemently with any opposing views – what ever happened to live and let live. Just don’t look at book spreading if it annoys you! As you say let’s just get along with each other and either applaud other’s tastes or ignore them it doesn’t need to be an argument.
AGREE! Live and let live. Why spend hours bashing others or talking about things we hate? Instead filter your social media to your liking and focus on things you love. Why someone would spend their precious time on what they hate is beyond me.
As someone new to the bookstagram world, I appreciate your call to be inclusive.
Thank you Andrea. To each, his own as they say.
What a brilliant and wonderfully written response. I think what I most take from this is that it is okay to have differing opinions. If someone were to take the books from my shelf that I love to read and break their spines like that I would be so upset. But secondhand books I have no interest in reading? Break the spine away! Some poeple can agree or disagree, but that is fine. Books can be used in different ways. There are coffee table books. Some people love to own books and not read them because a bookshelf makes a home look homely. Some people love to own books and read them. They can do whatever they want with their own books. We don’t need to be snobby and hateful to each other because we all like different things! We can be creative, and read and enjoy social media and taking photos however we want. Thanks for sharing this <3
My recent post: https://oliviascatastrophe.com/2018/10/halloween-creatures-2-0-book-tag/
Seriously Olivia! You said it. Why we become so snobbish, I cannot understand. Our books are our books. I break my spines, sometimes write on the margins if it is that great a book and often dog ear my books. But I wouldn’t EVER dream of doing that to someone else’s books or a library book. It is the same way. The Vulture writer was definitely on a rant.
I’ve noticed a general trend toward judgment and disparagement online, even among mainstream book reviewers, and not just on social media. I’ve debated whether to feature one particular negative review of a novel I liked on my book blog as a way to address this issue, but I’m hesitant to engage in this sort of discussion, as I think some of these trends are overwhelming and out of control. I find being online unpleasant these days, for so many reasons. Thank you for sharing this thoughtful and helpful post.
Glad to hear you found the post interesting. I agree. Sometimes the debates go on and on about ‘how others should read’. Some readers see genre readers as lesser readers which is ridiculous. The photography element seems to stem from the same issues. I don’t understand why someone wants to mix up photography/social media and reading. Both are two different things. If you showcase a part of your reading life on social media, good for you. If you don’t, that’s cool too!
I understand about negative reviews. One of my friends gave a negative review about a book (and she justified ALL her reasons too and why she felt the book was not great) and the author threatened legal action on Goodreads. Imagine!
Yes. This particular NYT reviewer though was quite disrespectful of the older, award winning writer he was reviewing – contemptuous almost, and sarcastic. I don’t recall this type of tone in mainstream reviews before, and I feel it actually made the reviewer look foolish. (He was reviewing Ondaatje.) I’m wondering if the general incivility on social media is affecting other venues and writers.
ALL my thoughts are in this article! I spent a lot of years just reading and not Instagramming. But one day I decided that I should. Initially, I posted pictures of books against a flat background and wrote a review about it or, maybe, an update. But over time, taking inspiration from various Bookstagrammers, including you, I thought: ‘Hey! Why not take it up a notch?’ Experimenting with pictures AND books have motivated me to be a better reader – read more books, read the kind of books I usually stay away from, etc. – and it has also made me a better photographer.
It’s art. People can read and make pictures, people can not read and make pictures, it’s really up to them.
I hear you Sonali! There is no rule that you should Instagram all you read. Both are two DIFFERENT things! Just because you did not IG it, does it mean you didn’t read that year? Nope! Just because you IG it now, does it make you any less of a reader? No again. It is really upto the person what they want to do with their time.
Such a good post! I didn’t read through the whole of the Vulture’s article because it just came across as so condescending. I enjoy taking book photos. I enjoy reading. The two are not mutually exclusive. It’s not rocket science?
Definitely not rocket science. It was a poorly portrayed rant, perhaps for traffic on the website.
Yes to everything you said! I miss this particular drama but I read the article before I read your response and I agree, the tone of it is absolutely sneering and nasty. People can express themselves in whatever way they like – and making art of out books doesn’t make them any less legitimate of a reader. What a ridiculous idea! Equally, if someone enjoys taking book photos but not reading, who cares? Whenever I see those open book photos I think of how much time the photographer must have taken in setting up the shot (and cleaning up again afterwards!!) and I admire their dedication. Personally, I do find that they inspire my reading if I’ve been in a slump as well.
This Vulture writer started a ridiculous argument. I don’t know why she cares so much!
I agree with you Lydia. If someone enjoys taking book pictures but not reading, let them be. Though most on Bookstagram read as well as take pictures, this is a very valid point too. We cannot dictate terms to others about what they want to do with their time and money. As I said about movies in my post, what if the biggest movie lovers come and judge us for how we enjoy our movies. Wouldn’t feel nice, would it? It should be the same way with books. I don’t understand why someone wants to mix up reading and photography. Both are two different things
Great post – I wholeheartedly agree, it would be lovely if we could all agree to disagree with respect when it comes to questions of aesthetics / personal taste. After all, we’re not forced to look at specific feeds – we can follow (and unfollow) at will. I’m a bit bewildered at vitriol from those who seem to think that a hashtag or an unfiltered feed should only show them the things they want to see – I haven’t read the original post, but it sounds a bit…dare I say entitled?
…although I don’t know that movies are any less calm a pond to swim in. The conversations around the recent Star Wars films (for example; they’re sadly not unique, just an extreme case) were a raging trash fire!
This is such a lovely and detailed post, Resh, and I agree with you on every single word you said. Being a bookstagrammer doesn’t mean that we are just showing of. You can’t get so far by just showing off your books. It doesn’t means that the people showing their books doesn’t read. It’s a personal space of everyone. They are allowed to present their feed in a way they like it. If you like their feed, it’s good and if not, then simply unfollow that person and move on. There is no need to spread negativity in the community. The trends in book blogging community will keep changing. Today you are complaining about this trend, tomorrow you will do so for something other.
These open book photographs always gives me inspiration and I always admire the amount of time and patience those pics take. Trashing and bashing them like this is not cool.
The phrase “Different strokes for different folks” comes to mind.
A well put piece that I agree with 100%
YES I AGREE SO WHOLEHEARTEDLY. It makes me very angry when people dismiss others’ expressions of art and love of it. Also why is it “unearned” likes?! That’s so confusing in itself. If I enjoy something and hit that little like button to support, why is that unearned to the artist? UGH I seriously was so furious when I saw this article. I agree that it’s definitely a sneer too because the main demographic for this is women (and probably lots of YA featured accounts). And holy heck, if someone wants to take photos of books and not even read a ton of them…then so what!? I feel so comforted being surrounded by books, and even if that was IT and I didn’t read a lot (which, I mean, I do…but just as a point haha) then what’s the problem? Is using books for art hurting anyone? nope. People need to let people live. Aren’t there real issues we could be speaking up against instead of a group of people who like to photograph book pages? It seems SO ridiculous that this even came up!
You said it, Cait. I really don’t understand what the writer was trying to prove with that article other than the aim being some traffic for a controversy. And yes I agree too. Photographing and reading are two things; whether you do both together or in what proportions you do either of them is up to you. Don’t like it? Move on to another account that posts stuff you like. Right?