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Part B: Reading Comprehension

Read the article and do the following tasks according to the information from the text.

Did BookTok really get GenZ into reading?

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Welcome to BookTok, the wholesome side of TikTok where young people share content
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inspired by the books they've been reading. There are snappy reviews and recommendations,
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as well as funny, relatable content for fellow book lovers. [...]

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Hannah, 23, is a fan of BookTok. She explains that it's an easy and accessible way to find
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recommendations tailored to her age range. "Everyone on TikTok is my age, so nine times out
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of ten I'm going to enjoy the books that everyone hypes up on there. I trust it more than a
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bestseller list, which I feel is more influenced by older readers," she says, adding that BookTok
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has also encouraged her to read books which she wouldn't have ordinarily picked out for
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herself. "I also read A Song of Achilles [by Madeline Miller] even though I would have never
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really chosen to read a retelling of Greek mythology before. I ended up really enjoying it."

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However, BookTok isn't without its own issues. "Because TikTok is so addictive, sometimes I
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spend more time looking at books that I would like to read and adding books to my to-read list
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than I do actually reading," Hannah says. She adds that she also dislikes the competitive side
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of BookTok. "People will make TikToks saying 'here's all the books I read in April' and they'll
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be holding ten books. Then you feel really shit about yourself because you only read one book
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in April," she says. It's true that BookTok – as well as other platforms like GoodReads and
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Bookstagram – gamify the reading experience to an extent which puts unnecessary pressure
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on us to read books just to say that we've read books. [...]

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Some have also taken issue with how white BookTok is. "BookTok can be a hard place to
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discuss diversity issues – not only within the BookTok community, but also within the publishing
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industry itself," Hannah says. "It's just a difficult app to have a nuanced conversation on
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sometimes." While #BlackBookTok is flourishing and the hashtag has racked up over 86
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million views, its very existence suggests that white authors are seen as the 'default'. "There
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are so many cool BookTokers of colour but a lot of them don't get the recognition they deserve
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for the amazing content they're putting out," she adds.

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It has its flaws, but the fact remains that BookTok is getting more young people reading: UK
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publishing's total income reached a new high of £6.7bn in 2021, and TikTok has undeniably
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helped drive this growth as four out of the five top sellers among the young adult bestseller list
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are fan favourites on BookTok. A notable example is the surge in popularity of We Were Liars
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by E Lockhart: the book was released in 2014 but, thanks to TikTok, re-entered bestseller lists
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in 2020 and a new prequel is now set to be released in May. Booksellers like WHSmith and
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Blackwell's even have dedicated BookTok sections, making it easier for customers to find the
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titles everyone is raving about online. It's a similar story across the pond, too: in the US in
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2021, readers bought over 825 million print books, setting a new record. [...]

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Is it fair to say that BookTok has inspired the entirety of a tech-addicted generation to take up
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good ol' fashioned reading? Maybe not quite – Hannah tells me that she believes it's a slight
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"misconception" that young people are only just getting into reading. "BookTube has always
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been a thing, and back in the day people used to make Tumblr accounts dedicated to the
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Hunger Games," she says. "Young people have always been and always will be into reading,
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we just use new platforms to express ourselves on." It's arguably more likely that BookTok is
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simply the next iteration of young people talking about books online. But that doesn't make it
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any less magical, and there's evidently something a little special about BookTok. The numbers
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speak for themselves.

Abridged from: Smith, Serena (2022): Did BookTok really get GenZ into reading?

https://www.dazeddigital.com/science-tech/article/56046/1/has-booktok-really-got-gen-z-into-reading

[accessed: 19 May 2025]

Reading Comprehension

a)

Complete the sentences with information from the text.

1 On Book Tok, __________________________________________________ post about

___________________________________________________________________________________________________.

2 Hannah relies more on BookTok than on _________________________________________________________.

(3 BE)

b)

Answer the following questions. Complete sentences are not necessary.

3 Why is BookTok criticized for motivating users to read many books in a short time?

Give two reasons.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

4 Which problem does the existence of #BlackBookTok highlight?

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

5 Which facts prove that Book Tok has helped increase book sales among young people?

Name two of them.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

(5 BE)

c)

Tick the correct box. Only one answer is correct.

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Hannah claims that people her age ...

talk more about books online than in person.

are more interested in reading books because of BookTok.

change the way they connect with books from time to time.

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The main aim of the article is to ...

inform the audience about BookTok.

show the negative sides of BookTok.

make Gen Z more interested in reading.

(2 BE)
10 BE

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