Portrait-mode photographs of book spines artfully arranged next to Diptyque candles, #candid bikini selfies featuring Crime and Punishment and ongoing discourse about whether audiobooks are ‘cheating’ — welcome to what could be labelled ‘performative bibliophilia’, an online landscape where books are used as props or bragging rights.
Social media has long been a hotbed of pressure: everything from our clothes, to how we decorate our homes or parent our children is subject to critique and comparison so it makes sense that many platforms have become fertile ground for proving you are the most bookwormish bookworm to have ever darkened the door of Daunt.
