What makes BookTok tick? Influencers or captioned soundtracked montages or mimes

Book discussions and recommendations can add to the motivation to read and the enjoyment of reading. This may be especially true for younger readers when it takes place in an easily accessible and relatively modern environment, such as TikTok. This article investigates whether BookTok short form videos provide a distinctive contribution in this regard and whether they fit traditional social media theories. A first large-scale descriptive analysis of English-language BookTok was conducted, focusing on successful BookTokers. This covered 41,392 TikToks from 107 BookTokers with 3 billion views and 4 million comments. The results show that BookTok covers a variety of book genres and video formats, frequently with humour. The most successful BookTokers are either traditional influencers (speaking primarily to camera) or creators of the newer Captioned Soundtracked Montages or Mimes (CSMM) format, a term coined here. The success of CSMM videos is not easily explained by existing social media theories. Nevertheless, they may generate parasocial relationships in an unorthodox way through music and empathy through shared book choices, perhaps engaging primarily with more empathetic readers. Its impersonal simple format may also encourage participatory culture interactions. This is the first large-scale analysis of BookTok and the new CSMM format expands on the previously observed “shelfie” video style that focuses on the books rather than the influencer. Recognising the success of CSMM videos with readers may help librarians, authors, content creators and publishers to employ this apparently effective novel format or to recommend appropriate BookTokers.