With the number of books that come out each month, let alone each year, it is no wonder we are struggling to keep on top of the new titles and authors debuting. This is even harder for someone like me who reads a variety of genres. Is this a matter of publishing competition? Why was it easier to read the books as they came out in the 2010s? Is it bad if I just wait it out and see which books stand the test of time?

I am someone who, over the last five years or so, made a conscious effort to avoid the initial hype trains of new releases, especially the big ones. I am a big fan of library books, and requesting the new releases would add a few weeks at least to the wait times for arrival. In that time, the consensus of the book would come out, and I would have a better understanding of what the plot consisted of and the impressions for themes, characters, and the overall vibes. But what this would do is shape my opinion of the book before I even start reading it. It was nothing short of allowing others to influence my thoughts on the book without seeing the texts for myself and gathering my own feelings and opinions. That has eased over the last year or so, with my trusted recommenders aligning with my reading tastes more, and therefore bringing a perspective that welcomes differing opinions, encourages theme and character discussions, and feels more like a conversation than a review. This helps me to see other reviews and opinions as parts of the overall discourse surrounding the books, and not views to influence my reading completely.

This doesn’t fix the problem with there being so many books coming out. We have all seen the shift take place since the rise in BookTok and the impact of COVID lockdowns on brick-and-morter stores and online sellers. Cover art has changed to become brighter, more eye-catching, and more clearly visible on a website to attract buyers. Big trends on bookish social media have created celebrity authors overnight, and with that comes a wave of publishers wanting to release the next big title or series, so they churn out more books to catch the tailcoats of the newly popular trends and tropes that fly by on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. This turnover of new books is much faster than the traditional longer waits between an author’s releases. For many, they see this as a shift towards a poorer quality of work being released, and some even attribute it to aligning with the “fast fashion” effect on books. I don’t agree with this completely, but I do see a change in the work that has been released since the start of the decade, and it has had an undeniable impact on the number of books published each year.

I am in two minds about this. My first thought is that it feels like a direct correlation to the competition aspect of bookish social media we have seen crop up in terms of reading goals, readers receiving arcs and proofs, and the reader burnout we see so often. Readers running themselves ragged trying to keep up with the reading, the posts, the discourse, and it spoils the act of reading so much so many go on hiatus, or worse, leave the platform entirely because they just don’t want to read anymore. The other half of me feels this may not be so different from before. As I noted earlier, I don’t fully agree that the quicker churn out of books is resulting in poorer books overall. There are still incredible authors out there with the same traditional view on publishing times, taking their time writing their works and producing phenomenal books as a result. I also feel that there is nothing wrong with bookish social media giving space for popular trends and tropes when there are readers who are there for that. Romantasy has blown up in recent years, and it is these kinds of books we see getting published at much faster rates. There is nothing wrong with that, especially if it means we get more people reading. If anything, I feel bookish social media has allowed for a different kind of reader to be included in the space, and that is awesome.

Do I think it is bad to wait out on books to see what will better suit your tastes? Absolutely not. With the number of new books published, there are bound to be more than a few that sound like they could be right for you, but they reside in a murky grey area. Not everything will last, and not everything will be liked by all, but time gives way to honest reviews, and I feel that is something we should all be giving ourselves. Don’t forget, we have books published decades back that are still stellar reads to this day, and let’s not forget to mention the backlists of your favourite authors before they made it big with traditional publishing or bookish social media. That will be a topic for another post, so let me end this one with one more piece of advice: no publisher can dictate your reading speed, your tbr list, or when you read. Neither can fellow readers nor book influencers. Reading, for a lot of us, is a hobby we do not get paid for, and as such, we should not be treating it like it’s a full-time job. Have fun with your reading. Go at your own pace. Read what you want. The books will always be there for you to pick up when you get around to it, so there is no need to rush.