Three years ago, Molina Singh, 23, started an online book club, Delhi Reads, to regain the taste of university that the pandemic had deprived her of. Her motive— read, hang, talk and connect. “We [Gen Z] are just wired differently. The need for community is very strong in my people. Movies, running and now books are all ways to create community,” says Singh, a work-from-home marketer for YouTube.
She is not wrong. Gen Z is the loneliest generation, according to the Cigna US Loneliness Index. And they have turned reading, that quiet, solitary act, into a social performance. Delhi Reads, which calls itself “India’s yappiest book club” on its Instagram bio, has grown from 60 members to 11,000 members and 60,000+ followers on Insta, most of them Gen Z (18-28 years).
Reading has also been yanked from indoors—on a couch, in the bed, in a library— to the outdoors. If you walk into the picturesque Cubbon Park in Bengaluru on a Saturday morning, you would see a hundred people reading, sitting or lying on the green. Cubbon Reads, Bengaluru’s silent reading community founded by Harsh Snehanshu and Shruti Sah, has had over 130 sessions. And its readers are mostly young. Sah says, “Reading has again become cool among the youth. What such communities help with are safety in a public setting, acceptance for a certain behaviour (reading while lying on the grass), meeting with like-minded people and reading recommendations.” The duo have also launched a reading-based dating app, Bookmark.
When Shamik Basu, a decision scientist at an IT company, landed in the city from Kolkata in late 2023, he turned to Cubbon Reads. “Reading as a group feels awesome. You get to meet people but in a different manner,” says the 24-yearold. He is reading more, discovering new genres and making new friends, something he says was difficult for a shy person like him.
Mayank Gupta, a 20-year-old student at the Delhi Technological University, feels similarly about Delhi Reads: “It has helped me socialise and meet new people, that too at a time when third spaces are shutting down. Anyone can join in and have some fun.”
“Fun” may not be something that has been always associated with reading. Its highbrow has now been tweezed. Reading has become a shared experience without brownie points for sounding intellectual or elite. Snehanshu says, “Reading has always been there. What was missing was hanging out with a bunch of readers to read a book without intellectualising that activity.”
It is akin to what Singh had in mind when she started Delhi Reads: “I wanted a space free of judgement—we don’t care if you listen to books, if you are not into classics, or if you read manga.” Reading, for her club, is about connection—with people and with the books.
It is a sentiment the younger generation echoes even on the other side of the world. The American model and actor Kaia Gerber, who cofounded an online book club, Library Science, says in Time that when she started reading, she picked writers she thought she was supposed to: Albert Camus, Arthur Rimbaud, Fyodor Dostoevsky. She says: “But that pressure dissipated as soon as I began to discover the pleasure and fulfilment that comes from reading books I can truly connect with.”
Reading, in many ways, has never been this cool. Celebrities are recommending books and starting book clubs—from Dua Lipa’s Service95 to Sonali Bendre’s Sonali’s Book Club. Meanwhile, in the US, BookTok, the reading community on TikTok, has launched the careers of authors like Colleen Hoover and Sarah J Maas.
Even as multiple reports have griped about Gen Z not reading, what has changed is reading itself.
NEW RULES OF READING
Gen Z has turned reading into a social media-coded, aesthetic-driven identity practice. It’s not just about books; it’s about how books fit into mood, lifestyle and self-expression. Bookstagram, the reading community on Instagram, is where book love is fetishised and flaunted. They share books, reviews, bookshelves, marginalia, to-be-read piles and even colour-coded tabs.
Says bookstagrammer Sneha Kapoor (@bookbegum) from Betul, Madhya Pradesh: “Like most things, even reading is heavily influenced by social media. Matcha went viral and we had the green matcha Kindle. Young readers are taking themselves out on solo book dates. And everyone wants to read that one trending book,” says Kapoor, 27.
The growing number of book clubs fly in the face of the wailing that young people don’t read. Karuna Ezara Parikh, Kolkata-based writer and founder of Karuna’s Kitaab Club, an online book club with 6,500 followers, says, “Bookstagram/ BookTok are often responsible for popularising new titles. Online allows us to share our feelings about a book with communities that would otherwise be inaccessible to us.”
Even publishing house Westland has a book club, Babelfish, which focuses on translations. Karthika VK, publisher, Westland Books, says the club has even helped diversify their in-house reading interests.
Sah says: “Social media has opened the floodgates to book discoveries that were otherwise gate kept by a few elite readers. People who read are finding circles of belongingness and even projecting their bookshelves online as an extension of their aesthetic choice.”
SHELF DISCOVERY
India Reads, an online club started by Divya Jain, a 27-year-old from Delhi, turns five in September. It has 150 paid members, 2,500 registered members and 13,000 followers on Instagram. “Instagram can take you away from reading but it can also influence people to read. Most of our new members joined us via this platform,” she says.
Readers confirm that social media is their main point of discovery, but it goes beyond the Gram. For Bengaluru-based ad executive Rohit Prasannan, reading recommendations come from Reddit or YouTube—for instance, Chalchitra Talks, Alex O’Connor and Jack Edwards. Meanwhile, Gauri Yadav, a 24-year-old design engineer, says most people in her circle follow bookstagrammers based on vibe but they get their reading lists from a variety of platforms like Pinterest, X, Goodreads and Discord. And they scour even the comments section for book tips.
Samprikta Pal, a 27-year-old singer from Kolkata, looks for her next biblio fix mostly on reels and YouTube. Her go-to bookstagrammers are @tatis_corner, @seigh.read and @thehellyblog. “Apps help too: Deepstash and Headway for quick, 15-minute summaries, Pocket FM for desi stories, Wattpad for serials and Goodreads for moodbased recommendations,” she says.
Amie Fazulbhoy, founder of the reading community Bandra Reads and the offline book club Books & Banter, says the way people choose books has changed drastically: “Book selection induced by FOMO [fear of missing out] is definitely a thing.” Discoverability is one of the biggest benefits of the Gram, says book blogger Vidhya A Thakkar. She recalls a time when readers relied on librarians or newspaper reviews; now, a scroll is enough. “The algorithm will push you in the right direction—one reel at a time,” she says. However, Chennai-based Dovlin, 25, cautions that not all bookstagram recommendations are worth the while. “They are a hit-or-miss. For instance, I regret picking up Colleen Hoover books.”
Social media has made book clubs easier to start, says Fazulbhoy: “Earlier I would have had to struggle to find a reasonable number of interested readers.” Now, the Instagram account of Bandra Reads, which she started this year, has over 8,000+ followers.
WHAT’S SELLING
Publishing companies are noticing the changing reader—and responding. Penguin Random House India (PRHI) recently launched a Fiction Addiction campaign aimed at a younger, digitally savvy audience. Manoj Satti, senior vice-president (product, sales & marketing), PRHI, says, “From a sales viewpoint, we have observed strong growth across several genres over the past year, particularly fiction, self-help and personal development. These genres resonate deeply with millennial and Gen Z audiences. There has been a notable rise in interest from tier2 and -3 cities.” HarperCollins India too has noticed a marked increase in younger, first-time book buyers, in metros as well as tier-2 cities.
Aman Arora, GM, communications & marketing, HarperCollins India, says, “The growth of bookstagram has made reading part of a larger lifestyle statement, where sharing what you read is as important as reading itself. A noticeable trend is the emergence of very young content creators—school and college students—posting about books, which tells us that new readers are coming in early.” What works for them? Visually appealing covers and catchy blurbs. PRHI has observed sales spikes and increased pre-orders for books that gain traction through viral reels.
HarperCollins India is focusing on marketing books as part of a slower, more intentional lifestyle, while PRHI wants to treat reading as part of a broader mindfulness movement. Reading retreats, as a move away from our e-saturated lives, have even become a global wellness trend.
Manasi Subramaniam, vice-president and editor-in-chief, PRHI, says, “Books don’t need defending. They outlast us, which is more than I can say for most things we consume. The younger readers I meet are far less cynical than we assume. Still, fatigue sets in when everything flattens into feed. The book, at its best, resists that flattening. Reading is beautifully incompatible with distraction. That may be its greatest asset.” And it is still finding the readers—on the Gram and in the park.
She is not wrong. Gen Z is the loneliest generation, according to the Cigna US Loneliness Index. And they have turned reading, that quiet, solitary act, into a social performance. Delhi Reads, which calls itself “India’s yappiest book club” on its Instagram bio, has grown from 60 members to 11,000 members and 60,000+ followers on Insta, most of them Gen Z (18-28 years).
Reading has also been yanked from indoors—on a couch, in the bed, in a library— to the outdoors. If you walk into the picturesque Cubbon Park in Bengaluru on a Saturday morning, you would see a hundred people reading, sitting or lying on the green. Cubbon Reads, Bengaluru’s silent reading community founded by Harsh Snehanshu and Shruti Sah, has had over 130 sessions. And its readers are mostly young. Sah says, “Reading has again become cool among the youth. What such communities help with are safety in a public setting, acceptance for a certain behaviour (reading while lying on the grass), meeting with like-minded people and reading recommendations.” The duo have also launched a reading-based dating app, Bookmark.
When Shamik Basu, a decision scientist at an IT company, landed in the city from Kolkata in late 2023, he turned to Cubbon Reads. “Reading as a group feels awesome. You get to meet people but in a different manner,” says the 24-yearold. He is reading more, discovering new genres and making new friends, something he says was difficult for a shy person like him.
Mayank Gupta, a 20-year-old student at the Delhi Technological University, feels similarly about Delhi Reads: “It has helped me socialise and meet new people, that too at a time when third spaces are shutting down. Anyone can join in and have some fun.”
“Fun” may not be something that has been always associated with reading. Its highbrow has now been tweezed. Reading has become a shared experience without brownie points for sounding intellectual or elite. Snehanshu says, “Reading has always been there. What was missing was hanging out with a bunch of readers to read a book without intellectualising that activity.”
It is akin to what Singh had in mind when she started Delhi Reads: “I wanted a space free of judgement—we don’t care if you listen to books, if you are not into classics, or if you read manga.” Reading, for her club, is about connection—with people and with the books.
It is a sentiment the younger generation echoes even on the other side of the world. The American model and actor Kaia Gerber, who cofounded an online book club, Library Science, says in Time that when she started reading, she picked writers she thought she was supposed to: Albert Camus, Arthur Rimbaud, Fyodor Dostoevsky. She says: “But that pressure dissipated as soon as I began to discover the pleasure and fulfilment that comes from reading books I can truly connect with.”
Reading, in many ways, has never been this cool. Celebrities are recommending books and starting book clubs—from Dua Lipa’s Service95 to Sonali Bendre’s Sonali’s Book Club. Meanwhile, in the US, BookTok, the reading community on TikTok, has launched the careers of authors like Colleen Hoover and Sarah J Maas.
Even as multiple reports have griped about Gen Z not reading, what has changed is reading itself.
NEW RULES OF READING
Gen Z has turned reading into a social media-coded, aesthetic-driven identity practice. It’s not just about books; it’s about how books fit into mood, lifestyle and self-expression. Bookstagram, the reading community on Instagram, is where book love is fetishised and flaunted. They share books, reviews, bookshelves, marginalia, to-be-read piles and even colour-coded tabs.
Says bookstagrammer Sneha Kapoor (@bookbegum) from Betul, Madhya Pradesh: “Like most things, even reading is heavily influenced by social media. Matcha went viral and we had the green matcha Kindle. Young readers are taking themselves out on solo book dates. And everyone wants to read that one trending book,” says Kapoor, 27.
The growing number of book clubs fly in the face of the wailing that young people don’t read. Karuna Ezara Parikh, Kolkata-based writer and founder of Karuna’s Kitaab Club, an online book club with 6,500 followers, says, “Bookstagram/ BookTok are often responsible for popularising new titles. Online allows us to share our feelings about a book with communities that would otherwise be inaccessible to us.”
Even publishing house Westland has a book club, Babelfish, which focuses on translations. Karthika VK, publisher, Westland Books, says the club has even helped diversify their in-house reading interests.
Sah says: “Social media has opened the floodgates to book discoveries that were otherwise gate kept by a few elite readers. People who read are finding circles of belongingness and even projecting their bookshelves online as an extension of their aesthetic choice.”
SHELF DISCOVERY
India Reads, an online club started by Divya Jain, a 27-year-old from Delhi, turns five in September. It has 150 paid members, 2,500 registered members and 13,000 followers on Instagram. “Instagram can take you away from reading but it can also influence people to read. Most of our new members joined us via this platform,” she says.
Readers confirm that social media is their main point of discovery, but it goes beyond the Gram. For Bengaluru-based ad executive Rohit Prasannan, reading recommendations come from Reddit or YouTube—for instance, Chalchitra Talks, Alex O’Connor and Jack Edwards. Meanwhile, Gauri Yadav, a 24-year-old design engineer, says most people in her circle follow bookstagrammers based on vibe but they get their reading lists from a variety of platforms like Pinterest, X, Goodreads and Discord. And they scour even the comments section for book tips.
Samprikta Pal, a 27-year-old singer from Kolkata, looks for her next biblio fix mostly on reels and YouTube. Her go-to bookstagrammers are @tatis_corner, @seigh.read and @thehellyblog. “Apps help too: Deepstash and Headway for quick, 15-minute summaries, Pocket FM for desi stories, Wattpad for serials and Goodreads for moodbased recommendations,” she says.
Amie Fazulbhoy, founder of the reading community Bandra Reads and the offline book club Books & Banter, says the way people choose books has changed drastically: “Book selection induced by FOMO [fear of missing out] is definitely a thing.” Discoverability is one of the biggest benefits of the Gram, says book blogger Vidhya A Thakkar. She recalls a time when readers relied on librarians or newspaper reviews; now, a scroll is enough. “The algorithm will push you in the right direction—one reel at a time,” she says. However, Chennai-based Dovlin, 25, cautions that not all bookstagram recommendations are worth the while. “They are a hit-or-miss. For instance, I regret picking up Colleen Hoover books.”
Social media has made book clubs easier to start, says Fazulbhoy: “Earlier I would have had to struggle to find a reasonable number of interested readers.” Now, the Instagram account of Bandra Reads, which she started this year, has over 8,000+ followers.
WHAT’S SELLING
Publishing companies are noticing the changing reader—and responding. Penguin Random House India (PRHI) recently launched a Fiction Addiction campaign aimed at a younger, digitally savvy audience. Manoj Satti, senior vice-president (product, sales & marketing), PRHI, says, “From a sales viewpoint, we have observed strong growth across several genres over the past year, particularly fiction, self-help and personal development. These genres resonate deeply with millennial and Gen Z audiences. There has been a notable rise in interest from tier2 and -3 cities.” HarperCollins India too has noticed a marked increase in younger, first-time book buyers, in metros as well as tier-2 cities.
Aman Arora, GM, communications & marketing, HarperCollins India, says, “The growth of bookstagram has made reading part of a larger lifestyle statement, where sharing what you read is as important as reading itself. A noticeable trend is the emergence of very young content creators—school and college students—posting about books, which tells us that new readers are coming in early.” What works for them? Visually appealing covers and catchy blurbs. PRHI has observed sales spikes and increased pre-orders for books that gain traction through viral reels.
HarperCollins India is focusing on marketing books as part of a slower, more intentional lifestyle, while PRHI wants to treat reading as part of a broader mindfulness movement. Reading retreats, as a move away from our e-saturated lives, have even become a global wellness trend.
Manasi Subramaniam, vice-president and editor-in-chief, PRHI, says, “Books don’t need defending. They outlast us, which is more than I can say for most things we consume. The younger readers I meet are far less cynical than we assume. Still, fatigue sets in when everything flattens into feed. The book, at its best, resists that flattening. Reading is beautifully incompatible with distraction. That may be its greatest asset.” And it is still finding the readers—on the Gram and in the park.
You may also like
Hyderabad horror: Pregnant woman chopped in pieces by husband; threw hands, legs in Musi river
Nikki Haley urges India to take Trump's view on Russian oil seriously
Edappadi Palaniswami leads NDA, he is CM candidate: Tamil Nadu BJP Chief
Hingoli: Incomplete Development Works Expose Poor Planning In Basmath City
Viral: College Students Create Human Chain Figure Of Lord Ganesha Ahead Of Ganpati Aagman 2025
