Recently while perusing TikTok, I came across a video from another reader asking, “Where have all the good books gone?” I’ll save you from the details, but her point was basically that she misses the books which would, in her words, “make you think,” or that would inspire you to sit and ponder what you learned.

I don’t have to tell you that this take is essentially misinformed and incorrect, but I will anyway. There’s three main arguments I have on this point:

• The books she described are absolutely still being written. Walk through any bookstore, and you’ll know that Haunting Adeline is not the only book getting published. It’s not TikTok’s fault if you only engage with ACOTAR memes or naughty fan art. That’s like going into Barnes & Noble, looking only at the cookbooks, and then wondering why there are only cookbooks. You’re going to have to look around.
• You can find any reading niche on BookTok. It’s always those who fail to curate their algorithms who then act as though the only books on TikTok are smut and Colleen Hoover. It’s not true. I saw another video not long ago titled “Books I never see on TikTok” – but they were all books that I only knew about because of TikTok. If some of the most popular and most reviewed works are not showing up in your feed, that might be a you problem.
• You’re not “cool and intellectual” for only reading postmodern academic metafiction, or whatever. I’ve read it all, from the worst commercialized erotica to the best award-winning literary fiction, and I can tell you in no uncertain terms: your reading preferences do not make you better than any other reader. That’s not to say you can’t have specific tastes; you can and that’s great! But asking where “all the good books have gone” just makes you look like a (misinformed) jerk.

I talk a bit about this in this blog, as well.

So, how do you make your algorithm work for you? There’s a few key things you can do to make TikTok show you book recommendations that align with your preferences.

Follow specific BookTok accounts.

Find creators who review or discuss books in your genre. You can do this by searching the hashtags for books you like, and see who’s active in that area. If they also liked that book, their other recommendations will probably match your tastes.

Also, find and follow the authors whose books you enjoy. In addition to sharing updates about their own work, they will probably recommend books that they enjoyed as well.

Engage with relevant content, and mark others as “not interested.”

The algorithms are based on how you interact with the content that comes into your feed. If you see a book recommendation for a book or genre you’re not into, you can choose to mark the video as “not interested.” If not, at least try not to interact too much with that content. For example, if you see a TikTok from someone gushing about a book you hated, don’t comment on it to tell them point-by-point why it’s a bad book. Just move on, or you’ll get more like it in your feed.

But when you do come across a video in your genre, like or comment on it. The algorithm will notice your interactions and show you similar content.

Save and share posts.

In addition to liking or commenting, you can also save posts for books you want to come back to, or repost videos you like. When you share book-related posts to friends with similar tastes, this can create a network of bookish content in your feed.

Clean up the accounts you follow.

Regularly go through your following list and remove content creators who are not in the genres you’re interested in.

Do all this, and you’ll have more luck on BookTok.

By consistently engaging with book-related content and accounts, using relevant hashtags, and indicating your preferences through your actions on TikTok, you should start to see more tailored book recommendations in your feed. If you don’t do this, that’s fine — just don’t be surprised when all the books you see are irrelevant to you.