Technology has become an aspect of every teen’s life in at least the past decade, but with Covid-19 making an appearance, reading is becoming more common. This has to do with, of course, the free time people have now, but also social media, where one reader is able to reach thousands and millions of teens who are intrigued by reviews. With summer also coming soon, books are popping up everywhere.

 Many books have been trending since their release, like the novel “They Both Die at the End” by Adam Silvera. Although this book is recommended for teens aged 14-17, even adults are reading it. It has created a big fandom on Tiktok where creators film themselves reading the book and their reactions to draw in people who are curious as to how one book could possibly affect people so much. Even teens who don’t enjoy reading much, like freshman, Abigail Grape, are starting “They Both Die at the End.”

“I don’t really read but I saw “They Both Die at the End” on TikTok so many times that I was so interested in the book. I’ve seen good and bad reviews on it but mostly good. The people who were making videos about it were literally crying, and I didn’t think a book could make you actually so into a story so I bought it off Amazon and started reading immediately. So far I’m only a few chapters in but I really love the characters and the more I read, the more the title makes me mad, knowing that they’re going to die. So, I’m excited to read the rest but at the same time not that much,” says Abigail Grape.

Other books got popular after the movie adaptations came out. The book “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” and its sequels, “To All the Boys: Always and Forever” and “To All the Boys: P.S I Still Love You” became more appealing to people after the movie adaptations came out in late 2018 and early 2020 and 2021. The movie has been watched by a large audience, which has attracted people towards the book, but it is seen the other way around too. Freshman, Hannah Le, is one of the teens who read the book then enjoyed the movies. 

“I like the novel ‘To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before’ by Jenny Han because it’s a young romance book and I generally love reading romance novels. I’ve seen it usually on young influencers’ social media accounts and the plot of the story convinced me to read it. I believe that it did live up to its standards on social media because it has all the romance and humor a book would need. It was very good and I would recommend the book,” said Le.

Some books became more popular because of the actors who played the characters in the movie adaptations, like Cole Sprouse in “Five Feet Apart.” The book became very popular last year and was sold in a few book fairs, where freshman, Esther Adegoke, came upon hers. Adegoke is one of many teens and young adults who fell in love with the movie’s popularity  which led  to them getting the book.

“I heard of ‘Five Feet Apart’ from my friends first and then I saw that Cole Sprouse was gonna be in the movie and I liked a lot of his shows and movies so when I saw his face on the book cover I read the small summary and it really seemed like such a good and sad book. I read it and honestly I think it has a great story because I loved how the main character at least got to love someone and not spend the rest of her life worrying about if she would die because she is very sick in the book,” said Adegoke. 

Thanks to all the book fanatics on social media and more free time, reading is becoming more popular among this generation. At least a few good things came out of Covid-19, and getting people to be more interested in reading is definitely one of them.