TikTokWith summer nearly here, now is the perfect time to start collating a summer reads shortlist! As a home to incredible authors, publishers, independent bookstores, and creators with a passion for the arts, #BookTok is the place to be for all your reading recommendations.
This week, we're spotlighting one of the amazing creators bringing literature to life on the platform @sp3llb00k, aka Dakota. Whether it's her thoughts on recent reads, reciting her favorite poems, or sharing content with fellow creators like @jackedwards, we can't get enough of her wholesome book content. Dakota has also spent time this week at the Hay Festival, the world’s leading arts and literary festival, sharing her accommodation, relaxed interviews with authors, and the books she has bought .
But it's not just about books - Dakota also loves sharing all things fashion! From facetime-style fit checks to showing off her vintage accessories, her page is a treasure trove of fashion inspiration.
With a constantly growing audience of 390k followers, it is clear our community loves Dakota just as much as we do! We sat down with @sp3llb00k earlier this week to ask her about all things literature, TikTok, and her thoughts on the Hay Festival.
We saw you were recently at the Hay Festival, what do you love most about the BookTok community?
#BookTok is a community like no other because the crux of it is so simple - everybody shares the same joy and passion for literature. I know I can engage with anybody from the community and come away with a myriad of recommendations. We just want to read, and we just want others to read too. It’s actually quite pure and magical!
Why did you decide to start sharing content on TikTok?
I really just wanted to share my passion for literature and art in hopes it would inspire others. Poetry and classic literature can seem rather intimidating if you don’t have prior experience or relevant education. So, when I was studying literature and creative writing at university, I thought what better to do than take my knowledge and taste and share it with the world wide internet to make these kinds of things accessible and dare I say, exciting! I like to say it was a happy accident, the way things went after that, but truth be told I poured my entire heart into it. Either way, I’m the luckiest girl in the world to have found or maybe forged such a special little pocket of the internet full of people who just want to read or maybe write under the summer sun nestled amongst some soft green grass in a rolling field.
What other creators do you follow on TikTok?
I’m really lucky to be amidst a community that shares the same passions both in real life and online, so I follow creators who also happen to be some of my closest friends. I’ve met some of the greatest people I know via the platform - that’s the kind of community BookTok and TikTok in general can be!
What is your goal on TikTok?
My goal on TikTok is to share my love and passion for the arts and incite this same love amongst others, especially young people. It’s so important to become comfortable with vulnerability when you’re an artist and sharing your art in spaces like TikTok, which I believe is an integral step to this. I also love the idea of my profile being some kind of visual diary of the best years of my life thus far. I think my main goal is to both inspire and be inspired, really.
What is your favourite TikTok you have made to date and why?
This is an impossible question! I think the video that has the most significance for me was back when I stitched a viral video of a two-headed calf and read one of my favourite poems, The Two Headed-Calf by Laura Gilpin. This poem means so much to me, and for hundreds of thousands of people to watch and engage with the video and now have this poem in their minds too is a very special feeling. It’s by no means my most creative or visually pleasing video, but I’m nothing if not a filthy sentimentalist, and this is very dear to me.
Finally, what else is on your For You feed?!
Prepare to be shocked - books! Extracts of writing and poetry especially, of course a whole bunch of art, and vintage inspired content, whether it be sourcing and styling vintage clothing or various vintage lifestyle themes (because clearly, I am a lover of old things). I think people forget how easy it is to manipulate your algorithm to only see things that bring joy and inspiration. Like I said, I’m a filthy sentimentalist, and I’m also a curator of beautiful things - so I take pride in my FYP being a work of art in itself.
New to TikTok and want to explore more #BookTok content? Getting involved couldn’t be easier, simply download the app for free via the Apple App Store, Google Play or Amazon.
