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reading and reading and more reading

This week I ordered a book called Big Fiction by Dan Sinykin. This particular researcher is a big help to my thesis because he’s already done groundwork about issues within the publishing industry, and having his work as basis for mine will be incredibly helpful. I read an article by him and Lee Konstantinou called “Literature and Publishing, 1945–2020” that discussed the heavy influences that neoliberalism has on contemporary publishing. They are asking questions about who’s writing gets recognized. I’m already a fan of what I can read via open access. Writing-wise I’m still going somewhat slow because I haven’t managed to organize where I want everything to go yet. That’ll be my goal for next week.

I’ve also started on my third trashy romance novel via BookTok’s recommendation. The other two made me drag my feet, maybe the third time is the charm? This one is sadder than the others, and while the protagonist is childish, the way she narrates as if she’s speaking with regret and introspection makes me want to see where this goes. I’m really hoping the payoff is worthwhile and I cry over it. I haven’t read or watched something sad in a really long time.

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slow week

This week was somewhat slower for research. I did start writing a mission statement for my thesis. I’m not sure if it’ll go in the final draft, but keeping strict goals in mind prevents me from adding my own biases and assumptions about BookTok and the texts I’m reading in it. My goal is to identify patterns in tropes, explain how the relate to escapist fantasies, and create a discussion about the issues with publishers rather than the authors or the consumers. It’s important to make that distinction because I’m anti-censorship, so I don’t find anything wrong in creating or reading fiction solely for pleasure.

For my research, I found a website called booktoktrends.com. It tracks trending accounts and posts on TikTok in real time. This makes collecting data and finding books to read so much simpler. My own algorithm has bias for my preferences, but this site removes that obstacle. Some of the current trending trope tags as of today are #darkromance, #billionareromance, #marriageofconvinience, and #mafiaromance, which is interesting, because I nothing about this site or my personal account is looking for a very specific genre of books. Romance just happens to appear consistently.

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we’re chugging along

This was the busiest September of my academic career and I still feel as if I didn’t do enough. But for this week, I sat down and compiled what I could find through the library on the topic of escapism. I was pleasantly surprised to see there was more than I expected. The vast majority of research on the subject is in relation to people who play video games. The term “hikikomori” even popped up, which I am surprised to see in an academic context. It refers to people who severely self-isolate and don’t do any kind of work or studying, originating in Japan because of large number of individuals who’d given up on forming real life connections.

I didn’t find anything in relation to bookworms about escapism. There are some few and far between articles about fandom spaces, but I don’t think I want to cover that aspect in my research. Fandom is a form of community regardless of its downsides. BookTok isn’t as deeply devoted to the book series to create fandom spaces (though there are some exceptions, like Sarah J Mass’ series). I did find one article about brainrot induced by AI micro-dramas, which I think is something I’d like to link to my research into popular tropes. I also found an article about the readership base of webnovel fans, which is a reader base that also prefers specific tropes like characters “leveling-up” their powers or traveling back in time to fix mistakes. I think BookTok belongs with this highly sought after type of trope-ism.

Also, I made a mind map like I promised in last week’s blog. I’m not sure it helped me narrow down my thesis, but at least I can use it to explain where my thinking is. We’re trying to get to publishing industry bias from all of these concepts.

Student Blogs

rocks in the road

These past two weeks have been rough for my household. One of my worries with all my responsibilities this semester is my personal life throwing a wrench in my academic life. And then I’d have to take a mental break to reset. Which is exactly what’s been happening over these past two weeks. I haven’t been able to make the time to mind map my thesis out the way I’d planned to. I’m barely focused on this assignment as I write it because I’m watching the weather to make sure I can shut off the electricity to parts of my house if it starts flooding. I’ll make my mind map this week and start looking into articles about the dependency on escapism this week.

On the bright side, the next Booktok book I’m reading is horrible and I get to make fun of it here. The characters are 18 and speak as if they’re in middle school. The female MC got knocked up in chapter 2 and keeps telling the baby daddy, who’s name is Sin, it isn’t his. He knows it’s his. There’s a serial killer murdering people in rituals and somehow that’s the B plot to this A plot pregnancy. There’s 300 pages left of this nonsense. I am not strong enough to finish this. I’ve hit enough tropes to add it to my thesis, though: sarcastic female protagonist, stalker/obsessed male protagonist, badly written banter, a quick, easy birth (sorry I skipped ahead to the epilogue, I was bored), the guy saying “I’d burn the world for you” at some point (pg. 373), etc. The author of this book is a doctoral student- her program must be insanely boring if she had the time to write 700 pages of sex and shock value.

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i gotta lock in so bad

Thankfully I haven’t changed the direction I was planning on going in Spring so I don’t have to edit much within my proposal. I spent this week reading some of Orwell’s essays, since I have Orwellian ideas in mind for the criticism I’m trying to make. The first work I read was called ‘Facism and Democracy.’ It required a lot of searches since I’m not familiar with British history like I am with American. There are comparisons to be drawn with England in 1944 and the U.S in modern day, but I’m specifically focusing on the literary, so I’m not sure that this piece is what I’m looking for.

My second reading was Politics Vs. Literature: An examination of Gulliver’s Travels. An important novel, one that I didn’t enjoy reading because the groups being satirized went over my head. I think that this article focusing so specifically on one piece of fiction makes it less than helpful to me, since I’m looking for something that pairs with Orwell’s 1984. I think I’d also like to focus on history that was more recent, reflecting Orwell’s observations in the 40’s and how that mirrors what we’re viewing in 2026.

The third essay I read was Politics and the English Language, and wouldn’t you know it, third time really is the charm. So much of what he says about how language is shaped and how authors express meaning ties into the contemporary slop that I’ve been reading. He takes issue with English prose by claiming,”[The author] is almost indifferent as to whether his words mean anything or not.” This is important to my work because the authors of these popular novels do not realize how their works contribute to degradation of race, gender, and literacy in a political climate where education on those topics is actively being suppressed.