1. The café bookstagrammer. #HipsterBookstagram
Fans of coffee and tattered paperbacks by authors you’ve never heard of. Endlessly striving to achieve the correct level of effortlessness, no matter how many hundreds of photos they take in the process. “Oh, this old photo? I just snapped it at brunch the other day on my way to the local farmer’s market.”
2. The “Do you even read?” bookstagrammer. #YouDontNeedThose
Perhaps the most confusing bookstagrammer. They talk about book design, book collecting, and book hauls—basically anything but reading. These bookstagrammers are very sneaky, because you’ll be following for months before you realize they’ve never posted a review, wrap-up, or even mentioned their current read. Mind: blown.
3. The “Do you do anything BUT read?” bookstagrammer. #GOALS
We all follow at least one person whose monthly wrap-ups look less like a book stack and more like a full-on shelfie. Typically I enjoy living vicariously through their insane reading skills, but every once in awhile they’ll say something like “Had a busy weekend, so I could only read five books!” and then I’m just mad.
4. The neutral bookstagrammer. #50ShadesofBeige
Champions of lattes, reclaimed wood, and chunky knits. You can spot these bookstagrammers fighting the good fight against the horrors of the book spine and stacking their books (they never seem to own shelves and it’s confusing AF) with the pages facing OUT.
5. The cliquey bookstagrammers. #YouCantSitWithUs
Forever mentioning their BFFs, bragging about the bookish gifts they received, and generally just reminding you what a loner you are. Easily spotted by the way they keep tagging each other in their Insta stories: “Susan, look at this neat bookshop I found!” SO many questions here: Why do you have to communicate via Instagram stories when your message is only for one person? Have you heard of direct messaging?”
6. The aggressive bookstagrammer. #HoldMyEarrings
These are the ones who use Instagram stories as an outlet for righteous anger and political tirades. They like to follow up their more belligerent assertions with something like: “And if anyone disagrees they can go ahead and unfollow me!” But, if you take them up on their word and do, in fact, unfollow, chances are high that they’ll complain about that, too.
7. The politician bookstagrammer. #Positivity
The polar opposite of the aggressive bookstagrammer, this person just wants everyone to like them. They LOVE every book they read, they agree with every single comment on their account, and they give shout outs to basically everyone they follow.
8. The lifestyle bookstagrammer. #LiveAuthentically
Also known as sneak attack bookstagrammers because they were only posting book photos when you started following them. Now they’re posting selfies and sunsets on the beach (#blessed) and promoting clothes and cosmetics and you’re really just confused about where TF all the books went.
9. The magpie bookstagrammer. #BookHoarders
Because book collecting isn’t just for old people anymore. Easily identified by their 20+ editions of Pride and Prejudice, these bookstagrammers buy books to read and to use as decoration. YES, I KNOW I FALL INTO THIS CATEGORY AND I REGRET NOTHING (And I have way more than 20 copies of P&P, thank you very much.).
10. The fangirl bookstagrammer. #AlltheFeels
These bookstagrammers love angsty love interests, bookish merch, and sock Sunday (or you can combine the three for a triple threat). Easily provoked by insulting the holy trinity: Sarah J. Mass, J. K. Rowling, or Tom Hiddleston.
***To be clear, I do not recommend provoking them.***
11. The thrifty bookstagrammer. #FreeShit
Squeezing their influencer status for all it’s worth, whether or not the free products actually relate to their feed. Free books? Check. Free watch? Check. Free ice cream? Check. Easily spotted by the five billion discount codes they try to tempt you with.
12. The literary bookstagrammer. #STFU
The ones that mainly read books by dead white men and Man Booker prize winners, and make passive aggressive comments about people who read “genre fiction.” Proceed with caution; if you dare insult their favorite classic, you better believe they’ll deliver an impromptu lecture in the comments below.
