On book culture and the quest for community
Finding genuine connection in a digital age
Hi friends, Welcome back to Undivided Attention. You and I both made it through January - let’s give ourselves a pat on the back!
With this post, I’m introducing a new column - a round-up of news and trends I’m seeing in the marketing and social worlds that are all about building community, both online and IRL. While Undivided Attention is inevitably about the things that capture and hold our attention, I wanted to take it further by focusing on experiences and happenings that ultimately build connections among others. Community is a marketing buzzword, yes, but it’s also something that, I, as a writer, journalist and content strategist - (and forever scholar of human behaviour) - am genuinely interested in, especially in a moment where we’re all craving ways to connect.
First up on the community docket: Books, and their uncanny ability to drive connection. On Substack, it’s no surprise that books are BIG news - among a community of mostly writers, it’s a no-brainer that literature would reign. That said, there are a ton of book-focused Substacks, along with newsletters that perform as online book clubs, where readers can join with community members, read a book of their choosing and join the conversation around it. Many of them are slow-read book clubs, where readers can engage with a text at a gentle pace, taking the time to reflect on the writing, details and nuances. Want to do a slow read of Pride & Prejudice? Join Hayley Larsen over at
. Or maybe you want to unearth some undiscovered gems? Check out writer ’s The Audacious Book Club for discussions around underrepresented authors.And that’s just the tip of the iceberg -
, who hosts slow reads of historical fiction works in his newsletter Footnotes and Tangents, has done the lord’s work and created an exhaustive Substack Book Club Directory and a list of book clubs happening on the platform in February. People are connecting through their shared love of literature and engaging in meaningful ways, and I loved this comment from one of Simon’s subscribers in a recent post:
Substack is driving IRL meet-ups
One of the most interesting phenomenons I’ve seen in book-club-adjacent Substacks is the community that author Miranda July has built around her novel, All Fours. July’s Substack isn’t a book club per se - she writes about her life, relationships and sometimes, vibrators (because, why not?). Her book All Fours, however - which is about a 45-year-old artist who blows up her domestic life (read: married, one child), has an affair with a younger, married man, and experiments with an open marriage - has sparked major conversation and become the topic of group chats everywhere since its release last May. The book has inspired a movement among women - some of whom have also blown up their own lives - opening the door for them to talk about mid-life, sex, perimenopause, relationships and more.
Those All Fours group chats are now happening IRL: Subscribers to July’s Substack have been hosting or joining in-person All Fours Group Chat meet-ups in cities across the US, Canada, and Europe, all organized through July’s private chat. Meet-up participants are encouraged to make and wear All Fours Group Chat t-shirts, hats and pins like those July initially created for some of her famous fans. Not so crafty? You can buy similar merch online from small businesses in the know.
All of these groups are happening organically, although they have the blessing of July herself, who said in a recent post: “I’ve been thrilled watching these groups form entirely without me; it’s what I hoped for (and is pretty international, so don’t assume there’s no one near you.)”
So what to make of all this? Well, first, books are powerful catalysts for sparking conversation and community engagement. Secondly, literature is having a moment - from #BookTok to fashion brands like Miu Miu starting cool-girl book clubs to J. Crew designing a “literary” collection and its own Book Club, “Buffy’s & J.Crew Literary Salon” in partnership with Lizzy Hadfield of
, reading has never been cooler. Just ask Dua Lipa, who has her own book club.More than that, people are seeking respite from their phones and want deeper connections with others, and there’s perhaps no better way to do this than through books. The slow-reading phenomenon in particular also shows that people want to actively and intentionally consume their content instead of passively consuming algorithm-driven feeds. They want to think and share with other people - to feel seen, in real life and online. With shared moments so few and far between these days, we’re eager to find areas of kinship, and books deliver.
Are classics the new monoculture?
It’s definitely a choice to read the 900+page Middlemarch by George Eliot or Tolstoy’s mammoth tome The Brothers Karamazov - classics that have become must-reads again for Substack readers who tire of the relentless pace of consuming the next new thing on the best-seller list. Coincidentally, the classics are also having a resurgence over on #BookTok, with readers feverishly gobbling up classics like the deep cut from Dostoevsky’s oeuvre: the author’s 1848 novella White Nights. Gen Z seems to be all-in on Jane Austen, too, with titles like Pride & Prejudice and Persuasion popular among so-called “Janeites,” who are taking to Meetup and the book app Fable to join online and IRL book clubs. Search “Classic Literature” on TikTok and you’ll get a cool 29.6 million results. (S/O to the brilliant
for bringing the Austen-lover article to my attention).
On the rise of the classics, I loved how
put it recently: “The classics are becoming our contemporary cultural moment, which is kind of wild when you think about it.” And this: “Between our current political anxiety, the endless cycle of late-stage capitalist consumerism that readers are not immune from, and the TikTokification of our digital lives, many of us find ourselves yearning for deep thought.”
Brands are getting in on the lit-loving action
I’ve been following Crown Affair brand founder
’s newsletter, Take Your Time, and it’s a great example, IMO, of a brand activating on Substack in a genuine way through its founder. Cohen writes about entrepreneurship, creativity, and manifesting one’s dreams and recently opened up her subscriber chat to kick off a book club for Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. First published in 2002, The Artist’s Way is a self-help book that seeks to spark creativity through different techniques and exercises (if you’ve ever heard of “morning pages” that’s where it comes from). It’s the kind of book where you want an accountability partner to get through it, and Cohen’s ask got nearly 100 replies from interested participants. I love everything about this - the ability to communicate directly with the brand founder is a delight for fans and it also shows that Crown Affair is serious about developing long-term relationships over short-term sales. Plus, the group is authentically fostering a community of creatives on a creativity-driven platform, which makes a ton of sense.Bookstores as the new community hubs
Meanwhile, Barnes and Noble is staging a comeback, largely due to the rise of #BookTok. The company opened 57 stores last year and plans to open 60+ more in 2025. But it’s not the Barnes & Noble of yore - these new stores, upgraded during the pandemic shutdown - feature communal spaces for book lovers to hang out. It’s a smart move for them, as it sets them apart from digital-first competitors like Amazon and creates a community hub for reading enthusiasts. As Lia Haberman recently noted, it taps into the idea of “third spaces” - environments outside of school or work where people, especially Gen Z, connect with like-minded individuals. If B&N is smart, they will borrow from the local library playbook and create in-person events, experiences, and programming catered to their book-loving audience. In that respect, they would be taking a literal page from bookstore McNally Jackson, and some have also said that the new B&N bookstores have also taken on “a McNally-ish aspect” in their aesthetic and ambience, per Vulture’s deep dive into McNally’s - which is worth a read, too.
I expect more brands will tap into book club culture, and even book club influencers like Lizzy Hadfield of Buffy’s in the coming months as a way to forge deeper connections. It could mark the next phase of influencer marketing, where we see creators bringing their online communities into real-life experiences. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Lastly, I’m taking inspiration from fellow Substackers and and sharing what I’m reading, buying, watching and listening to this week:
Reading: Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion, which is a classic for a reason. Her keen eye for detail and rhythmic sentence style make me want to read this book again and again.
Watching: Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story. The documentary looks at the complicated relationship between Christopher Reeve the man, and Reeve as Superman, a role for which he will be forever be associated as a real-life superhero, and his life before and after a near-fatal accident that left him paralyzed. As someone who grew up watching Superman movies as a kid, this one gets me in the feels.
Also watching: The Grammys. The amount of talent in the Best New Artist category alone was worth the watch. Trust: 2025 is Doechii’s year.
Buying: A budget-friendly, sit-stand desk for my home office. Sitting all day isn’t great for anyone, and while I know there’s no real evidence to suggest that these things actually do anything to improve your health, I find that standing while writing can be weirdly energizing.
Listening to: Jazz Cafe playlists on YouTube, because I’m basic like that. And ambient music is best for writing.
What are you reading/watching or buying this week? Let me know in the comments - I’d love to hear from you!
I’m reading non-fiction “Ninth Street Women” about the female artists in New York in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. It has eerie parallels to modern times and is a fascinating insight to these artists’ lives.👍