This week 22-year-old model Kaia Gerber launched her own book club, Library Science.
Gerber, who this month appears on the cover of British Vogue alongside her supermodel mum, Cindy Crawford, describes it as a platform for sharing books, featuring new writers, hosting conversations with artists we admire and continuing to build a community of people who are as excited about literature as I am.
Books have always been the great love of my life, she added. Reading is so sexy.
Gerber isnt alone. Last year physical books sold were the highest level ever recorded. Research from Nielsen BookData highlights that it is print books that gen Z favor, accounting for 80% of purchases from November 2021 to 2022. Libraries are also reporting an uptick in gen Z users who favor their quiet over noisy coffee shops.
While the BookTok charts a subsection of TikTok where avid readers post recommendations are regularly topped by fantasy and romance titles from authors such as Colleen Hoover, gen Z are reading a diverse range of genres.
The gen Z book sphere is incredibly broad, says Hali Brown, the 28-year-old co-founder of Books on the Bedside, a popular TikTok account dedicated to gen Z reading habits. There is a lot of appreciation for literary fiction, memoirs, translated fiction and classics in particular, says Brown.