Jacob Szymanski

Moving on to the next clip, I want to bring you a clip from an interview I had with a YouTuber that I really appreciate.

Another YouTuber actually.

According to Alina is an awesome YouTube channel that does video essays on all things literature and book industry stuff.

She's

Very nuanced in her approach and super articulate.

It was awesome to talk to her.

And I had her on because I kind of see her as an expert in book talk.

The section of TikTok that loves talking about books, which is, if you're not aware, hugely influential on what gets published nowadays.

Here's that clip with According to Alina.

So the way you put it, it all sounds pretty wholesome and harmless.

Where does the hate come from?

That was a clip pulled from the episode called Book Talk and the Future of Digital Literature Consumption.

And it originally aired on March 19th, 2025.

Red, we've talked about this a little bit on the show.

And it's this ostracization of romance from serious literature.

That's in quotations.

And BookTok is the embodiment of that because they really lean into romance and smut and not the most literary respectable novels of sorts.

Are you familiar with BookTok?

Are you telling me that Fifty Shades of Grey is going to be 2300's Shakespeare?

My friend once described to me pretentiousness as a work of art that asks too much of its audience.