POWER PLAYERS

How Instagram’s helping us to read more books

In between the outfits of the day and heavily edited selfies, there is a quieter corner of the internet that wields just as much power as the Zoellas of the web. Meet the bookfluencers – YouTubers and Instagrammers who simply love reading, and want to share that. And with followers and video views into the millions, it’s no wonder publishers are eager for them to champion new releases. Us? We just like to know what’s good without sifting through 57,367 GoodReads reviews…

@BooksAndQuills

USP: Beautiful travel shots, alongside book recommendations. Sanne is Dutch, and exploring her way around the UK while working in publishing in London. Recent rave: “Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie, a modern retelling of [Greek tragedy] Antigone about love, family and politics.”

LeenaNorms

USP: Poems. As well as book reviews, Leena recites her own poetry on her YouTube channel.

Recent rave: Sheila Heti’s Motherhood, “her fictionalised account of her struggle with the question of becoming a mother… I have been hopping like I’m on hot coals trying to persuade everyone to read it.”

@SweptAwayByBooks

USP: Nature. A Canadian currently living in Scotland, she snaps the books she’s reading by lochs, in fields and snow-covered cabins. Recent rave: “The Air You

Breathe by Frances de Pontes Peebles. This book will make you ache: with jealousy, with pain and with love. I adored it.”

@LucyTheReader

USP: Vintage. Always fancied getting stuck into the classics? Lucy will inspire you to do so.

Recent rave: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier: “2018 is the 80th anniversary of Rebecca’s publication… It mixes intrigue with mystery and brings Cornwall to life in a way that makes you feel you live there.”