If you've poked around bookstagram a bit, you might have noticed terms or acronyms that are commonly used, and yet you have no idea what they mean. Don't you worry. I think everyone was a bit lost in the beginning. But, luckily for you, I'm here to explain what some of these foreign "words" mean. Shall we begin?
Okay. So first up is the word "bookstagram" itself. I think this one's pretty easy to dissect. You see the word "book", and then the ending of "stagram." (Wow, that makes a whole lot of sense! Just, wait a second, please.) The word is a combination of "book(s)" and "Instagram", creating the mish-mashed version of "bookstagram." For anyone confused (although I don't think it's too complicated), just think of it like a ship name. For instance, "Percabeth" is a combination of Percy and Annabeth's names. "Caleo" is a combination of Calypso and Leo's names. (Please forgive me, I only know Heroes of Olympus ships... I don't really read that many books with ships, and if I do I don't know the ship name.)
While I'm on the topic of shipping, I might as well explain what it is, even though it isn't exclusively a bookstagram term and is sometimes more often found in fandom Instagram communities. To "ship" people, is to hope for, want, or enjoy (?) a relationship between the people involved. The word itself comes from the word "relationship". The noun related to this verb is also "ship." Related terms include "OTP", or "one true pairing"; "NOTP", the opposite of OTP or a ship you really don't like; and "ship war", which would be the case if, say, Person A was shipped with both Person B and C, and people argued over which was the better ship. Although I must say that I personally have not seen a lot of this shipping stuff around bookstagram.
I remember when I first saw this term I was very confused. Bookstagrammers were talking about their TBR's left and right. But never fret, my dear, because I am here to help you. "TBR" simply means "to be read." Basically, a TBR is a list of all the books someone wants to read but has not yet read. Usually these lists are quite long, heh heh.
This is another common term. You'll even see it in our own bookstagram bio. But what does it mean? "CR" (also written in all lower case letters) means "current read", so if you see someone talk about their "CR" or see the acronym followed by a book title, it's just the book that the individual is currently reading.
Something that is very common for people to do when talking about books is to shorten the titles in an acronym, and this can be a little confusing to beginners or to people who have not read these books. Here are a few of them:
- HP = Harry Potter
- PJO = Percy Jackson and the Olympians series
- HOO = The Heroes of Olympus series
- MPHFPC = Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (usually used for the trilogy)
- ACOTAR = A Court of Thorns and Roses (either the book or the series; I believe it's more commonly used for the book but it all depends)
- ACOMAF = A Court of Mist and Fury
- ACOWAR = A Court of Wings and Ruin
That's all I've got for this post. If you want to check out more Navigating Bookstagram posts, click here or the link at the top of the page. If you want to read all the Navigating Bookstagram posts in order, you can start with the introduction here. And if you just want to chill, that's cool too. See you next time!
I also just wanted to let you all know that I'll probably be switching to my "school schedule" for now, which means I'll be posting every Monday and the first Friday of every month. Thank you.
Love the images you made for each section. Helpful guide!
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