Exclusive Interview
Taylor Rosen Talks Big Book Energy, His Literary Hot Takes & His Next Chapter
Wearing a “Book Club” t-shirt, Taylor Rosen is ready to talk about books. There are a myriad of book content creators out there, and mining through them all can be overwhelming, to say the least.
Enter Rosen. The 32-year-old content creator and actor is a calming, insightful voice amid the flurry of opinions. You can tell Rosen takes his time to decide what he wants to say about the books he reads, and he’ll be the first to tell you that. That dedication makes you feel like Rosen is talking to you rather than at you.
His thoughtful commentary and recommendations, combined with that relaxing demeanor — he’s practically a book boyfriend come to life — and clever skits, have drawn the people in. Rosen has what he calls “big book energy,” but he’s chill about it.
The New Yorker never would have imagined this trajectory five years ago. During the pandemic, Rosen felt like he needed to express himself in some way. A friend recommended he talk about books online. “That was a way in that felt not like so cringy because there was a big stigma about what Tiktok was in the beginning, all dances and whatnot. But talking about books, it feels like I could offer something,” he told Swooon. Once he committed, he was all in.
In the years since, he’s amassed nearly 500,000 Instagram followers. His videos on TikTok have over 19 million likes and counting. The success is great, but Rosen is devoted to having something meaningful to say rather than just saying anything that pops into his head.
As part of Swooon’s Influenced series, Rosen discussed his book hot takes, Sally Rooney, his vision for the future and more.
The following was edited for length.
How would you define book big energy?
Taylor Rosen: I think it’s up to interpretation. It’s kind of like a horoscope. Whatever you see in it, you can take from it. I think it’s a dedication to someone who likes to read or someone who nerds out about certain books. So many things can be encompassed in that’s big book energy, or it could literally just be a big book. If you have a big book, that’s big book energy. It’s dedication. Owning it. Learning. Reading. It’s all big book energy.
What was your favorite novel of 2024?
I read Lolita for the first time and was kind of blown away by that. I just read Beautiful World, Where Are You I’m a huge Sally Rooney fan. As people may know, I’ve recently been talking a lot about Sally Rooney. I’ve been really diving into her stuff, so I really liked Beautiful World Where Are You.
@tayrosenthis book is highly underated♬ Hinoki Wood – Gia Margaret
How does creating content around books and talking about them creatively fuel you?
Well, it forces me to read more and to think about it more deeply and try to retain stuff. When I read a book and try to formulate what I’m going to say about it, it forces me to really see what I think about it and do some research. I never normally did that before, so now I’m really kind of researching and getting a deeper understanding of these things. That’s satisfying because I wanted to be someone who was well-rounded. I’m far from the smartest person in the room, so I wanted to get some confidence that way and feel like I could talk about something, even though I still struggle about talking. I have to really write stuff down. I think that’s what plays to my advantage. I take the time to write talking points because talking about stuff on the spot is difficult for me.
But then there’s also the way I’ve expanded into skits and humor. For a while, I didn’t do that. I was like, what’s going to happen when I try this? Because my niche is books, so I tried to, in the beginning, connect it to that kind of niche. But then I started thinking of funny things. I think I tried your Hinge date went to film school, and that was the first one. I was like, let’s try this, and it did pretty good. I kept going with that. I was actually really surprised how relatable it was and that just encouraged me to keep doing that. That is satisfying in its own way, to get to act, try to write funny stuff, and then I’ve also gotten into the more short stories or ads, commercial types where I also flex these creative muscles too a little bit. It’s not quite making a whole film, but it’s kind of, in a small way, pretty fulfilling.
How do you choose your novels?
I feel like I’m catching up on all these books I feel like I need to read. There’s so many obvious classics, great books, and I feel like I have a long list. However, how I pick out of that list is kind of whatever’s going on in my personal zeitgeist at the time. I know I have a bunch of books, but if a friend mentions a book and then I see someone talking about it in a video, books can jump to the top. I’ll have maybe a plan, but then, if someone starts talking about East of Eden and saying it’s “the best book I ever read,” I’m like, “Obviously I gotta read it.” It’s just whatever is here in the moment will kind of influence me to do the next thing. And then sometimes there’s some books that are popular that I feel like I gotta do it. Like ACOTAR is one that I’m like, “Alright, I should have done this by now.”
What is your biggest book hot take right now?
I feel like I just go to that The Alchemist sucks. That’s my hot take. It’s so popular, so many people like it. I mean, people either love it or they hate it. My take is that I hate it. More personally, I don’t like stories that are not a good story, and it’s like, here’s how you should live your life, but it’s just really thinly veiled. It’s like a parable, and I don’t like in between. Just either give me non fiction, tell me how to live my life, or give me a good story. I don’t like this. That’s why I also didn’t really like Siddhartha. I don’t like learning from these kind of really thin, shallow stories that are supposed to give you these guiding principles, so that’s why I don’t like it. It’s not personal, but I tried another one, and I just really don’t like his writing.
Are you one of those readers who has to finish a book once you start it?
I’m trying to learn that it’s okay not to, but it’s hard. Maybe another hot take is I think The Midnight Library… I was so excited by the idea of it because it sounded so cool and so many people like it. I just… I couldn’t. This one sounds like it could be my first DNF, but I don’t normally don’t do that because I feel like I’m going through really good books from history or just authors I already like. It’s usually not too hard to finish, but sometimes I spend too long on trying to get through a book. I’m trying to also learn to be like, hey, pick up a different kind of book. You don’t have to give up on this, but try to pick up a different genre or something because I want to enjoy it and not have it feel like work.
You’ve discussed Sally Rooney’s book a lot in your content. What’s your favorite one?
I think Conversations with Friends really, which is surprising for some people. For me, Normal People and Conversations with Friends are neck and neck. And maybe it was a recency bias because I read Conversations after Normal People, so maybe it just edged out in that way. But I feel like most people say Normal People for sure.
Would you classify yourself as a Rooneyhead?
Yeah. I mean, when people ask me who’s your favorite, I say Sally Rooney or Dostoevsky. Those are my top two. They’re not that different actually. To me, they both really capture the complicated, difficult nuance of being a human being. Not everything is great all the time, and people are complicated. With Dostoevsky, he’s saying something. It’s not preaching, but there’s the feeling very deeply of this is a very smart person. He’s communicating these ideas through this story, and same thing with Sally Rooney in a different way. She’s maybe kind of weaving in socialism and capitalism is bad, and whatever her feelings are. She talks in interviews, and she says that’s not intentional. It’s just the characters are living in this world where that has an effect on them. I kind of like these feelings that the author is saying something.
Does reading make you want to write a book of your own?
Well, when I read Dostoevsky and Sally Rooney, no, because I’m like, I can’t do this. But then I’m like, maybe there’s a more simplistic version that I can offer. I think that’s something I would like to try. I write sometimes short stories or romanticize my journal entries as if maybe they have an audience, and I’ll kind of try to write them a bit romantically. I don’t know, maybe it’ll be years later, after I die, a grandchild finds grandpa’s book. But maybe one day I could expand those or put all the little short stories into a book. But I’m doing social medias, trying to make stuff every day and read and watch stuff and make films. To try to write a book, it would be a lot.
@tayrosen Dont miss your next meet cute with @Warby Parker #warbypartner ♬ original sound – Taylor
What does the next chapter for you look like?
I have a strong idea of what I’d like to do. I’d like to definitely expand into more of the things that give me joy, which is making more of these romantic 60-second short film things that I’ve made. And a lot of time through ads, it’ll give me excuses. I’ll hire my friends and get a camera and we’ll go and shoot this idea. I want to be doing more of that but without having to do with for a commercial. It flexes those muscles of writing the skit, getting to act in it, edit it, direct it, so those are pretty satisfying. And then to see them do well and people enjoy them, so more of that higher quality content.
Are you a physical book guy?
Yes. I love the collection. I want a library. I love keeping it. I’m very protective over if I lend a book, I’m like, “Remember, I want that back eventually.”
What was the best romance movie of 2024?
Challengers? There was also Past Lives, but I think that was technically the year before. That was an incredible romance. I think I would have to go Challengers from what I’ve seen.
Are there influencers you admire?
Yeah, a lot, and in different ways. But for me, I feel like the one especially that I look up to is Baron Ryan. His name is @americanbaron, and he’s a really good writer. He writes these really quirky, witty and also kind of thoughtful and profound sketches, and he’ll act multiple parts and he’ll make it kind of cinematic. I love that stuff because they’re little mini movies.
What makes you swoon?
Probably too many things. But definitely a sense of humor. If someone is funny, I feel like that’s it. And if our sense of humor matches, if you also think I’m funny, that’s huge.
