21 March 2022
They arrive after school, still in their uniforms, in groups of up to 12. Mr Rubbo says the number of teenage girls coming to buy books has "increased exponentially".
What's going on? Well, ladies and gentlemen, reading is cool again. A growing online community of young book lovers emerged out of the video-sharing app TikTok during the pandemic.
As people the world over were locked down with plenty of spare time, "BookTok" took off. It's a corner of the internet filled with videos of people talking about their favourite books or giving recommendations and reviews.