Reading is in fashion and María Pombo knows it.

A few months ago, I published a column about how desirable reading has become. I talked about this reading fever that is overwhelming book clubs, book fairs, and literary festivals, selling out editions. Oprah Winfrey , Emma Watson , Florence Welch , and Dua Lipa , just to name a few famous ones, have their own book clubs with hundreds of thousands of followers. In Spain, singers like Rosalía and Zahara , actresses, film directors, and producers like Javier Ambrossi share their literary tastes in newsletters or podcasts. Celebrities have found a way to communicate with their fans through reading books.

Things that were unthinkable years ago are happening right now: like the rockstar tour (with posters plastered on the streets and screams of fans included) that brought Mariana Enríquez to Spain last year or the tour that is taking David Uclés (author of the best-selling novel of 2025 , The Peninsula of Empty Houses ) all over the peninsula, paradoxically filling the shows.

Reading has gone from being an intimate act to a social one. Now there are literary aperitifs with lines to get in (I highly recommend those at the Pérgamo bookstore in Madrid), book parties where people meet to read, and ethno-literary gatherings (Wine, Women & Words in Barcelona) that sell out within hours.

Not to mention BookTok, the TikTok subcommunity for sharing books that has become one of Generation Z's viral phenomena since its creation during the pandemic. The hashtag #BookTokEspañol has accumulated 5 billion views. The #BookTok hashtag has more than 217 billion.

That's why María Pombo 's statement last week ("reading doesn't make you better") isn't innocent at all. Because reading is in fashion, and María Pombo knows it. Even Zara recently released a T-shirt with the slogan "Reading is sexy ," which I hope they sent to their collaborator. María Pombo's statement sounds more like the tantrum of a posh girl who was left out of the party. We all agree that reading doesn't make us better (in fact, sometimes it makes us worse), but it does seem that, at least for now, reading makes us very desirable . And that's something someone who has spent her whole life trying to be fashionable can't seem to stand.

The truth is, I understand her. If I were María Pombo, I'd be afraid of reading, lest her followers start reading too, and she'd be left alone in the middle of her party.