Sam Soar on TikTok, activism, and getting free books

Growing up in Thailand, Sam Soar immersed herself in comics that fueled her imagination. One series, in particular, captivated her. It was “about a family that is so hardcore about saving money that they would do anything possible,” she shared with Mashable. “They rent a one-bedroom apartment, and all sleep in one room, so they only have to turn on one [air conditioner], and they’ll go around the shopping centers putting all the trolleys back to get the coins.”

Inspired by these stories, Soar found her own inventive ways to earn and save money, like growing vegetables and cycling around town to sell them.

We discussed this over coffee on the second floor of Waterstones Piccadilly in London. The city was in the middle of a heat wave, and the bookstore — with its air conditioning and eight sprawling floors, six of which are dedicated to books — was bustling. But it’s not Soar’s favorite. While Waterstones is a well-known retailer, she gravitates toward the charm and community of small businesses, something evident in her TikTok content, where she highlights local gems like Round Table Books. 

But she humored me, a tourist eager to see the biggest bookstore in Europe. Remarkably, her vibe is exactly what you’d expect: warm, giddy, and thoughtful. As a micro-influencer with roughly 51,300 followers on TikTok, Soar has found what some might call a sweet spot in the world of influencing. She doesn’t have enough to quit her day job — though she’s perfectly happy with that — but she has enough of an audience to cultivate a sense of community with her followers and fellow BookTokkers. The pressure to post is there, but not so overwhelming that it takes away the joy. Plus, she gets to enjoy one of the perks of her passion: free books from publishers, which she reviews on her page — a fitting benefit for someone raised on comics about frugality.

Free books were one of the main reasons she started book blogging at just 11 years old. After moving to the UK when she was young, she launched her own blog, Sam Falling Books.

“Back then, when I had a blog, the community around that was so cute,” she said. “There would be blog tours, and the bloggers would become friends.”

Blogs, at the time, offered a kind of refuge. While some bloggers made it bigger than others, the blogging community felt safer and more intimate than other social media spaces. Soar didn’t want to put her face online because, as she admits, she was “so scared and embarrassed” — understandable for an 11-year-old. Blogs provided the perfect solution: a static, personal space without algorithms or the pressure of today’s content-driven culture. It was just her, other like-minded people, and the books they loved.

Soar’s passion for reading led her to spend countless hours borrowing books from the library, but there was one downside — the wait. Often, she found herself stuck on waiting lists, hoping the person ahead of her would return the book she was eager to read. Rather than wait, she took matters into her own hands and had began emailing publishers directly: “My name is Sam, and I am a UK teenager who loves book blogging! I was wondering if you had any review copies of [insert book name here] that I could review.”

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And it worked.

“I’m so proud of my blog,” she said, laughing. “I got so many free books.”

When she went off to university, her book blog fell by the wayside. But eventually, she noticed the buzz around BookTok and decided to jump back in.

“I saw everyone, and I was like, ‘Oh, people are just like normal readers who post,'” she said. “You could have your face in it, but you didn’t have to have your face in it. People are just recommending books. And I thought, There are lots of recommendations that I’d love to throw on this list. My only wish is that I’d started earlier.”

Her success in obtaining the books she had wanted sparked another consideration: the implications of overconsumption in the literary world. There’s a growing trend where people want to be seen as readers, whether they actually are or not. Every celebrity has a book club, and the aesthetic of a well-stocked bookshelf is gaining noxious traction online, reminiscent of trendy decor styles like “coastal grandmother” or “Nancy Meyers core.” It’s not that people should read less or even buy fewer books, but when piles of unread books start accumulating in a corner of your apartment, it might be time to rethink how — and why — you got there. BookTok, with its focus on the latest editions and special releases, only amplifies this consumption.

“When I was younger, I couldn’t afford books,” Soar said. “I would just borrow from the library and hustle the publishers. To have people showing these massive book hauls with 20 or even 30 books and seeing that as a young person, you might think you have to have all of those books to be a real reader. I’m becoming more wary of that.”

That doesn’t mean Soar is entirely immune to the temptation of book collecting. She admits to feeling “a little bit of shame” when she looks at her overflowing shelves. For now, she’s focused on buying less and tackling the growing stack of books on her TBR (to-be-read) shelf.

Beyond her reflections on overconsumption, Soar uses her platform to engage with important causes. She has posted about Operation Olive Branch, a grassroots collective that amplifies Palestinian voices and supports their needs. She’s also part of a group chat called “BookTok Union,” where about 60 creators come together to support each other, discuss upcoming events, and share insights on how much to charge for sponsored posts.

For the most part, BookTok is just fun for Soar. She reads a lot of fantasy and romance, shares reviews, posts videos of her emotional reactions to the material, and highlights her favorite quotes for her audience of fellow bookworms. She started her page with the hope of reading more, and that’s exactly what her account has allowed her to do.

She’s still learning to balance collecting and consuming, but she remains driven by the same passion that started it all — a genuine love for stories.