Someone else's
handwriting
in the margin.
Dog-eared pages, underlined passages, honest reactions — filmed between stacked shelves and cold coffee. No ring light sheen.
New arrivals,
fresh opinions.
Every week, a new stack lands on the floor by the bed. These are the ones that made it onto the camera — with honest takes, no PR copy, no gifted disclaimers. Just the book and what it did to me.
"Every page is an argument. I love it."
The Corrections
Jonathan Franzen
"Finished at 2am. Cried in the kitchen."
Intermezzo
Sally Rooney
"Underlined pg.214 three times."
Demon Copperhead
Barbara Kingsolver
"This one will break you in the best way."
Trust
Hernan Diaz
"700 pages. Zero wasted."
The Bee Sting
Paul Murray
"The most important novel of 2024."
James
Percival Everett
A day in the
reading life.
This is what it looks like when someone genuinely cannot stop reading — and has a phone nearby.
The filming setup that costs nothing
Books propped on a wooden crate, phone on a gorillapod, natural light from the east window. No ring light, no softbox. The shelf behind me has been the same for two years.
This is the video that moved 4,000 copies in a weekend.
When a book actually changes how you read
Not every book deserves five stars. Not every five-star book is for everyone. The reviews that resonate are the ones that say: here is exactly who this is for.
Three indie publishers reached out after this one.
Recording the take with headphones and a Penguin Classic
Evening is for the slower stuff — the essay collections, the translated novels, the books that need a second read before I know what I think. Headphones on. Coffee cold.
"This made me buy Kawakami immediately." — @literarymidnight
From the readers.
Subscribers, students, and publishers who've been in the margins with us.
"Marginalia is the only BookTok account that made me genuinely reconsider a book I'd already dismissed. The Franzen video changed my mind."
Priya Mehta
@priyareads · English Lit grad student, NYU
"We sent an ARC and sold through the first print run in two weeks. No other creator has moved copies like this for a debut."
James Calloway
Editorial Director · Fitzcarraldo Editions
"I found three books I'd never have picked up otherwise. The newsletter recommendation for Kawakami was exactly right for me."
Sofia Andersson
@midnightpages · Reader, Stockholm
"The takes are sharper than anything I've read in a literary magazine in years. And it's on TikTok. That's the wild part."
Marcus Webb
@marcusreadsslowly · Former book critic, Chicago
Publishers who've submitted for review
Submit a book
for review.
If you've got a book that deserves to find its readers — a debut that's getting overlooked, a translation that needs a champion, a quiet novel that's exactly right for this audience — here's where to start.
What gets reviewed
"I don't review books I don't finish. I don't finish books I can't recommend. The best submissions come from publishers who've actually watched the channel."
— Marginalia
Book submission
Tell me why this book belongs on the shelf.