About r/books
In its own words:
This is a moderated subreddit. It is our intent and purpose to foster and encourage in-depth discussion about all things related to books, authors, genres, or publishing in a safe, supportive environment. If you're looking for help with a personal book recommendation, consult our Weekly Recommendation Thread, Suggested Reading page, or ask in r/suggestmeabook.
The community was created on Jan 25, 2008, which makes it 18 years old. Since Oct 19, 2026, it has gained 8,463 subscribers (+0.03%). Among the 11 communities on our books list it is the largest. It sits just behind r/DIY (#17) and ahead of r/videos (#19) in our ranking.
What sets r/books apart
Compared with other large communities, r/books leans heavily on text posts (85% of recent posts; the typical Top 100 subreddit sits at 17%). Its rhythm is strongly tied to time zones: the busiest hour (18:00 UTC) sees about 11.5× as many posts as the quietest (04:00 UTC).
Subscriber growth
Between Sep 19, 2026 and Oct 29, 2026, r/books went up from 27,301,217 to 27,337,689 subscribers (+36.5K, +0.13%). That is about 912 new members per day. The chart uses our weekly snapshots (8 so far), so it gets longer every week.
Top posts on r/books this week
The most upvoted posts of the past seven days, in the order Reddit ranks them (collected Oct 29, 2026).
- The children’s laureates for Ireland and Wales are donating royalties from their works to Sally Rooney in a show of solidarity after she was forced to stop selling books in the UK because of her supp…u/Raj_Valiant3011 · Oct 25 · link
- If you use Libby for books, turn off the AI partu/zomboi · Oct 23 · text post
- Reading Books May Help You Live Longer, study suggests after being conducting for 12 years with more than 3,600 adult participants from various demographicsu/Raj_Valiant3011 · Oct 27 · link
- Canadian authors and publisher groups say they are pleased to hear that Library and Archives Canada (LAC) recently updated its ISBN (International Standard Book Numbers) policy to limit registrations…u/Raj_Valiant3011 · Oct 24 · link
- Most bookish cities in the worldu/SilverApples5 · Oct 24 · text post
- Not to be all Fred Savage to the reading community’s Peter Falk, but can we please have a better indication of whether something is a “kissing book”?u/madwomanofdonnellyst · Oct 23 · text post
- Taste is truly subjective; Red Risingu/HGual-B-gone · Oct 23 · text post
- ‘Beneath the Bluebonnets’ gathers horror tales from Texas womenu/zsreport · Oct 25 · link
- Japanese Author Ryu Murakami, Who Wrote ‘Almost Transparent Blue,’ Dies at 74u/Marksman1977 · Oct 23 · link
- Children in Japan like reading but most read less than an hour a week, as per a survey conducted by the Hakuhodo Foundation’s Child Research Instituteu/Raj_Valiant3011 · Oct 28 · link
All-time top posts
The highest-ranked posts in the history of r/books, from 2017 to 2023, ranked by Reddit.
- Join the Battle for Net Neutrality!! We need to stop them from allowing ISPs to charge us extra fees to access ebooks, games or anything else!u/gheldean · Nov 22, 2017 · 177,451 points · 2,154 comments · link
- It's July 29, 2020, the day George R.R. Martin said we could imprison him if Winds Of Winter wasn't doneJul 29, 2020 · link
- Amazon removes books promoting autism cures and vaccine misinformationu/SAT0725 · Mar 13, 2019 · 77,891 points · 2,622 comments · link
- ‘Reading Rainbow’ Host LeVar Burton Wants to Read to Families for Free, Neil Gaiman Offers Entire Catalogu/Sariel007 · Mar 26, 2020 · 69,460 points · 919 comments · link
- Incarcerated Pennsylvanians now have to pay $150 to read. We should all be outraged.u/arickg · Oct 12, 2018 · 66,077 points · 1,887 comments · link
- In 2018 Jessica Johnson wrote an Orwell prize-winning short story about an algorithm that decides school grades according to social class. This year as a result of the pandemic her A-level English wa…u/whatatwit · Aug 21, 2020 · link
- Kids get a $2 discount if they read a book aloud to their barber while getting their haircut in Michiganu/RebelFlightSuit · Jul 20, 2017 · 60,151 points · 1,206 comments · link
- Illinois House passes bill prohibiting book bansu/not-my-other-alt · Mar 24, 2023 · 62,206 points · 1,380 comments · link
- Textbook costs have risen nearly 1000% since the 70'su/teafortat · Mar 6, 2019 · 59,895 points · 2,947 comments · link
- The FCC is expected to announce a vote to gut net neutrality rules the day before Thanksgiving. Only a big burst of phone calls to Congress can stop them from allowing ISPs to charge us extra fees to…u/JPTIII · Oct 19, 2017 · 61,001 points · 1,494 comments · text post
What r/books talks about
Looking at the titles of 258 recent posts (Oct 21–Oct 28), the words that come up most are “book”, “reading”, “read”, “spoilers” and “romance”. Other frequent themes are review, author, readers, series, john and finished. Recurring phrases include “exit party”, “romance readers”, “sally rooney” and “martyr ending”. By format, 85% are text posts, 14% are links and 0% are videos.
Activity and best time to post
r/books gets about 63 new posts a day. The public archive holds 929,524 posts and 13,611,259 comments in total, about 14.6 comments per post. Last week the busiest day was Tuesday (80 posts) and the quietest was Sunday (13). Posting peaks around 18:00 UTC and is lowest around 04:00 UTC.
Rules of r/books
The moderators of r/books list 11 rules. In short:
- Discussion is the Goal
- Uncivil behavior
- Recommendation Requests
- What's That Book Called?
- Promotional
- Distribution or solicitation for pirated material
- Unmarked spoilers
- Homework help request
- Image-Only/Video-Only
- Low Quality Book List
How to join
Open reddit.com/r/books and press “Join”. Read the community rules in the sidebar before you post: every subreddit is run by its own volunteer moderators.
Frequently asked questions
How many subscribers does r/books have?
r/books has 27,337,689 subscribers (Oct 29, 2026), which makes it the #18 safe-for-work subreddit in the SubMouse ranking. It added 36,472 members between Sep 19, 2026 and Oct 29, 2026.
How old is r/books?
r/books was created on Jan 25, 2008, so it has been around for 18 years.
How active is r/books?
Very active: r/books gets about 63 new posts a day (average of the last four weeks). Over its lifetime the archive counts 929,524 posts and 13,611,259 comments. In a sample of 258 recent posts we counted 227 different authors.
When is r/books most active?
Based on post counts from Oct 21, 2026 to Oct 27, 2026, the busiest day was Tuesday and the quietest Sunday, and most posts arrive around 18:00 UTC, with the fewest around 04:00 UTC. More posts also means more competition, so a quieter hour can help a post get noticed.
What is r/books about?
The community describes itself as: “This is a moderated subreddit. It is our intent and purpose to foster and encourage in-depth discussion about all things related to books, authors, genres, or publishing in a safe, supportive environment. If you're look…” Recent post titles often mention book, reading, read, spoilers and romance. Most posts are text posts (85%).
Is r/books safe for work?
Yes. Reddit does not mark r/books as an 18+ (NSFW) community. SubMouse lists safe-for-work subreddits only.
How do I post on r/books?
Join the community on Reddit first, then use “Create post”. r/books accepts both text and link posts. It has 11 posted rules, starting with: “Discussion is the Goal”; “Uncivil behavior”; “Recommendation Requests”. Moderators remove posts that break the rules, so read them in the sidebar before posting.
Which communities are like r/books?
Communities with similar topics include r/suggestmeabook (3.4M), r/booksuggestions (1.4M), r/horror (3.6M), r/malefashionadvice (6.5M) and r/history (18.8M).
Stats from public data (data updated Oct 29, 2026; activity, rules and archive totals via the Arctic Shift archive, Oct 29, 2026; top posts from Reddit’s public feeds). Point and comment counts are archive snapshots and can be lower than on Reddit today. SubMouse is an independent directory and is not affiliated with Reddit or the moderators of r/books.