What is Read Another Book?

Read Another Book is a Twitter-born catchphrase and hashtag used to mock people who compare U.S. politics to Harry Potter plot points, particularly Resistance accounts after the 2016 election.

Where did Read Another Book come from?

It traces to a November 12, 2016 tweet from Twitter user @imbadatlife, who captioned a collage of Potter political analogies with "READ ANOTHER BOOK" and earned over 16,300 likes.

How do you use Read Another Book?

Users typically quote tweet or screenshot a Harry Potter political comparison, then reply with the phrase or the hashtag #ReadAnotherBook, often alongside the plea "I'm begging you".

Is Read Another Book still popular?

It became a classic reply-guy format, with the r/readanotherbook subreddit growing to around 17,500 members and the template reaching Political Compass Memes by May 2020.

Read Another Book

Q: What does Read Another Book mean?

Urban Dictionary defined it in June 2018 as the "appropriate response to any stupid political analogy that uses material from the Harry Potter books as a reference point".

2016catchphraseclassic

Published November 2, 2026

In November 2016, Twitter user @imbadatlife stitched together screenshots of liberals comparing Donald Trump's election to the Harry Potter series and captioned the collage "READ ANOTHER BOOK." By 2018 the line was a hashtag, two subreddits and a Facebook group aimed squarely at Resistance Twitter users who treated J.K. Rowling's novels as a political dictionary.

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Overview

A typical Read Another Book post pairs a Harry Potter political analogy with the mocking line "I'm begging you, read another book." Users screenshot tweets that liken Donald Trump to Voldemort, Mitch McConnell to a Death Eater or ICE agents to Dementors, then quote tweet the stack with the catchphrase or the hashtag #ReadAnotherBook attached2. The joke targets what writers at The Washington Post called an "overreliance" on the series as a political reference frame, where every villain becomes He Who Must Not Be Named and every opposition victory is the Order of the Phoenix1.

The tone sits somewhere between genuine literary frustration and standard Twitter dunk culture. Vox's Rebecca Jennings observed in 2019 that Harry Potter had become "an avatar for basicness that transcends taste," and that online fans risked the "read another book" reply the moment a Potter tweet gained traction4. Anti-fans frame it less as hating the novels and more as a plea for political writers to pick up anything else, a point Urban Dictionary codified in 2018 as the "appropriate response to any stupid political analogy that uses material from the Harry Potter books as a reference point"3.

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Origin & Background

Platform

Twitter

Creator

@imbadatlife

Date

2016

The catchphrase appeared online as early as 2016, but the viral template traces to November 12, 2016, four days after the U.S. presidential election. Twitter user @imbadatlife posted a four-image collage of liberal accounts comparing Trump's victory to Harry Potter plot points, with "READ ANOTHER BOOK" set over the screenshots. The post earned over 16,300 likes and 7,400 retweets, cementing the format as a reply-image for Resistance Twitter dunks2.

Alyssa Rosenberg at The Washington Post gave the sentiment mainstream press six months later. Her May 31, 2017 column, "If you're going to use books to resist Trump, pick better ones than 'Harry Potter,'" argued that framing Trump as Voldemort flattered readers and asked, "Perhaps you could read another book?"1.

How It Spread

After the Rosenberg column, the catchphrase moved from a single viral tweet into a durable hashtag and community label. A Facebook group titled "i'm begging you please read another book" opened on September 20, 20173. On February 7, 2018, r/readanotherbook was created on Reddit as a dedicated board for mocking Potter political takes, growing to roughly 17,500 members; a smaller spin-off, r/ReadADifferentBook, followed on April 20, 20183.

Media coverage picked up through 2018. Urban Dictionary accepted a definition from user Martin Luther Cream on June 4, 20183. The American Spectator ran "Harry Potter and the Reason to Read Another Book" on July 12, 2018, and The Odyssey Online published "To The People That Equate 'Harry Potter' Books To Modern Day Politics, Please Read Another Book" that December, arguing that "fans of J.K. Rowling's famous book series are ruining political discourse"5. On March 25, 2018, Twitter user @Angelheartnight demonstrated the hashtag format with a Potter political thread, drawing 307 likes and 93 retweets6.

The backlash itself drew a counter-defense in 2019, when Vox published "In defense of reading the same book over and over again," asking whether comfort rereading was really the sin anti-fans claimed4. By May 5, 2020, the line reached meme-template status outside Twitter: Redditor GashcatUnpunished posted a Political Compass Memes version titled "Read another book" that drew 774 upvotes7.

Timeline

2016-11-12

Twitter user @imbadatlife posts the viral "READ ANOTHER BOOK" screenshot collage, earning 16,300 likes.

2017-05-31

The Washington Post publishes Alyssa Rosenberg's column asking Resistance writers to "pick better" books than Harry Potter.

2017-09-20

The Facebook group "i'm begging you please read another book" is created.

2018-02-07

The subreddit r/readanotherbook is founded as a dedicated anti-Potter-politics community.

2018-06-04

Urban Dictionary accepts a Read Another Book definition from user Martin Luther Cream.

2018-07-12

The American Spectator publishes "Harry Potter and the Reason to Read Another Book."

2019-08-22

Vox publishes a counter-piece defending the habit of rereading one book or rewatching one show.

2020-05-05

Redditor GashcatUnpunished posts a Political Compass Memes version that reaches 774 upvotes.

Read Another Book

Overview

Gallery

Origin & Background

How It Spread

Frequently Asked Questions

References (8)