# Read Another Book

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.

## Origin
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 dunks[2].

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].

- **Platform:** Twitter
- **Creator:** @imbadatlife
- **Date:** 2016

## 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 attached[2]. 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 Phoenix[1].

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 traction[4]. 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].

## Frequently Asked Questions
### 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[1].

### 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[2].

### 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"[3].

### 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"[6].

### 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[7].

## References
1. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2017/05/31/if-youre-going-to-use-books-to-resist-trump-pick-better-ones-than-harry-potter/](<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2017/05/31/if-youre-going-to-use-books-to-resist-trump-pick-better-ones-than-harry-potter/>)
2. [https://twitter.com/imbadatlife/status/797581542814060545](<https://twitter.com/imbadatlife/status/797581542814060545>)
3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/read-another-book](<https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/read-another-book>)
4. [https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/8/22/20826617/harry-potter-the-office-netflix-rewatching-binge-comfort-show](<https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/8/22/20826617/harry-potter-the-office-netflix-rewatching-binge-comfort-show>)
5. [https://www.theodysseyonline.com/jk-rowling-politics](<https://www.theodysseyonline.com/jk-rowling-politics>)
6. [https://twitter.com/Angelheartnight/status/977913569315614721](<https://twitter.com/Angelheartnight/status/977913569315614721>)
7. [https://www.reddit.com/r/PoliticalCompassMemes/comments/ge2o8h/read_another_book/](<https://www.reddit.com/r/PoliticalCompassMemes/comments/ge2o8h/read_another_book/>)
8. [https://spectator.org/harry-potter-and-the-reason-to-read-another-book/](<https://spectator.org/harry-potter-and-the-reason-to-read-another-book/>)

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Source: https://meme.com/memes/read-another-book
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