They stage backdrops and match book covers to flowers. But they’re also avid readers. Could they actually be living the lives they promote online?

Hickey is a part of “bookstagram”, the corner of Instagram combining a love of books with stylized, eye-catching photos, to the delight of large fanbases. The bookstagram tag has been used on over 35m Instagram posts, and the more popular bookstrammers have upwards of 100,000 followers (for comparison, the Instagram for the New York Times book section has about 69,000 followers.) There are enough people joining bookstagram that a slew of articles have cropped up, advising would-be bookstagrammers on best practice, how to manage Instagram’s “pesky algorithm” and the best budget-friendly props. Some accounts focus on old books, or books by...

They stage backdrops and match book covers to flowers. But they’re also avid readers. Could they actually be living the lives they promote online?

Hickey is a part of “bookstagram”, the corner of Instagram combining a love of books with stylized, eye-catching photos, to the delight of large fanbases. The bookstagram tag has been used on over 35m Instagram posts, and the more popular bookstrammers have upwards of 100,000 followers (for comparison, the Instagram for the New York Times book section has about 69,000 followers.) There are enough people joining bookstagram that a slew of articles have cropped up, advising would-be bookstagrammers on best practice, how to manage Instagram’s “pesky algorithm” and the best budget-friendly props. Some accounts focus on old books, or books by authors of color, many play with elaborate staging...