Sam Luke Wants You to Read Books

A year after becoming an overnight BookTok sensation, this new father is on a quest to inspire others to read more.

Two minutes and thirty seconds into my interview with Saratogian Sam Luke at Broadway Coffee Co. last month, we’d already made plans to get a beer at Pint Sized after we were done. Granted, at the time, he was just three weeks into being a father and deserved a Miller Lite, and I will rarely turn down an invite to Pint Sized. But still—Sam, with his booming voice and kind eyes, is the sort of guy who makes you feel like you’ve known him for years. He’s the kind of guy that you’d expect could amass a huge social media following based on vibes alone.

But good vibes aren’t the only thing Sam has going for him. In addition to being a musician who performs gigs around town, he’s also an avid reader who’s turned his hobby into a platform that helps inspire others to read books. This spring, I sat down with Sam a.k.a. @headyreads to talk about the decline in reading, the rise of BookTok, and his favorite Saratoga bookstores.

Where are you from and how’d you wind up in Saratoga?
I’m from Cambridge, NY. I spent some time in Burlington, VT, and moved back right before COVID. Then I moved to Saratoga in the fall of 2020. Saratoga was always a destination. I grew up going to the Wilton Mall. When we wanted to do something, we would come to Saratoga.

And how did you become a BookToker?
I love reading, but I didn’t read for, like, 10 years. I got back into it four or five years ago. I was completely unaware of this entire BookTok/Bookstagram space until my wife sent me a video, and I was like, “Oh, I can do that.” She was like, “I don’t want you to to do it—I just thought you would like the video.” And I was like, “I do like it, and I’m going to do it.”

You launched the page two years ago, and now have nearly 150k followers across Instagram and TikTok. When did @headyreads really start to gain traction?
On May 3, 2025, I posted a video. Up until that point I had, like 600 followers, the vast majority being people from my life. I didn’t necessarily expect it to become more than that—it was really just something for me to do. But I posted a video that was “5 books for the fellas out there who want to read, but don’t know where to start,” and then went to a dinner party at my friend’s house. My wife was like, “Why are you on your phone so much?” I was like, “It’s blowing up; this is insane.” That video has 4.5 million views, and I think I got 40,000 followers from it. So that’s when I realized, Oh, OK, there might be something more to be done with this. And it’s snowballed from there.

Do you have a day job?
I work with a bunch of schools in upstate New York and New England training their students on how to build a yearbook. The social media page has become a supplementary thing. I love the notion of it becoming a full-time thing, but we’re not there yet.

How do people make money in the BookTok world?
It could be an independent author offering to pay you to read their book and review it. But I’m hesitant about that sort of thing. I’ll say they can send me the book, and if I like it, they can pay me. I’m probably not the best at monetizing my page, because I don’t want to say that I love something that I don’t love. But I did a paid collaboration with the audiobook company Everand, and made a video directing people to their page. I make what’s considered educational content, so the TikTok Creator Rewards program actually pays a decent amount for that, and Meta just offered me x amount of dollars to post x number of videos a month for three months, so I’m doing that now. I’ve also spoken to Simon & Schuster about being contracted to review a certain number of books of my choosing. There are other things that people do with Substack and subscription-based things, but I haven’t done any of that yet, because I’m enjoying it and I’m afraid to make it feel like work.

What do you do if you read a book you don’t really like?
I butt heads on this with other creators who think you should post negative reviews. I’m like, if it’s an active author that is currently making a living and I might influence somebody to not read their book…Why? Everybody has a different taste. It’s so subjective. But if I read a Jane Austen book and I don’t like it, I’ll be like, “Yeah, Sense and Sensibility was not good.”

How many books do you read a year?
It fluctuates. In the world of people that do what I do, I read less. I probably read 40–60 books a year, but there are people out there putting up numbers. I saw somebody post the other day, “These are the 22 books I read in a month.” Now, some people can crush 3.2x on audiobooks. I would have a panic attack. My brain doesn’t allow me to do that.

The books you review span multiple genres. Do you have one that you keep going back to?
I read mostly literary fiction at this point. Those are the books I feel I get the most out of. I started as a fantasy reader. I was in fifth grade when the first Harry Potter came out, so I grew up on those books. Ender’s Game was my introduction to sci-fi. I read Holes. The Giver was my introduction to dystopian stuff. But I’m reading a memoir now, and also a book by James Baldwin called Giovanni’s Room, which is incredible. The only thing I don’t read a lot of is historical nonfiction.

Over the last few decades, there’s been a marked decline in the number of people who read for pleasure. What do you make of that?
I know that something like 50 percent of adults don’t read a single book in a calendar year. And I do think the BookTok space is good for that. One of the things that’s very rewarding are the people that message me, “I haven’t read a book in 10 years, and I’ve read five since I found your page.” Or, like, “Me and my buddies used to play video games; now we have a book club, and we feel like our lives are healthier and we’re sleeping better.” I’ve been moved to tears. Some of these messages are like, “My child’s been in their room reading for 45 minutes and it feels like there’s a shift in the household.”

It sounds like people want to read, or at least want to want to read.
So many people say the words “I really want to read,” or they make a New Year’s resolution that this year they’re going to start reading again. But then they don’t know where to start. I’m a big believer in, Hey, let’s find a fun, accessible, fast-paced page-turner of a book that will get you engaged with the process. Certain people will say, Oh, that’s not real literature. But what does that even mean? We’re trying to help people get an access point, and then we can dive into Dostoevsky. Reading is good, no matter what you’re reading.

What advice do you have for someone who wants to read more?
I’m an advocate of audiobooks as a means to bridge the gap. You can do it while you’re taking a walk, while you’re driving to work, while you’re washing the dishes. Or, set a timer for 15 minutes. You can do 15 minutes. If you read 15 minutes a day over the course of a month, you can read the average 350-page book. I’ve told people, “Set a timer, and when the timer goes off, set the book down. Eventually, hopefully the book will capture you and you won’t want to set it down.” And then if there are movies you love, find out if there’s a book. Go read the book. It’s different than the movie, and it’s something you already know you love.

Sam’s go-to book recommendations

What books are your go-tos when people ask for recommendations?
East of Eden by John Steinbeck is one of my favorites. If you’re trying to get into reading and you’re looking for something fun and fast-paced, the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown. And I love Frankenstein so much; I don’t think there’s any book better at portraying the importance of being accepted and loved.

What has running this page taught you?
I was just reading Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. It’s a book that makes you feel less alone in the world. It’s basically just the ordinary day in the life of a human being, but it really zeros in on the internal dialogue of all these different characters. We all have these kind of secret lives happening behind the veil that we don’t always talk about and that are very personal. We’re more complex—and we’re experiencing and feeling more—than we talk about regularly. But getting to connect with other readers through the page has broken through that wall a little bit. When we start talking about those things, people are more open, and you cut to the core of this person that you don’t really know.

What’s your favorite Saratoga bookstore?
I grew up on Northshire in Vermont, because Manchester was about 30 minutes down the road. My good friend’s mom runs the children’s section there, so when the seventh Harry Potter book released, he and I dressed up as Viktor Krum and Harry Potter and we wrote a Horcrux scavenger hunt for the kids. But Botanica Books is so cool. Carissa’s got such a great curated selection. If you’re looking for real gems without being overwhelmed by the space, it’s fantastic. And I also love Lyrical Ballad. I’m in a book club with Jay and Charlie, and they’re awesome. Having a local used bookstore where you can find great books and not spend an arm and a leg on them is fantastic.

—Natalie