Readers have invented a lot of shorthand, and most of it is never explained anywhere. Here is what 37 of the most common terms mean, in plain language. The ones worth knowing properly link to a full guide.
The core four
If you only learn four, learn these. They cover most of what a reading post is saying.
To be read: the books you plan to read next, whether that is a physical stack or a list in an app. The most used abbreviation in the reading world. Full guide
The book community on TikTok, and the main engine behind most modern reading vocabulary. Bookstagram and BookTube are its Instagram and YouTube equivalents. Full guide
The reading life
The words readers use for what reading actually feels like week to week.
A stretch where you want to read but cannot settle into anything. Usually caused by one book you are stuck on and have not admitted defeat over. Full guide
Book hangover
The flat feeling after finishing a book you loved, when nothing else measures up for a while.
Buddy read
Reading the same book alongside someone else on an agreed pace, so you can talk about it as you go.
Reading challenge
A set of goals or prompts for the year, from a simple book count to themed tasks like reading a book in translation.
Reading order
The sequence a series should be read in, which is not always publication order.
Shelfie
A photograph of your bookshelves. A staple of Bookstagram.
Palate cleanser
A short or light book read deliberately between two demanding ones.
Comfort read
A book you return to because you know exactly how it feels. Usually a reread, and the fastest cure for a slump.
How readers describe books
The vocabulary for what is inside a book, as opposed to where it sits on a shelf.
A recurring narrative pattern readers recognise and seek out, such as enemies to lovers or found family. A trope is not a cliche: it is a building block, and the execution is what varies. Full guide
Happily ever after and happy for now: the two endings romance promises. HEA is settled commitment; HFN is together and happy, with the forever left open. Full guide
How explicit the romantic content is, rated informally from zero to five peppers. Community shorthand rather than a publishing standard. Full guide
Slow burn
A romance developed over a long stretch with the payoff deliberately delayed.
Closed door
Explicit scenes happen off the page. Also called fade to black. The opposite is open door.
Romantasy
Romance and fantasy combined, with the romance central rather than a subplot. The fastest-growing category of recent years.
Cliffhanger
An unresolved ending that depends on the next book. In a series, worth knowing about before you start.
Unreliable narrator
A narrator the reader gradually learns not to trust.
Standalone
A book complete in itself, with no series commitment. Sometimes "standalone in a shared world."
Content warning
A note flagging material a reader may want to avoid. Distinct from spice level, which only measures explicitness of consensual content.
Publishing and editions
Terms from the industry side that readers run into when buying or reviewing.
Backlist
A publisher's older titles, as opposed to new releases. BookTok is unusual in how often it revives backlist books.
Frontlist
The current season's new releases.
eARC
The digital form of an advance reader copy, usually delivered through NetGalley or Edelweiss.
Galley
An older publishing word for a proof copy. Largely interchangeable with ARC.
Blurb
In the UK, the description on the back cover. In US publishing, the endorsement quote from another author. Context decides which is meant.
Deckle edge
The deliberately rough, untrimmed edge on some hardcovers. Loved and hated in roughly equal measure.
Endpaper
The folded sheet joining the book block to its cover. Also called the endleaf, which is where this app got its name.
Special edition
A print run with added extras such as sprayed edges, foiled covers, or character art.
Sprayed edges
Colour or pattern applied to the outside page edges. A major driver of special-edition sales.
Age categories and format
The labels that describe who a book is for and how you consume it, often mistaken for genres.
MG
Middle grade: written for roughly ages 8 to 12.
YA
Young adult: written for roughly ages 12 to 18, though a large share of the readership is adult.
NA
New adult: protagonists in their late teens to mid twenties, with adult content. Revived recently by romantasy.
Own voices
A book about a marginalised experience written by someone from that group. Now used with care, since it can pressure authors to disclose identity.
Audiobook
The narrated edition. Counts as reading, a debate the reading community considers settled and the internet does not.
Physical, ebook, audio
The three formats most trackers distinguish, because they need different progress units: pages for two of them, time for the third.
Where the jargon comes from
Almost all of it started in book blogs and forums in the 2000s, then spread through Goodreads and finally through BookTok, which is where the pace picked up. That is why so much of it is abbreviations: they began as typing shortcuts in comment threads and ended up as the standard vocabulary.
One consequence is that the English abbreviations travelled worldwide intact. German, Spanish, French, and Portuguese readers use TBR and DNF directly, alongside their own native equivalents. If you read in one of those languages, the Spanish, German, French, and Portuguese versions of this glossary cover both sets.
Put the vocabulary to work.
Endleaf tracks your TBR, your DNFs, and your own tropes and tags. Free to download, private by design.