(CNN) Can literature compete with listicles? If the Dallas bookstore The Wild Detectives is to be believed, the answer is a shocking, click-to-find-out-more yes.

Everyone has been a victim of the scandalous "Click here to see 10 celebs that have aged HORRIBLY." In the social media age, we call it clickbait.

In a social media campaign starting on National Read a Book Day, The Wild Detectives commandeered the term to create their own: litbait.

The store designed their own articles with tempting titles referencing literary classics. They sounded like sensational clickbait articles. But instead of trapping readers into a slow read clicking through an article that doesn't live up to the hype, the link opened to the full text of a classic novel.

"He befriended a bear when he was a kid and fate reunites them years later" sounds like something that would pop up on Facebook, but click the link and the reader gets "The Jungle Book."

Read More