What is it about BookTube content that you enjoy? And specifically, what are your favorite types of videos? And why?
I could get into the reasons for this question…
but I shall spare my rambles for only those who want to read it.
Because I was watching some BookTubers talk about unhauls and then talk about leaving or quitting booktube. I get it, you’re leaving YouTube, but then you know, if you talk about books on YouTube, is that not still booktube? I looked up BookTube and there’s a Wiki page on it and it talks about the standard formats.
So, does that mean if you’re not following the standard formats, you’re not doing booktube even though you are talking about books on YouTube? There might be more to this, but I’m not patient enough to dig.
Anyway, I then went to search for BookTubers and apart from some I already subscribe to, most of them follow that standard format. Hauls and TBRs and hauls and reading blogs and hauls. You’ve seen the thumbnails of people holding ridiculous stacks of books.
Not to mention, the many “what to read in * insert month here *”. Or “best books of 2021” or “monthly update” or “read-a-thon” and stuff like that. People having such ample amounts of time to read all day making me feel like I’m not reading fast enough
This got me wondering in a non-judgy way, of course, who is watching and why do they like it? If they subscribe to multiple booktubers, why? Because it is the same content from different people. Why? I want to know why.
I used to watch booktube a lot, but I got bored of it because it was getting kinda toxic and the same opinions were being thrown around again, and again.
• I totally loved/hated a book so I want to see what other people thought and gush/rant with them over it
• I have some books on my kindle that are seriously difficult to get through, like Gravity’s Rainbow, and I want to see what other people thought of it and what to look for when I read it myself. ¯\_(ﭢ)_/¯
I’ve seen a number of videos on YT lately exposing those massive book hauls as phony, claiming no one really reads that fast and those booktubers are just faking it, so I don’t worry about how fast I’m reading. I do have a personal goal of 100 books a year for the Goodreads challenge, but that’s easy to win since Goodreads counts short stories and individual poems as entire books. (>‿◠)
As far as actual full novels, my personal goal is to read one a week, but if I fail it doesn’t bother me. Some books just take longer than others, and I’m admittedly a slow reader since I only have time right before bed.
I don’t anymore, but I used to because of the simple fact it was talking about content I enjoyed. Passionate people discussing books of all genres was fun to watch.
I stopped around the time a whole bunch of stupid asf drama was going on, and when all the books discussed were mainstream YA during a time I was trying to branch out and move away from that genre and explore both more classical and adult novels.
At the end of the day, I’m always up to watch a good analysis video about a particular book I enjoyed or discussing a subject/genre I’m unfamiliar with because I enjoy writing, I enjoy discussing books, and I enjoy passionate people. But as for “booktube” I no longer enjoy it just seems like a constant regurgitation of content and the recommendations are hardly noteworthy and often repetitive.
I don’t watch youtube that often but I used to love watching Booktube - I wanted to see what others thought of the books, analysing them. And just to hear spoilers from books I didn’t have time to read
a bit, i think. i don’t like a majority of the content because i just don’t have the patience to sit through stuff like a 20 minute unhaul where they hold up every book and explain what it is and why they’re unhauling it and blah blah blah blah blah.
But i am, however, obsessed with longform critiques and rant reviews. it’s not an exaggeration to say i’ve sat through hundreds of hours of reviews on the same terrible books over and over because i love seeing people react to them. Twilight, Twilight offshoots, and Onision’s ‘books’ are prime staples. And if you like book critiques, I highly recommend KrimsonRogue
oo, i watch a bunch of movie/tv show review channels too.
Alex Meyers reviews a lot of contemporary stuff along the lines of every disney show ever and Riverdale
Dylan is in Trouble does movie reviews and commentary
Kennie J.D. (my fave) intentionally watches bad movies and reviews them while doing a makeup look every saturday
Amanda the Jedi does book + movie reviews where she reads and watches a book and its movie adaption (ex: Twilight) and reviews them both and compares them to each other.
and KrimsonRogue has a long ‘The Book Was Better’ series where he does pretty much the same as Amanda but with a little more focus on the book.
But many of them wouldn’t consider themselves as part of a larger “Movietube”, just think of themselves as “Online TV/Movie Reviwers”, not part of a “TVtube”. Isn’t that strange?
I found a three-hour autopsy of Lightlark. It was good, but the book has too little plot stretched over too many pages, so I didn’t watch the whole thing.
i suppose. i think its a lot easier to discuss and show other aspects of books and book collection aside from the text of the book itself than it is to do that with movies. Physical books have very relevant and noticeable aspects in terms of design and format, compared to movies which tend to be standardized physically. I don’t find movie collections to be as nice to look at as book collections.
i bought that book because it was in the store and i’d heard it was annoying the book people lol
i see your three hour review… which i might watch later… and raise you an eight hour, four part review of Empress Theresa; a self-published piece by an old man detailing the life of the World’s Worst Mary Sue.
Alex Aster is the author. Unlike the author of Empress Theresa, she seems to be a normal woman with normal interests and doesn’t argue with Amazon reviewers.
There might be more to this, but I’m not patient enough to dig.
