Booktubers

                “Booktubers” are people on Youtube who make videos related to books. Basically they are like people who write book reviews on sites like Amazon and Goodreads, except they make their reviews in video format. The video format can possibly have an advantage over the text format because the people giving their reviews can sometimes be more entertaining when actually speaking themselves.

                In general, all of these Booktubers make book reviews. But the way the reviews are done are not always the same. First, they sometimes do things called “Book Hauls.” This is when the reviewer gets a number of books at a library or bookstore and talks about them all in one video. In the videos I saw, they usually set a goal to read the described books within that month.

                One unique thing I saw among Booktubers were the Bookshelf videos. This was where the Booktuber toured their entire bookshelf (or bookshelves) and gave a brief description of the books they had and what they thought of them. I thought this was the most interesting thing, because I could see how other people organized their books. My bookselves are all overflowing and disorganized, so those videos gave me a few ideas of how I could get them all back in order.

                The Booktubers I watched were:

The Readables

https://www.youtube.com/user/thereadables

Just Kiss My Frog

https://www.youtube.com/user/jsutkissmyfrog

Danny Marks

https://www.youtube.com/user/dannymarksya

I glanced at a few other profiles but I mostly watched these. I can’t say which I really liked the best, but I found all three of these to be decent enough to watch. I think in order for these to be enjoyable the Booktuber does at the very least need to have an interesting perspective on the books and have decent audio and video quality.  I don’t really mind if the videos are edited to jump from one thing to the next though.

                I am going to sound like a huge hypocrite here but if you are going to have bookshelves in the background of your video, they should at least look nice. Like I said before, my bookshelves are all messy and overflowing, but I’m not exactly making a video of it either. None of the Booktubers had that problem though.

                As for how blunt you should be in a book review video, I think that all depends on the reviewer. Yes you should give an honest review. But how you come across in that video all depends on the online persona the Booktuber has created for themselves. For example, lets say a Booktuber has a lot of subscribers and they all find it very entertaining when the reviewer is comically snobbish in reviews. So, since that is what their audience enjoys, it would make since for the reviewer to make videos in that style. The reviewer’s personality might not in reality be like that, but that may be their “character” when making videos. I hope my meaning is clear on this.

                I could probably make decent book review videos if I tried. I find it a lot easier to talk to a camera than to people in real life, so that wouldn’t be an issue. I doubt that would happen though since I don’t have the time to make book review videos.

                I think this whole Booktuber thing is an interesting idea, and if you are looking for book reviews this may be something to look into. However, as much as I do love books, I can’t really feel myself compelled to subscribe to any of these reviewers on Youtube. I might look up some of their videos every now and then though.