Booktube

By Leena Normington

Dear World,

Yes, Booktube is a thing. It may not be a very big thing to start out with, but it is a thing none the less. A thing that I suspect will become a bigger thing the longer it is a thing.

Contrary to popular belief, Youtube is not just the place that cat videos and clips of Kate Bush waving her arms go to die. It is also a vast expanse of creative communities and initiatives; comedians, beauty gurus, musicians. And one of those communities, however small we are, happens to be 'Booktube'. Booktube is basically anyone who makes videos about books and uploads them on to the youtube website.

We do lots of things - discussions, reviews, bookshelf tours ... along with, perhaps, some less predicatable customs; Book Hauls (in which we pull out guiltily all the books we have bought recently), Rainbow Books Tags, Tea Party Tags, This or That, The Name Game ... I could go on.

Here are three (very wonderful) booktubers and friends of mine, to get you started:


Booksandquills was one of the first 'full on' Booktubers I ever watched. She has some of the most professional looking videos out there, her reviews are always really well informed and precise and on top of that: she is alot of fun! She reads a great range of 'the greats', popular fiction and YA. She also does a job-lot of travelling, so if you can peel your eyes away from her lovely travel videos, I applaud you.

WordsOfAReader is one of the most curious and wonderful booktubers I know - not only does she read stacks of popular and classic fiction, she also seems to spend an amazing amount of time with biographies. Some of my favourite videos from her are her '10 Things You May Not Know About ...' series, in which she shares some of the most excellent facts about authors and famous people and generally enriches my existence.

Ariel Bisset is a great place to start if you're particularly interested in YA - she is my go to for young adult fiction reviews, but also posts a lovely range of videos, some of them discussing life as a book addict (one of my favourites is posted below).

These are just some suggestions but if you're anything like me, this is just the beginning of your love affair with the book community. KayleyReads, Rosianna , TheReadables to name but a few you will be addicted to *looks into crystal ball of literary wisdom*.


OH and p.s? I have just started my own one too, so if you'd like to pop along, you're more than welcome!

TheGirlSawTheComet