Here’s What Happened When I Tried BookTube For A Week

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I have a hard time trying new things. I tend to stay in my comfort zone until I’m so bored with my regular go-to’s that my skin gets twitchy. Then I’ll try to deep breathe for a few days while I look for a new hobby or show to watch or author to read or… You get the idea.

Anyway, recently I realized it was becoming a bit tedious to be all caught up on all the YouTube channels I watch (and it’s under 10, and I binge everything I touch, so of course I’m frequently caught up). And last week it occurred to me: BookTube exists, and I like to read, so, why not?

After 5 evenings of scrolling/watching/screaming over BookTube, here’s what I learned.

Or, Why BookTube Is Not For Me.

(Disclaimer: This is all just my opinion. If you happen to like watching any of these folks, please just take my thoughts with a grain of salt.)

Because I didn’t know where to start, I just jumped on the first recommendation the algorithm threw at me — Haley Pham. And that happened because I really enjoy Ryan Trahan’s travel videos, and Haley Pham is his other half, and she has a BookTube/vlog channel, so I don’t blame the programming for thinking maybe I’d naturally branch out to her. And, at first, it was fine. Haley has an engaging onscreen personality, and she gives in-depth, spoiler-free reviews. (And their dog is adorable.)

But… But. After a whole evening of watching her videos, I realized I felt overwhelmed. Not just overstimulated, but as if my entire brain couldn’t shut off. Like someone had pressed the fast-forward button somewhere inside me. I took a bit to try to nail down why. Since I couldn’t stop thinking about the content I’d just consumed, it came to me pretty quickly: Haley Pham’s videos are so fast-paced, so condensed (she’ll pack 20 or 30 titles into a half-hour vlog update), so continually progressing (this book, next, then next, then rinse-repeat) that NO WONDER I felt like I’d been dumped in a washing machine on the spin cycle.

So, day 2 was Lexi aka Newly Nova. Lord have mercy. If I thought Haley Pham was bad, Lexi aka Newly Nova was worse.

This BookTuber literally talks like a squirrel on crack. I don’t think she ever stops to breathe while filming. And she has an annoying habit of suddenly dropping very vulgar language into the middle of an otherwise civil and seemingly polite discussion on whichever book it is. I’m not opposed to swearing; I’m an adult and I understand that in grown-up conversations, depending on the audience, it won’t seem out of place or offensive. But in this instance, it was jarring; it would come out of nowhere, and totally shift the tone of the video, and made me feel like the rug had been yanked from under me. I lasted 3 or 4 videos, before I simply wanted to explode. Or get really drunk.

So this was another, concrete, NO.

Day 3 took me to Daniel Greene and Captured with Words — who, for a good change, are pretty level, comprehensive with their reviews and their reasons for liking or not liking a title, and they have good editing. But. (Sigh.) I found them covering the same series and authors in every.single.video. And I deliberately tried to find vids from across the last year, and that were supposed to focus on different topics. Sooo, why are they STILL going on (and on and on and onnnnn) about Brandon Sanderson? As if he’s the only prolific fantasy author in the entire world…

Then Gaming Beaver got caught up in an apparent conspiracy around fake “found Tasmanian Tiger” footage and released a new video and THANK GOD.

Anyway, after that palette cleanser, on Day 4 I stumbled across Answer in Progress, which is an interesting and fun channel about a lot of topics — including, but not focusing solely on, books. So, I attempted A Clockwork Reader (who lost me the second she said The Hunger Games was the “best series ever”), and then Jack Edwards — who is such a stuck-up know-it-all that I switched to Netflix in intense frustration.

However, nothing on my list was really grabbing me, so Day 5 meant carefully reopening my YouTube profile and…discovering CinemaSins had 2 new videos, so that temporarily solved my problem.

And because I had just been watching critiques of film, the algorithm started suggesting a bunch of those for me.

Though this turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Because last night I watched Friendly Space Ninja deconstruct book-to-screen adaptations and crocheted, and it was wonderful.

I still love reading, love chatting with other people who are into the same books, and I still want to find new ways to learn about upcoming releases and publishing trends. It is rather evident, though, that BookTube isn’t the spot for this moth.

Maybe…I could hope my favorite gaming channels start doing book reviews, too?