Passion. Enthusiasm. Love. These are the emotions I felt when watching BookTube for the first time at 13 years old. BookTube is a YouTube community in which creators make book-related content.
At that time, I didn’t have any friends who loved reading as I did, so BookTube became an obsession for me. If I read a book, I would go on my favorite BookTube channels and see if they had made content about it.
Unlike traditional literature education in high school and college, BookTube can be a more entertaining form of learning. As BookTuber Ariel Bissett states in her video, “BookTube is educational, but it’s teaching passion and love as opposed to any content information.”
BookTube can be an amazing public space for creators and viewers to come together and discuss a shared interest. The discussion does not have to feel like a chore as it often does in the classroom — it can instead be lighthearted and fun. BookTube is a place where everyone can have an opinion, even those who don’t have a formal education in English literature.
With BookTube, reading does not have to be a solitary activity because it can be shared with a community. BookTube has allowed for the connection between readers from all over the world to flourish. The BookTube community is not only a haven for young readers and viewers, but also for the creators.
BookTube events such as readathons create excitement around reading. Readathons are book marathons in which people try to read as much as they can within a given period of time. Popular readathons include the BookTube-A-Thon, now known as The Reading Rush, and the Biannual Bibliothon. These readathons can include video challenges, reading challenges and giveaways.
My personal favorite videos are skits, reading vlogs — videos that chronicle about a week’s worth of reading — and book tags — words or phrases that describe a book. Through these videos and many more, I learn about various books I would’ve otherwise never heard about.
Book publishing companies have noticed BookTube can engage teenagers and millennials in a way that they might not be able to directly. In a New York Times article, Brittany Kaback of the marketing agency Big Honcho Media connects publishing companies with BookTubers because “for a lot of the people who are into watching BookTube videos, it feels like taking a recommendation from a friend.”
Using the trust between creator and viewer, a publisher is able to promote new releases. BookTubers are sent advance copies of upcoming books and publishing houses occasionally sponsor videos. In fact, BookTube has garnered so much attention that Michelle Obama took her book tour of “Becoming” to YouTube to talk to a panel of BookTubers.
While the most popular BookTube channels are centered on young adult literature, there are a wide array of channels, so everyone can find one of interest. For instance, Joce of the channel squibblesreads and Dominique Taylor of the channel The Storyscape discuss primarily literary and adult fiction.
Many of the popular channels are based in the United States, but there are some from other parts of the world. For example, there is Canadian Hailey LeBlanc of the channel Hailey in Bookland and Australian Catriona Feeney of Little Book Owl. Several channels combine passions, such as Victoria Carbol of Inquillery, whose videos deal with books and music.
Having BookTube makes conversation concerning books seem more accessible and fun because the creators are not limited and can make the videos quirky and humorous. While BookTubers may not have as large a following as other prominent YouTubers, their value extends beyond their subscriber count because they encourage viewers to become readers.
