I am an old woman yelling at cloud, and I think Youtubers are generally terrible - it takes quite a bit of digging to find someone who isn't a pathological narcissist, a racist, clickbait trash, or makes annoying faces on the still. With book youtubers ("booktubers"), most of them read YA pretty exclusively - always the same books, once you've seen a video you've literally seen them all - and act unnaturally chipper, which really annoys me.
HOWEVER there are some booktubers who are alright, who are smart and don't act like maniacs on camera, and who actually read interesting books. If you prefer to watch videos rather than read articles recommending books, then you can get good recs from these people. They aren't the flashiest, or the ones with the most subscriptions, sometimes they don't even have very good production values, BUT the content is good. And when it comes to books, that is all that really matters.So here are 5 booktubers who aren't as terrible as the others.
1. Jen CampbellJen owns a bookshop in the UK and is also the author of the hilarious
Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops and
More Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops, and the non-fiction
The Bookshop Book, which "examines the history of books, talks to authors about their favourite places, and looks at over three hundred weirdly wonderful bookshops across six continents".
Her channel is pretty no-frills and she reads mostly adult books, including from independent presses. You can get good recs from her on her themed videos (i.e.
Magical Realism recs;
Apocalyptic Fiction;
LGBTQ book recs, etc) or on her monthly wrap-ups, where she talks about the latest books she's read.
2. MercysBookishMusingsMercy reads a lot of adult and fantasy books (her
video guide to Robin Hobb is very helpful). She is English, so that explains why on some of her videos she looks like the lost Little Mix member. She has some themed videos (
underhyped books;
favourite graphic novels; etc), and also does regular book hauls and monthly wrap-ups.
3. booksandquillsSanne is Dutch (but vlogs in English). She reads pretty widely, including adult fiction, graphic novels, and fantasy. She does book hauls, reading wrap-ups, recs, and also videos about other subjects. I personally enjoyed her videos about the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist (which was sponsored by Baileys but still).
4. rincey readsRincey is American. She's a Bookriot writer and reads a LOT - and way more diversely than the average booktuber. As for genres, Rincey reads pretty much every genre there is: a lot of adult books, non-fiction, fantasy, thriller, YA, etc. She does book reviews, book hauls, reading wrap-ups and discussions.5. wordsofareaderLeslie is an Australian booktuber. Her production values aren't the best but personally I will take homemade before overdone. She reads a lot of classics, children's books, popular fiction and more. She also does themed recs (
novella recs,
top 5 faves,
books worth the hype), reviews, wrap-ups and book hauls.
sources 1234567891011do you ever get recs from booktubers? who is your fave?
(ps this is a book post NOT a youtube drama post)
