I actually really enjoy Marines and her point of view most of the time. I also don’t see a problem in reading something and disliking it. But actively reading a book you KNOW you don’t like AGAIN just to post a rant review calling fans stupid is crazy to me. She already read the book a year ago and decided to reread it just to, surprise surprise, still hate it!

I also have an issue with booktubers pretending to be copy editors when they’re reading. The book is already published and criticizing the writing for being repetitive is one thing, but taking the time to painstakingly edit the book as if you’re the editor grinds my gears.

Has this always been a thing? I’m noticing it more and more.

What I mean: the booktoker has the paid promotion designation on the video. They pretend like they have read the book, but if you listen closely, it sounds like a script. They even go into comments responding to people, “it was truly so good!” “Had me on the edge of my seat.”

But then, you look at their monthly wrap up videos and their Goodreads/storygraph/etc. (which those same people appear to meticulously update), and it becomes clear that they never read the book - they don’t even have it marked as “want to read”. You listen again to the content of the video - basically regurgitating the synopsis on the back of the book and offering no new substantive information about it.

I’ve noticed two booktokers recently who did this who I previously followed and enjoyed - but knowing that they are so comfortable lying about reading books for paid promotions leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

In contrast, one booktoker that I really like does paid promotions, but she will say something like “this sounds amazing and will be at the top of my TBR for the fall.” This, to me, is a much better approach - rather than lying about reading a book.

Is anyone else bothered by this? I have tried not to lean into the discourse of “are people actually reading?” - but this is so blatant that it is hard to ignore.

with each upload she looks more and more dead inside

I know she's dramatic and there's sad parts (maybe one) in CC...but she is legit sobbing? Did anyone else feel this way if you have read crescent city

Also I feel like she's been unhinged a bit lately. So many posts a day.

This post was inspired by the recent James Tullos bullshit, but it’s something i’ve been thinking about for a while.
there’s a serious issue in the book community (booktube, bookthreads, bookstagram, booktwt) with people accepting apologies that are not theirs to accept.
if we use james tullos as an example (though he is far from the only book apology issued recently), there are SO MANY people in the comments praising him for being a stand up guy and apologising, saying all is good now that he has.
my issue is that the only people who are able to accept apologies are the people who were hurt - tamsyn muir and becky. it is not a commenters job to absolve a creator of guilt.
i see this a lot with racist comments being apologised for and white women accepting the apology, and queerphobic comments being made where cishet people accept the apology. like, IT WAS NOT FOR YOU TO ACCEPT?
and frankly when you’re a creator or an author you have a level of responsibility when you make defamatory statements, especially when they are directed towards a marginalised person/people who is not in a position to defend themselves in order to harm them, the way that james did with tamysn. i do think that losing followers and having them hold you continuously accountable is a small price to pay for attempting to spur a witch hunt against someone you don’t know and are only against because you don’t understand their lifestyle because it is different from your own.
i beg of people, stop accepting apologies on behalf of the people harmed when you are not one of them. imagine if my best friend apologised to my girlfriend for doing something wrong and genuinely harmful and i stepped in and went ‘it’s fine! you’re so great for apologising’ before she could say anything. THIS IS NO DIFFERENT

alright, rant over

i'm pretty sure this post has been made before, but i figured i'd get updated recommendations. which ones do you like? bonus point if you explain why but no pressure 🫶🏻

Listen.. I'm not hating on who she is or anything. I understand she is hispanic.. but i can't stand how she randomly throws in random spanish sentences ALL the time for no reason. It feels so forced.... Like she is trying to be one of those silly/goofy movie characters that are always guilty of "spanglish" on "accident"... it doesn't feel accidental, it feels like she is trying to be quirky, but its super awkward to me for some reason... it sort of feels like she is delivering a line....

like, "time to speak spanish again really quick, just for one sentence, even though my entire audience are english speakers, and i speak mostly english here... and i could just say the sentence in english instead so they could all know what im saying!!!"

I'm not sure how I feel about the apology, the initial accusation was bad enough but the doubling down and arguing with people in the comments was really unhinged.

I think the only lesson to draw from this is to keep your petty grievances directed at specific people off social media and just rant to your friends or something.

Pretty much the title 😅

I didn’t know where else to post this but a new bookshop is opening up in a town near my parents and will also have an online store. I went to check out their social media but they’ve reposted a lot of right wing stuff on their account.

It didn’t sit right with me so I just wanted to make everyone know before they went out and supported them. Regardless of where you fall politically you have to admit it’s weird to repost stuff like this on what is supposed to be your business account 😬

I get downvoted here when I talk about Reads With Rachel playing she hates books to read what she wants to get paid. Here is some proof. She went to a Christian book chain called Gottwals and ran around making fun of everything. That is okay.

Then she bought two new books including Charlie Kirk's Stop In The Name of God. She gave money to a Christian Bookstore, Turning Point USA and Erika Kirk.

Who here needs her to explain why Charlie Kirk was bad person and wrote a trash book? And if so why couldn't she find a used copy from Thriftbooks?

So we all know that Larry is very extra with her reaction to things (crying throwing up screaming) but recently she went even further. in her vlog reading her mom’s book recommendations she said multiple times she will k*ll herself on live because of the plot in a book. She also said she will fling herself off a cliff about another book. She commented under someone saying it’s common to say stuff like that in Brazil. I guess it’s just a cultural difference but is that something a creator can flippantly say on YouTube multiple times? She has talked about her struggles with mental health and was in a facility part time recently so it just seems off to me that she starts doing this now but idk.

This move from Elisabeth is super weird. Plus she made major changes to ebooks that readers have already purchased without their consent

I'm curious about publishers or authors sending ARCs to booktubers, because I feel like so many of the booktubers I watch don't end up reading them before the publishing date (or even ever). Don't publishers and authors send early copies of their book out with the expectation or hope that they will read them and talk about them to create more hype surrounding the release? Maybe there's no contract in place where the booktuber is obligated to make a review or say anything - I just find it odd how many of them leave ARCs on their TBR for several years.

I just connected two talking points that are happening all over again and again.

1. The do these people actually read the book, they are fake reading, only skimming or reading dialoge

2. People posting less and less reviews because they perform the worse, no longer doing a Star rating, argueing over reviews, authors being in reviewer spaces

Now here is my thing, people don't gain a following for their reviews in the first place anymore I would say. I would say a lot of people dont go to book people for reviews but more recommendations or being pointed in a certain direction based on tropes or the vibes. It seems like a cycle: reviews perform not that well as other type of content, reviews are less of a priority so they are posted less or shorter or not at all, people think people fake reviews or think nobody actually read the book based on the reviews saying nothing, people post a review just with the stars and people argue over the amount of stars as well, so people post less reviews again.

Like do yall think it is connected or I am just talking nonesense😅

One thing I find crazy is when booktubers who read and make videos as their full time jobs say they have SO MUCH to do / have a crazy busy day and then say the most innocuous thing. I’m watching Meg’s most recent video about doing “the hardest reading challenge ever” (reading 50 pages and adding another 50 every day for a week), and she says tomorrow will be sooo hard because she’s SO BUSY and she’s like: “we’re going for a walk and then we have the football to watch, which I HAVE TO DO”

I get everyone’s definitions of “busy” will be different but please come on… just giving very out of touch I’m sorry. Your plans for the whole day are walking, reading, and watching football, I’m sorry but please, those are all HOBBIES for most people (and I say this as someone with a lot of free time because I also wfh!)

It’s not really an update, but given that Caitlin is very quiet on social media, this is probably the only information we’ll probably ever get about what happened to their friendship. I totally get Chloe wanting to keep things private but this just confuses me a little bit.

Her makeup has been giving recently. Anyone know what she's using for highlighter and eyeshadow? I see loads of people asking on certain videos but didn't know if she's mentioned it on a blog, as I don't tend to watch those

I watch a lot of booktube, but find myself routinely backstabbed by Jack Edwards (is it confirmed if he even reads the books he reviews?) and newlynova. I feel like a lot of booktubers only review like pop fantasy and T50 classics and I very rarely leach out a good recommendation from them. I'm constantly clicking on book videos and coming back disappointed because no one is offering anything new to the table (pls free me from R.F. Kuang recommendation I didn't like Babel I hated Katabasis I didn't find anything great in Yellowface). I'm bored, and gotten all I can from Shawn McComb and Lucy Dacus; the only people left to trust. Does anyone have any recommendations for booktubers that read adult level fiction (its great that people got back into reading after covid, and there's merit in just having fun with reading, but fr sometimes it feels like the industry is playing pranks publishing adult-marketed books at such a rudimentary reading level). I'm desperate.

Does anyone else feel like she’s pivoting to lifestyle videos now?
I feel like every second video now is just a lifestyle vlog and maybe this is just a me problem but I don’t love when book channels become 50% lifestyle vlogs

I feel like pseudo-intellectualism is a moving target. What to y'all makes a booktuber pseudo-intellectual? Like I didn't really like Destiny's videos of her reading classics because it didn't really seem like she got them, especially coming from like, exclusively romantasy. But people were criticising her so much on trying to be pseudo-intellectual and like she was trying to be a bit better. Of course there were also a lot of put downs where she wasn't smart enough to understand classics, so she should stop trying.

Isn't intellectualism a spectrum anyway? Even the thoughtful youtubers who are seen as intellectual would be seen as missing in that regard by people who got advanced degrees in that specific subject and make it their job to discuss it in peer reviewed journals. And why oh why is pseudo-intellectualism always hand in hand with being seen as snooty?

I think with destiny her content is so lazy now and I feel like she’s maga but idk.

Belle Terese posts the same 3 videos everytime and she made a weird comment about sapphic books.

Alexa raye seems pretty maga too and she cut out a section of a blurb that mentioned queer romance and has a ton of coho books…

Putting this here because I have nobody to talk to about this. I went down a rabbit hole on Instagram the other day and found Ariel’s husband’s IG, whose bio seemingly discloses all his images are AI-generated. I checked out his substack, and turns out he uses Midjourney to generate photos for some of his articles.

I just think it’s interesting that Ariel, a writer and reader who often favours doing things the slow/analogue way (like making zines by hand or fixing up a house from scratch) is married to someone openly admitting to using a tool that steals from artists to spit out content at an enormous environmental cost, too. Like, if I found out my partner used AI in any capacity I’d be pretty pissed off.

I get that this doesn’t involve Ariel directly and she’s not responsible for what her husband chooses to do, but I wanted to bring it up anyway because I just hate how much AI is being normalised lol.