Let’s put all the recent BookTube drama aside (lol all the discussion videos spilling that tea tho is quality, including this kick arse musical version by readwithcindy who you should totally follow) and talk about our favourites!
I, unfortunately, don’t venture into the world of BookTube very often, but when I do these honeybees are generally the ones I always go for – probably because most of them were the first ones I watched when I found out there was a BookTube a year ago.
I have a few friends who also have BookTube accounts that I try to check and watch as often as I can, but I’ll be honest, I watch a BookTube video once in a blue moon. For the list of booktuber friends I know and love (but sadly should be giving more love and watch time too:/), see the list at the bottom of the post if you’d like to find some new faces out there in the BookTube community!
BTW: you can click the image to go to their YouTube channels.
Little Book Owl
I like to say that Catriona is one of the first booktubers I ever watched and she was one of the people who helped me get back into reading after a really long time! I almost cried when I met her in person and I’m honestly blessed to be able to call her a friend. She is a goddess. She’s tall and beautiful (inside and out) and has the most relaxing voice to listen to. I could listen to her talk all day, gurl go make an audiobook already. Her content is so simple and effortless and just so chill, her videos make me more confident and excited to read and she has some seriously funny moments I love and funny videos featuring her partner. Her vlogs are also a fav.
Piera Forde
Piera is another booktuber that I remember actually got me back into reading after my 3-4 year reading slump during the end of high school when I had just found BookTube. She was my spirit animal. I, again, almost cried and was so shook when I met her in person. I’ll be honest – I sometimes feel like a scary fangirl around her and Catriona because they were just so influential at that time of my life in picking up a book after so long. They started the series of events that became my bookstagram and now blogging life. I love Piera’s videos, I love her acting and her short films were amazing (I was Maximum Ride trash back in the day) and it might sound weird but I love how fast she talks. It’s so nice to hear someone that talks fast but like not too fast because I think I tend to talk fast and ramble quite a lot in person.
Hailey in Bookland
So…this might be an unpopular opinion for many people but I don’t particularly enjoy certain accents. I’m very picky with the kind of accent and intonation someone uses when watching a video and Hailey, as well as all her fellow American booktubers on this list, are honestly the exception because I really like the way they talk and how they talk. I know, I’m weird…Anyway, I found her when looking into room and bookshelf organisation because I love to watch those a lot especially when I’m in a situation like recently where I was moving house so I knew I’d have to pack and reorganise my books. I loved her video and I kept watching her other vlogs and recommendation videos. I personally really enjoy that when watching her videos I find books that I have never heard of before on other bookish social media. It’s refreshing to see someone talking about books I’ve never seen before in my life. With bookstagram and BookTube I’ve noticed that many “unrated” become popular or at least well discussed online in no time so many time I’ve felt like they’re really underrated…anymore. I’m confused myself okay, but she’s a fav, let’s move on.
Peruse Project
Regan is another great booktuber that always introduces me to books I’ve never heard of before. Her dog is so cute, and her bookshelves are always so beautiful and she always has such great recommendations. One of her videos has got me hunting for a copy of The Bear and The Nightingale every time I’m in a bookstore, and I just really enjoy her content and her personality in general. She’s awesome. She’s also a huge fan of Neal Shusterman like I am and her vlogs are always great (ok ok I love all the vlogs from the people on this list, I just love vlogs.).
A Clockwork Reader
Hannah, like Catriona, has such a relaxing voice (GOD SO MANY GREAT AUDIOBOOK VOICES) and I could watch her talk endlessly because of it. She seems so beautiful and humble and a booktuber that I think seems to love contemporaries and fantasies really equally. Obviously, booktubers all have their own tastes in what books they want to read. Many prefer fantasy and many perhaps prefer contemporaries. With Hannah (and also very similarly to Hailey but I obviously didn’t think to write this earlier on and I cbf changing it now), I feel like she reads and recommends and raves about books of such a wide array of genres, with fantasy and contemporary books being talked about equally. Like I said, that’s just me. I’ll iriterate that I don’t watch BookTube very often so if I’m wrong, sue me.
emmmabooks
Every time I watch Emma’s videos, I’m so hyped for the shadowhunter chronicles. She seems like such a beautiful soul and I love how much she advocates about books that include eating disorders and mental health in her videos. I don’t see it very often in other videos (again, sue me if I’m wrong) but she’s one of the only booktubers I’ve watched that puts such a positive focus on getting and developing better mental health and spreading the awareness of mental health disorders which is so important. As someone with anxiety, there are still so many misconceptions and encouraging people to read books that include proper representation is so vital to the book community. I’ve read so many great books that have actually taught me more than the internet and I just love that aspect of her content and her videos. Booktube is fun but I think it should sometimes go deeper.
Naya Reads and Smiles
omg, just reading her handle makes me smile because that’s what she does. Constantly. And I love it. It doesn’t irritate me, and I find her enthusiasm so authentic and so real. I watched one of her videos where she organised her bookshelves into read and unread sections, and I swear, I felt my insecurities about reading just melt away. By insecurities, I mean that nagging, annoying pressure many of us feel no matter how hard we try sometimes, that we have to read a lot of books, fast and be reading new books. Hell to the no. As a friend once told me, if you’re building a library, do you expect the librarian to have read every book? Nuh uh. She has so many unread books as I do and it actually just gave me so much confidence. She’s building her library and so am I 🙂 Naya is also just straight up so happy, it makes me as happy as kpop does – which is a lot and I love that about her. Note: she’s also just freaking gorgeous. Her skin is so nice and has the perfect colour, I’m a little in love.
Books with Chloe
A gorgeous newish face on the scene of BookTube, Chloe is a booktuber I enjoy watching from time to time. She’s such a cute fairy and I crush hard on her gorgeous bookshelves that are full of hardbacks. Like, 90% hardbacks. I’m not a snob or anything but I prefer reading hardback books but I’m too poor for that since I live in Australia and can’t afford all that, so I tend to only buy hardbacks of books I really love. She even has a whole shelf dedicated to sexy classics in their hardback Barnes and noble special exclusive editions thingys I hope to buy one day, cause I love classics but again, currently too poor to splurge on the pretty editions. Her shelves are just so beautiful *sigh* Back to the actual booktuber: I really enjoy her reviews and her explanations/discussions. I’m someone that’s never been super against annotating and writing in my books because I’d love to do it but simply don’t have the time to. That and I’m a perfectionist. I love the time she puts into annotating and sketching her ideas in her books, they end up looking beautiful with tabs all over. The way she explained why she annotates in her video is actually amazing and I’m sure inspired a lot of people. I’m also happy that she’s spreading the love for annotating and loving your books in a different. While many people like myself would prefer to keep their copies pristine by not actually writing in them, there are many other options including tabs and post its that I hope I can actually implement one day in my reading routine in the future when I have more time. It’s been awesome in general to watch her channel skyrocket, she deserves all the love!
Jasper & Spice
I have to include one of my best friends on this list because I love her so much and I’m so proud of her! For ages, Bree (@thebookishbree) has been talking about starting a BookTube channel and she has and I’m so happy for her. I’m excited to see more of her great content! She’s so enthusiastic and honestly the first super book enthusiast I met by chance at uni, who basically got me fully into the book community after I sampled a touch of it via BookTube. The rest, as they say, is history. She’s so supportive and a beautiful soul I’m blessed to be friends with. My first bookish bestie, ILY BREE <3
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And those are my current favourite booktubers. As you can probably tell, I have a type for what I like to watch but it does definitely depend on my mood – I swear I’m not a snob or that picky ok…OK?! – I’m always keen to find new booktubers but again, I don’t watch it very often. I try not to spend too much time on youtube – it is a time eater when I could be reading or blogging, however, I will try for the lovely pebbles in the list below.
Who’s one of your favourite booktubers?
Until next time,
xx Tracy
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HERE’S MA LIST (all linked to their youtube channels)
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These guys are great people I’m friends with online or have met in person who create such great content and deserve much love. If I missed anyone, I’m so sorry. I swear I’m just a forgetful nut.
