With narratives of great humor and a thousand different way of saying the same the thing, this genre of content creators are fun, intelligent, and extremely perceptive. Here are some booktubers The Week highly recommends.

We can’t imagine our lives without YouTube. It isn’t just a video sharing platform like it used to be anymore. It’s now a forum for discussion on arts, music, fashion and also books. Every event that takes place, every sentence that is spoken is now closely scrutinized in the torrent of videos that review them. Nothing is missed and everything is closely evaluated. The same goes for books too. 

More than 2.2 million books are written and published each year, which means there are so many pieces of writing to comment on each year. This has thus seen a rise of what are termed “booktubers” on the web. They review books and explain at length the reasons for their liking or disliking the books. Theirs is a literary rant but one laced with well-formed opinions that both objectively and subjectively evaluate a book.

And because they are avid readers, creativity isn’t foreign to them. With narratives of great humor and a thousand different way of saying the same the thing, this genre of content creators are fun, intelligent, and extremely perceptive. Here are some booktubers The Week highly recommends.

Deewaker Subedi
Channel:zealreadsPerhaps one of the only Nepali booktubers on the web, Deewaker is relatively new to the booktubing scene. With his channel ‘zealreads’, he is steadily gaining viewers but has yet to solidify his presence. His reviews include carefully explained plotlines, character developments, and detailed analysis on the pace and the themes of the books. He reviews Nepali books (an obvious rarity on YouTube) and mainstream English books as well. He has also branched out to releasing podcasts of self-written short stories and does vocal analysis on certain pieces of writing.

Kat O’Keeffe
Channel:katytastic
Kat is without doubts one of the pioneers of the booktubing community. Her oldest video dates back to 2011 and, while she’s embarrassed of it (that one particular video to be exact) there’s no doubting that it set into motion a whole form of booktubing. Kat herself is as vibrant as her hair color (it changes with each video) and speaks as one would to a friend. She says she’s ranting but to viewers her rants are an echo of the opinions they harbor of a book. She is the book reading friend that most of us don’t have but really want and need. With book tags that she makes herself, she lists books she believes everyone should read and read they do.

Christine Riccio
Channel:
polandbananasbooksInarguably the most famous and inventive of booktubers, Christine is a name as familiar to booktubing as Roald Dahl is to children’s books. She’s wild, a genius with her videos, entertaining and deeply insightful. She wears tiaras, reenacts scenes from books in parodist fashion, uses hyperbolic expressions all the time (literally) to portray her feelings regarding a book. She isn’t just a booktuber but in essence is a brilliant content creator, appealing to readers and non-readers alike. Viewers tune into her channel not just for books but also her expressions and what is rather surprising is that a generous proportion of her viewers consist of non-readers. You could say Christine is an evangelist for the book reading culture, turning non-readers into avid readers.

Helly
Channel: Helly
Helly is an Indian booktuber and her presence in the community thus far has been delightful. She’s a 19-year-old with a passion for books so deep it just radiates off screen. Since she is an Indian booktuber, a lot of books she reviews are readily available and popular in the Nepalis market too. Helly harbors great love for Asian and Hindu literature and explains with the perspectives of an adolescent their literary importance. She also promotes lesser known Asian writers and urges her viewers to pick up reading. She believes reading has the power to change lives and transform societies. Booktubing is, for her, a step closer in her endeavor to making her country deeply invested in reading.

Olive
Channel: abookolive
Unapologetic, blunt with her words, and with an overdose of honesty, this is how Olive runs her channel. Olive mostly reviews non fiction and books targeted at adults but, since her tastes are varied, occasionally a Young Adult (YA) fiction or thriller also makes it to her list. She holds no reservations against writers and frequently sheds light on unflattering writing and poorly delivered ideas. What’s also particular about her is the love she has for Russian literature. There’s one video of her reviewing a Russia book while drinking a bottle of vodka, so very Russian and so very Olive. This is one channel you should definitely not miss out on.

 
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