While I mostly use YouTube to watch videos of cute animals (chinchillas getting massages? um, yes please), I love watching BookTube videos.
Youtube, a familiar home to home chefs, make-up gurus, and rising new artists, has provided countless opportunities for people with a passion. Over the past few years, it has given a tight-knit, vibrant, and growing community of “BookTubers” to gush or rant about the latest new book. Besides giving reviews, BookTubers film book hauls, tag challenges, and collab videos.  Many have even hosted readathons, meet-ups, and live shows.
One of the most anticipated events of the BookTube world is the annual booktube-a-thon. In this one week event, hosted by six YouTubers, participants try to read as many books and complete as many previously established reading challenges as possible. This year, participants could even upload their own daily video online to complete a “Youtube Challenge” and win a free book.
The most popular BookTubers are young teenagers or college students who have turned their love for reading into a job. Many are partnered with publishers and online stores like Book Depository. Some booktubers are sent free books to review. A few even have their own merchandise. Two BookTubers, Christine Riccio and Kat O’Keeffe, recently moved to LA to pursue their YouTube career.
If you’re stuck in a reading rut and need some inspiration, check out some BookTube videos in between homework breaks. They’re only a few minutes long and you might be surprised.
 

Top 5 BookTubers

Sanne (booksandquills)
Sanne from booksandquills was one of the first successful BookTubers.  She covers a variety of genres including young adult, adult fiction, and classics. Her other videos focus on language, movies, and travel.

 
Priscilla (The Readables)
Priscilla’s reviews are short but informative, and her editing is always beautifully done. Besides standard book reviews, she talks about graphic novels and movies. Priscilla also films “Top Five” videos, where she picks a theme to discuss, like her five favorite villains or classic novels.

 
Jesse (Jessethereader)
There aren’t a lot of male BookTubers, but Jesse is definitely my favorite. He’s smart, honest, and hilarious, and his discussion on writing style, plot, and characters is insightful and thorough. Jesse mostly reviews young adult novels.

 
Ariel (Ariel Bisset)
Ariel mostly reviews contemporary fiction and is a lover of anything Orwell. She has a beautiful way with words and her love for books is irresistibly infectious. She also talks about topics she feels are important, like her thoughts on YouTube sexual abuse and religion in books.

 
Reagan (PeruseProject)
Reagan of PeruseProject is quirky, fun, and genuine. She loves high end fantasy and dystopian novels, and often recommends undiscovered but great books. She mostly films monthly TBRs (to be read), book hauls, and wrap ups.