BookTube, the Modern Face of Oral Tradition
Via YouTube, a
passionate community of bookworms has reinvented the art of
storytelling.
For years, videos of
all varieties have called YouTube home, including the old-school,
weird cat videos and home recordings. Then the platform developed,
and sketches, challenges, music, gaming, beauty videos and vlogs
stormed onto the scene and collected subscribers by the millions.
But there are still
niches relatively unknown by the general populace, and BookTube is
one section that deserves more recognition than what it currently
receives.
BookTube is exactly
what it sounds like. Books are the focus, and the creators deliver
their likes, dislikes, reviews and hauls. Reviews for the
book-to-movie adaptations are in abundance, almost as popular as
vlogs reiterating how awesome it was at the most recent book
signing/VidCon-esque event.
The books discussed
range across all sorts of subjects and genres, though young adult
fiction dominate the scene. That makes sense considering YouTube’s
viewers are generally millennials or younger.
As with the other
ends of YouTube, challenges and tags run amok, like the Unpopular
Book Opinion Tag and the First Sentence Challenge. These are fun to
play and have endless options because there are so many books, and
it’s easy to participate at home. Audience participation attracts a
crowd even online, so it’s no wonder that these videos draw people
in.
English-speaking
BookTube isn’t even as popular as Latin-American BookTube. It has
creators who boast thousands more subscribers than their
counterparts. Each side often discusses the same books, and that
universality is remarkable and usually only found in the world of
sports or music.
Passionate Creators
Infecting the Youths
The creators come from varied backgrounds; many do not have literary degrees, though many do. Some are also writers, while some work in accounting and just really love reading and discussing the latest novels. They all share the enthusiasm about authors and new releases as the rest of us book lovers; when they meet their favorite authors, the viewers cheer with them because if those fans can meet their idols, then why couldn’t others?
The enthusiasm is
infectious. Loud voices, waving hands as they hoist their newly
purchased novels into the air, so unapologetically happy about
literature that my high school English teachers would weep with joy.
BookTube is the safe space for their curious minds as well as the
minds around the globe whose friends don’t share the same love for
the written word.
BookTube is a space
that is self-critical. The members recognize issues that often
surround literary works — diverging opinions, “correct”
analyses and what classifies as “higher” reading material — and
they discuss it via videos.
Other spaces in
YouTube don’t necessarily share this self-reflective feature. It’s
not surprising considering that the channels are often focused on a
discussion-based environment that values reflection, but this
variance is still striking.
In one such video,
called “Is BookTube Educational?” by BookTuber Ariel Bissett,
there is an incredible amount of research in the forms of interviews
with other BookTubers and literature on pieces of the subject. In all
fairness, Bissett is known for her intelligently designed videos, and
you could consider her one of the high watermarks for critical
thinking on BookTube.
She’s not alone in
her imaginative critiques, and videos of all varieties of discussions
can be found across YouTube. The content you’re looking for is
there; all you need to do is look and listen.
In no-nonsense
terms, this is what BookTube is. But BookTube is more than tags, book
hauls or 24-hour read-a-thons. BookTube represents and reflects upon
the heart of humanity: storytelling.
Before the written
word, people passed their messages and information about how the
world worked through oral traditions. “The Iliad” and “The
Odyssey” are often accredited to Homer, but it is speculated that
Homer is not a single person, especially considering no one knows
biographical facts about him — or if Homer is even a “him.”
Those epics are products of years of oral traditions, morphing as
each storyteller relayed their version of the tale.
BookTubers are some
of the internet’s keepers of oral tradition. Video in general does
this job, but BookTube becomes meta because its videos relay a
narrative of one person reflecting on another narrative.
The individuals in
BookTube are part of a larger picture. The books they choose to tell
their viewers about say not only something about them but also about
society. The books that they share often spread like wildfire, and,
if the reader deems that the story has value to them, those ideas
contained within the pages will fester inside their mind.
Homer’s epic tales
would have died if the society that told their stories held different
values. Society and literature push each other to move forward and to
see themselves clearly in the light. If society approves, the book
moves forward; and if the book moves forward, then exposure to those
ideas increases.
Authors do the
imagining and the grunt work of writing itself, but without an
audience, the stories cannot live in the minds and hearts of others.
BookTubers, and readers generally, contain the power to be like Homer
and sing to the highest mountains and to the camera about their
well-loved tales.
Reading is a
solitary activity. Book clubs and upper crust academic settings are
the places to speak about books with others, but unlike sports or
music, it is not popular to discuss them outside of a classroom. The
internet has the power to change that, and BookTube is a driving
force in removing those barriers and reminding everyone that they are
a storyteller.