Booktubers - Part 8

[likeaphrodite]

honestly thank y'all so much for your responses, i actually learned a lot! my post was referring to teens' reading OUTSIDE of the classroom, my school never actually taught stuff like Call Me by Your Name or Murakami, that's what we were reading on our time. i remember a lot of liked Sapiens, for instance. idk, i just find it weird because i did love YA once upon a time, especially on grades 7 and 8 but i've never thought of it since, until i started watching booktube. i went to pretty peculiar HS in latin america though so the average american high schooler will probably have different tastes. i just think that if someone gave me (or one of my classmates for that matter) an average young adult book, we would have hated it, or at least thought it was immature.

i don't see why teens HAVE to read books that are specifically toned down, when they could handle adult books just fine? they don't have to read Infinite Jest or Ulysses of course, they can actually read whatever they want but i truly think adult books are worth it in the long run, they can ignite a passion in reading long term.

all of this to say, i think a classroom bookshelf should have a mix of adult *and* YA books, not just YA, like it seemed in the video. i'm not familiar with the US' banning system, it sounds so absurd tbh

and for cindy, i don't mean ACOTAR or crap books. she reads books she think she will enjoy, a lot of diverse YA fantasy, like Spin the Dawn or We Set the Dark on Fire (something like that). even for books that turned out to actually be shitty, like Serpent and Dove, it didn't seem like she chose it as a hate read. probably not bad books but she literally never likes them, the only YS fantasy i think she liked was SoC, two or three years ago now. not just with cindy of course, but with a lot of booktubers

[mariereading]

A younger teacher who is attractive can make it harder for students with boundaries. You have to be super careful and aware.

Her students do know she has a YouTube channel which toes that line even more, especially with what she reviews.

Teachers are allowed to have hobbies, but they are held to a higher standard by parents and the community and that’s just reality. There’s been incidents of teachers being fired for being unprofessional based upon their social media or how they act in public.

As a teacher this is completely absurd to say. It's a youtube channel not an only fans.

[bookish_lurker]

A younger teacher who is attractive can make it harder for students with boundaries. You have to be super careful and aware.

Her students do know she has a YouTube channel which toes that line even more, especially with what she reviews.

Teachers are allowed to have hobbies, but they are held to a higher standard by parents and the community and that’s just reality. There’s been incidents of teachers being fired for being unprofessional based upon their social media or how they act in public.

As a teacher this is completely absurd to say. It's a youtube channel not an only fans.

I agree, it's ridiculous and I don't even understand how her being a teacher somehow means she shouldn't be on YT. Plus despite the fact that she's primarily a romance reader, her channel is very PG. She almost never talks about the more explicit/steamy scenes in the books which I believe she's said in the past is due to her knowing some of her students know of her channel. So she's definitely conscious of what she talks about, so I can't see how anyone could have a complaint based on what she reads/talks about.

[TheBookishBabe]

Cindy reads books she knows arent her taste to snark on them. Alot of people do that now and will give thos in depth reviews vs the books they actually love.

[JamHands9]

A younger teacher who is attractive can make it harder for students with boundaries. You have to be super careful and aware.

Her students do know she has a YouTube channel which toes that line even more, especially with what she reviews.

Teachers are allowed to have hobbies, but they are held to a higher standard by parents and the community and that’s just reality. There’s been incidents of teachers being fired for being unprofessional based upon their social media or how they act in public.

As a teacher this is completely absurd to say. It's a youtube channel not an only fans.

I used to be a teacher so I have some knowledge about it.
In my training, we were taught this was a big no and every district I worked with (several as I went to undergrad, did student teaching in one town, went back to school, did student teaching again, and then worked in districts) this would have been a huge no. So again, in my experience it would not be appropriate unless she was reviewing books she using her classroom or was a teaching based channel. And even then, she would still have to be careful as teachers are held to a higher standard and have been fired for various things on social media.

Also today I went and messaged several of my friends that are still teachers and my one professor. Two friends and my professor responded back that it *might* be okay, but students finding it is a big no-no especially for the content (she has talked about taboo books so)

[JamHands9]

And I’m not going to respond more to this. We each have our own opinions and clearly no one is changing their minds on this.

[jaric]

Cindy reads books she knows arent her taste to snark on them. Alot of people do that now and will give thos in depth reviews vs the books they actually love.

She did a full rant review for a book 6 months ago and it was a group book for a book club.
Tbh I think she just goes into some not really good YA fantasy just because she liked to read it awhile ago and her friends make it sound like a great book.

[vortensity]

Cindy reads books she knows arent her taste to snark on them. Alot of people do that now and will give thos in depth reviews vs the books they actually love.

Okay to be fair, it's took me a long time to figure out how to write in-depth reviews of 4.5 & 5 star books, whereas ranting about 1-2 star books was always easy. I like to think I've gotten better at the former, but even just on my small Goodreads account my rants get noticeably more attention so as much as we can get mad at BT creators for being snarky about popular YA books, there's obviously an audience that wants it and rewards them for making that content.

Also pretty sure she's talked about writing a YA book? I'd imagine that may be why she reads a lot of YA. I don't think every book she picks up is in bad faith outside of like the SJM ones... A lot of them just turn out to be bad lol.

[soup---eater]

I didn't think I'd love a video as much as I do this one

[CocoZ]

Teens read adult books because they want to show maturity and because they're curious about things that are taboo for them like sex, drugs, crimes and gore. Adults read adult books and also YA, MG, graphic novels, etc because we already grow the f up, we are over our morbid/edgy teen fase and because we understand that limiting ourselves from consuming something as subjective as art by dumb ass standards, like age or gender or whatever, it's immature.

[bcj13]

I was just watching Chloe's "Most Anticipated" video because I am looking for more 2021 releases, and that girl cannot read a summary for the life of her. Like even if you don't wanna read the whole blurb you've gotta do better than just saying "it's a combination of blank and blank, which are two of my faves so of course I want to read it" and then just go to the next book... How am I supposed to know what it's about from that??? And then she was talking about Concrete Rose and literally all she said was a super overly-complicated explanation of what number it is in the THUG series, and didn't even mention that it follows Starr's father. I know Angie Thomas is popular and MOST people already know about that book, but come on put some actual effort in.

[xxloloxx]

I was just watching Chloe's "Most Anticipated" video because I am looking for more 2021 releases, and that girl cannot read a summary for the life of her. Like even if you don't wanna read the whole blurb you've gotta do better than just saying "it's a combination of blank and blank, which are two of my faves so of course I want to read it" and then just go to the next book... How am I supposed to know what it's about from that??? And then she was talking about Concrete Rose and literally all she said was a super overly-complicated explanation of what number it is in the THUG series, and didn't even mention that it follows Starr's father. I know Angie Thomas is popular and MOST people already know about that book, but come on put some actual effort in.

I just watched it and I don't understand how they are her most anticipated books when she knew nothing about the books prior to filming. I feel like she went onto goodreads 2021 anticipated release lists and just picked books that had diverse covers/authors. Be interesting to see if she actually reads any of the books she mentions

[TheBookishBabe]

[fakedroid]

I was just watching Chloe's "Most Anticipated" video because I am looking for more 2021 releases, and that girl cannot read a summary for the life of her. Like even if you don't wanna read the whole blurb you've gotta do better than just saying "it's a combination of blank and blank, which are two of my faves so of course I want to read it" and then just go to the next book... How am I supposed to know what it's about from that??? And then she was talking about Concrete Rose and literally all she said was a super overly-complicated explanation of what number it is in the THUG series, and didn't even mention that it follows Starr's father. I know Angie Thomas is popular and MOST people already know about that book, but come on put some actual effort in.

Don't you know that's just the YA booktuber way?? Make a video that people will watch to find out about new books and then instead of actually describing the plot or reading a summary before you start filming, talk about how pretty the cover is and say a few vague statements about how hyped you are to read it, then make sure to add some token diverse books everyone knows about to your list for brownie points

[TheBookishBabe]

[vortensity]

Normally I'd be like "why are they reading here if it makes them mad" but I actually respect her for saying this. I've only seen one of her videos as romance isn't my genre but frankly good for her for getting a master's in literacy and trying to encourage her students to read.

I missed the initial discussion on this topic too but literacy rates especially in the US are also very much entwined with class, what region you grew up in/where you went to school, and not to mention all the various other reasons someone might fall behind that fall under various learning disabilities (some of which people might not realize they have until later in life or may never be diagnosed for) and countless other factors. I don't think it's a cute look to be making fun of people for reading YA, even if it is because they're behind in reading level. Not being at the "expected" reading level in high school isn't a sign of stupidity--it's a sign that the system failed them somehow. That said, the people reading hundreds of YA books a year are likely not the ones who were behind in reading level as teenagers... I would hypothesize that those people are more likely to be non-readers.

Honestly I think the way the classics are forced on kids in school makes them hate reading. I read maybe 5 books for fun throughout high school, and I was a kid who took advanced lit classes and tested out of freshman-level english/literature classes in undergrad. I didn't start reading for fun again until I was like 20 or 21 years old. I didn't even touch a classic of my own volition until this year because I associated them with that experience in high school. And I haven't liked all the ones I've picked up this year... But I have liked some which tbh was a complete surprise for me.

Idk I just think teachers who are willing to encourage reading for fun is something that should be celebrated. Expecting teens to read and love books written by white men a century and a half ago, and calling them stupid for wanting to read from a perspective they can relate to is just tone deaf and elitist. And looking down on people who have trouble with reading is even moreso.

[jaric]

I was just watching Chloe's "Most Anticipated" video because I am looking for more 2021 releases, and that girl cannot read a summary for the life of her. Like even if you don't wanna read the whole blurb you've gotta do better than just saying "it's a combination of blank and blank, which are two of my faves so of course I want to read it" and then just go to the next book... How am I supposed to know what it's about from that??? And then she was talking about Concrete Rose and literally all she said was a super overly-complicated explanation of what number it is in the THUG series, and didn't even mention that it follows Starr's father. I know Angie Thomas is popular and MOST people already know about that book, but come on put some actual effort in.

Tbh this looked like a super lazy video done solely for sponsorship.

[bcj13]

I was just watching Chloe's "Most Anticipated" video because I am looking for more 2021 releases, and that girl cannot read a summary for the life of her. Like even if you don't wanna read the whole blurb you've gotta do better than just saying "it's a combination of blank and blank, which are two of my faves so of course I want to read it" and then just go to the next book... How am I supposed to know what it's about from that??? And then she was talking about Concrete Rose and literally all she said was a super overly-complicated explanation of what number it is in the THUG series, and didn't even mention that it follows Starr's father. I know Angie Thomas is popular and MOST people already know about that book, but come on put some actual effort in.

Tbh this looked like a super lazy video done solely for sponsorship.

Definitely. If you add a book just because of the cover without reading the synopsis, whatever it's your life. But if you're making a video on it, at least say SOMETHING about the actual contents of the book, lots of blurbs have their last paragraph give like a brief summary so you could read that or at least give like a sentence about what it's actually about so people can know if it sounds interesting enough to look up themselves.

Going with the Concrete Rose example - firstly, mentioning it's about Starr's father would greatly increase the interest for people who liked THUG, as well as pointing out that the basis of the book is about how society treats young black men (again - something people who liked THUG would enjoy). I think she just assumed everyone would already know because it's Angie Thomas, but there's lots of people who don't keep up with authors especially if they read THUG just because of the hype.

(I don't know why this has pissed me off so much, but here we are).

[bcj13]

At least she actually admitted to reading here, unlike most of them who pretend their above reading about themselves on a gossip website.

[likeaphrodite]

damn, i actually really respect that. i do think Jess is a great booktuber, she actually diversely in a way that doesn't feel like tokenization and shines light on underrated books and small booktubers. if you're into romance, i really recommend checking her out.

i was surprised that she only mentioned YA but i guess it's true that if she's getting teens to read that's great. my take was that teens should not *only* have YA as an option, they should be able to read adult books too. Jess, if you're reading this, thank you for clarifying.