Booktubers: Part 14

[audiobooks]

Thank you so much for clarifying that! I wasn't aware of the Aug. 23rd statement. What a shame that it ended in drama, I really appreciated what R4A was doing. I hope all the people who were running R4A are alright in the face of all of this, I noticed that the insta account has since removed commenting from that final post. I really hope this doesn't affect reader movements for change going forward. Thank you again for clarifying what happened!

This is a couple days late but Marines was one of the volunteers for R4A and posted a TikTok of her experience. Very well worth a watch to get the perspective of someone who was actually involved.

[gemstone]

the issue with boycotts is that everyone has different levels of what they are willing to accept. some people did not see a need to boycott at all, and some people will never engage with SMP again. some people (like leen) are only willing to end a boycott when all of their demands are met. other people (like r4a) are willing to make concessions if they feel like they can use their power for change. there is no universal answer here. i don't think r4a can universally declare the boycott over, but i also don't think they are wrong for saying that r4a read the demands over and are willing to accept this in order to gain a seat at the table (as the majority opinion of r4a and not the general populous.)

personally, i think marine seems to be looking at this situation very pragmatically. the most effective advocacy usually relies on making concessions temporarily in some areas in order to gain a seat at the table that will give them influence moving forward. i think that this opportunity to have members of the community sit down with SMP was more important to r4a than every demand being met (not because the demands were not valid to them, but that because having this opportunity was a means for the demands to be fulfilled later down the line.)

both sides seem to be wanting the same thing, and are just going about it different ways. i understand not wanting to accept anything less than everything you want, but i also think there is real value in sitting down with these companies and opening dialogue directly. the outcome everyone wants is for change within the company and i don't know how feasible that is to expect that if you refuse to engage unless you have already gotten 100% of the things you are asking for (and at the point, what's the point of even meeting if you are already having your demands met?) it almost seems like some of the movement is looking for short-term change immediately, while the other side is looking for long-term change that will happen gradually over time.

[super_smize]

Apparently Gavin reads this thread. Or has people that tells him about it. He mentioned in his latest vlog about "a gossip site" where someone "lied about him saying he wanted bad things to happen to his neighbors." Around an hour in the "I Was a Judge for the 2024 YA Book Prize!" vlog if anyone wants to see.

I do appreciate how he clarified it was one person and didn't try to implicate the site as a whole. And I totally get wanted to clear the air with something like that.

I saw this too, but I'm not sure he was talking about this site cause I don't remember anyone saying something like that on here -- at least not in the booktubers thread and I don't think Gavin has his own dedicated thread. Maybe I didn't look very hard, but I couldn't find what he was referencing on here so it might have been some 404 TEXT NOT FOUND?

[AmandaLagerfeld2015]

Apparently Gavin reads this thread. Or has people that tells him about it. He mentioned in his latest vlog about "a gossip site" where someone "lied about him saying he wanted bad things to happen to his neighbors." Around an hour in the "I Was a Judge for the 2024 YA Book Prize!" vlog if anyone wants to see.

I do appreciate how he clarified it was one person and didn't try to implicate the site as a whole. And I totally get wanted to clear the air with something like that.

I saw this too, but I'm not sure he was talking about this site cause I don't remember anyone saying something like that on here -- at least not in the booktubers thread and I don't think Gavin has his own dedicated thread. Maybe I didn't look very hard, but I couldn't find what he was referencing on here so it might have been some 404 TEXT NOT FOUND?

It was talked about on this site: The posts were July 26th. Someone claimed he said in a reading sprint that he he hoped something bad happened to his neighbors, which many were on the sprint said was never actually said by him.

[gemstone]

i really like bella, and i understand that she was *technically* doing a book buying ban, but also, you've got to acknowledge that the entire time this 'ban' was taking place you were receiving A LOT of books from your subscribers. like yeah, you weren't technically buying these books yourself, but you were adding them to your amazon wishlist and having your subscribers buy them for you. it just feels a bit odd to claim to do this because you were acquiring a lot more books than you are reading, and simultaneously be doing unboxings of multiple book gifts from subscribers in practically every video. like she's still shown herself acquiring a ton of books this year, she's just been having her subscribers and patrons pay for them instead.

[oh_do_tell]

i really like bella, and i understand that she was *technically* doing a book buying ban, but also, you've got to acknowledge that the entire time this 'ban' was taking place you were receiving A LOT of books from your subscribers. like yeah, you weren't technically buying these books yourself, but you were adding them to your amazon wishlist and having your subscribers buy them for you. it just feels a bit odd to claim to do this because you were acquiring a lot more books than you are reading, and simultaneously be doing unboxings of multiple book gifts from subscribers in practically every video. like she's still shown herself acquiring a ton of books this year, she's just been having her subscribers and patrons pay for them instead.

well she was mentioning the ban all the time because she knows her fans will buy books for her ...

[oh_do_tell]

Am I the only one who thinks this year is the most boring year regarding BooksandLala's video concepts and books she reads. I barely saw any interesting books to read and the ones they are I already knew from other channels. I used to get so many interesting books from her channel.
And very often books she reads even if challenges are interesting, books are also mid or bad for her too ...
For example I wish she's done with the blurbs concept.

[grilledcheese_]

Am I the only one who thinks this year is the most boring year regarding BooksandLala's video concepts and books she reads. I barely saw any interesting books to read and the ones they are I already knew from other channels. I used to get so many interesting books from her channel.
And very often books she reads even if challenges are interesting, books are also mid or bad for her too ...
For example I wish she's done with the blurbs concept.

omg yes! she's always been my favorite content creator and I've been so sad this year lol. I'm glad she's (hopefully) reading and doing what she wants but it's so boring to me. we usually overlap a ton with the books we read and that just hasn't been the case AT ALL over the past few months.

I don't care about books from the 90s-early 2000s, I don't care about any of the NYT best books, I don't care about hockey books. I feel like she's been reading so many random things I've never heard of and don't care about at all. a nonfiction book about salt? lmaooo

(and obviously I know she doesn't read or make videos just for me!)