 What's shaking, my name's Cam, welcome back to another video. You know, I was considered a booktuber once upon a time. It's true, I have read book, I've read many book, in fact, but it's been a really really long time since I've done any like book reviews or book tags or specifically reading related videos, primarily because I spent most of last year just focusing on finishing my book. That's the real reason why I've been making mostly writing related content lately over the last year or more author tube over booktube content, if you like. But as a lot of you OG subscribers to the channel will know, I've been doing both booktube and author tube content pretty much since I started this channel. Like four years ago, it was always a bit of both reading and writing rather than just one thing over the other. And I'm definitely not saying I was the only one to do this. I wasn't. But there were very few people that were doing both booktube and author tube. I think we're referred to as like hybrids. And I think the main reason, at least back then, that there weren't a lot of hybrids was because if you split your content over reading and writing, it kind of stunted your growth on YouTube. You know, you would have like writers who would come to your channel from a writing video and then see that your next upload is a book review and then unsubscribe again or the other way around. That's just how it was. And in fact, that's kind of how it still is, but it's fine. Anyway, for a while now, I have drifted away from being a booktube. The main reason is that I just wasn't really reading much at all because I was again, focusing on the writing. But screw it, I'll just say it. Sometimes the community that can come with that content, with booktube content can kind of suck. I know that the community is like one of the biggest selling points for booktube. It's one of the main reasons that people get into it and stay in it. But I'm going to be honest with you guys. I'm going to be completely transparent. I'll give you a peek behind the silk drapes, if you will. Wait, is silk drapes like a, is that a dirty? It sounds, it kind of sounds like a dirty thing. Anyway, sometimes the booktube community can be an absolutely asinine shit fight. I've never been directly involved in any of the drama or online warfare because I'm just not really interested in it. I don't want to get involved in that stuff. There's just no point. I've never been involved in it, but seeing it happen, even from the outside, as someone who was in or is in and cares about booktube as a concept, it is really disappointing to see that stuff happen. And to be honest, it's kind of embarrassing. It always seems to happen around the time that booktube is finally like getting some mainstream notice. Like, like there was a time where we were in a New York Times piece or something like that, or there's a mainstream interview with like a booktuber about booktube around the times where this this thing that we're all involved in is getting noticed and then some kind of like high school level drama bullshit pops up. I'm obviously not going to refer to like any specific instances, but what I will say is that in most cases, the issue is that there is a topic that is genuinely interesting or important to discuss within booktube. But so quickly and so often that topic will rapidly spiral from being valuable discourse to just straight up passive aggressive sub tweets and hostility. Nothing good ends up coming from the entire debate or event. And booktube as a whole just stands up looking that much more exclusive and unwelcome to new people. I don't really like talking about this stuff because in the grand scheme of things, it's just it's just not that important, really. But if I can summarize what I've been trying to say, I've just become a bit uncomfortable with how many people now try to stick their flag in booktube and say this is mine and this is how it needs to operate. It's just people talking about books, my guy. I mean, can we just can we just do that, please? Anyway, I also blame myself. I'm not completely out of fault here because I shouldn't have forgotten the reason that I started enjoying booktube to begin with. The community was great, sure. But really, it was just that I was talking about books that I liked and I was talking about books I liked with, you know, people in the comments. That's it. It really didn't need to be any deeper than that. Community is great, but that's not the point. So what's my point? Why am I like making this video anyway? The point is that now I have more free time, not much, but a bit. I have been doing a bit more reading and I've actually been enjoying it. So I plan on getting back into making more booktube videos or reading videos along with my writing videos. I'll still be doing them as well. I know that doing the reading and booktube videos generally gives my channel a little bit of a hit, because like I said before, people generally only come here for one of those two things, reading or writing. But it's also content that I like making. So. So that brings me to my next big point. I kind of need your help. This might surprise you based on my last year of uploading. But horror is not my favorite genre. In fact, fantasy is it's close, but fantasy is is just a bit ahead. I wouldn't blame you for not knowing that, though, because I haven't read any fantasy books in a really long time. It's actually been so long that it's to the point where I'm literally struggling to remember if I even liked some of the fantasy books that I reflect back on. I did. I think it was good, mate. I. So here's the thing. I want to start fresh. I want to start completely fresh. I finished my horror novel and I'm nearly done with my horror anthology of short stories. And after that, I'm going to be going back to writing fantasy, which I'm really excited about. So I figure it's time I return. It's time I return to rolling hills and dark caves and dangerous forests and snowy mountain peaks. I want to not only reread some fantasy books or series that I've read in the past, but I also finally want to get to some series that I haven't read yet. So where do you come in? Well, I want you to treat me as a complete fantasy newbie. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to pretend that you've just met me. You're welcome. You've just met me and I've never read a fantasy book in my life. What fantasy book or series would you recommend to me? What fantasy book would you want me to read and make a video about? I have my first fantasy series that I'm going to read picked out, which I'll get to in a moment, but I really want your input as well. What do you think is a quintessential fantasy series or book that every fan should read? Let me know. I'm really excited to make a lot more fantasy content going forward. I'll still do horror videos and other stuff, of course. And I promise there'll still be plenty of writing content, but I just want to rediscover my love for this genre because it's been so long. I honestly feel completely new to it, almost. Now, the first fantasy series that I'll be jumping back in with is perhaps one of the first fantasy series that I actually ever read at all. Whether you're familiar with it or not, when I finish this series, I will be doing a long kind of video essay on it. You might remember a while ago, I was making quite a few video essays on this channel, and that was like my favorite content to make. The only reason I stopped is just because it takes so very long and actually was kind of hurting my channel in the long run because I had less content, even if I feel that that content was better. But anyway, I'll be doing video essays on some of these fantasy books in series that I'll be reading or rereading, exploring like everything, the characters, the stories, the worlds. I'm really excited for that. Anyway, the series that I'll be starting with for my dive back in the fantasy will be Del Torre Quest. Del Torre Quest is a really great fantasy series that I read as a kid that goes through almost all the classic beats of a call to adventure quest story. It just feels like a really great start to get back into it. There's great characters that come together to form an unlikely team of heroes. They grow a really strong bond and face down many challenges in the pursuit of stopping a tremendous evil. I know that's vague, but I said I'll do a long video when I finish. OK, I'm really excited. It's going to be a really great year to emotionally detach myself from real life and get way too invested in fictional characters and worlds, further distancing my sense of self from my actual physical, imperial form. I hope you enjoy and I hope you stick around for all of my future reading and writing related content. I would love to chat with you in the comments or in the chat for my next live stream, because I do a few of those as well. Thanks so much for watching, especially if you watch this far in the video. I appreciate you. I'll see you in the next one. Catch ya.