 I was very nervous going into this because a lot of you have told me like this fucking shit but I hate it. I hate it. I hate it so much. And listen, I loved it. I've seen on YouTube across the last couple years is people getting like cameos from celebrities or video requests from celebrities and like making a video out of it. It's of course the all kind of errors of YouTube. This is a thing. And I know I just thought to myself well I could do that. I thought about it and I knew I didn't want it to just be like celebrities or whatever. I wanted a distinct category and if you watch my videos a lot you'll know that I love drag and drag queens and so I thought I'm gonna get drag queens to tell me what their favorite books are. Yes! Yes! So what I've done is I have asked three of my favorite drag queens that were on what their favorite books are. Okay and we're gonna get those videos back. Oh my god I'm so excited and we're gonna see what their favorite books are and then we're gonna read them in this video. We're gonna read drag queens favorite books essentially and I'm just so excited. I'm a bit nervous. I feel like oh my god what if they like I don't know what what if their books are like something I've already read or I don't I don't know. I don't know how it's gonna go but I've asked three of them for the video. So let's just see what the first drag queen said. Okay so we have our first one back. The first one is from Willem. So when I was choosing which drag queens to request Camry is from I wanted to choose ones that are like gonna give us something. Do you know what I mean? That are gonna be funny or just like give us something in the video. You don't want you want to be paying this money for a video and the drag queen just be like hi you know what I mean? You want a little bit of something something. So we've gone for Willem first and I'm honestly scared but let's find out what Willem's favorite book is and what we're gonna be reading I guess. Oh my god I'm so nervous. I'm scared. Are you scared? You should be. Hey Megan you bookish bitch. Can you bookish bitch? Watch the video this time. Okay I wanted to tell you about my favorite books. Yes. They're right here. This first one is called suck less. Where there's a Willem there's a way. It's all about sucking less. How you can fix your vision with balls. I've got to blur that for YouTube oh my god. Pretty things not as pretty as me actually as pretty as me because I'm in here. There's humble brag sections how to get out of a DUI how to cover a cold sore. How to do the right drugs and not fall out. What else? There's Halloween costumes. Ooh I do that. I fit some guy in it so there's lots of instructions. I also support women authors so this is my second favorite book. It's Becoming by Michelle Obama. It was really really good. I didn't know as much about her as I liked and her book I actually liked it better than Brock's. Brock's was great but there were way too many basketball references in it and I was like Brock calm down we get it your mask but um yeah uh I like both of those books. Michelle's has less typo so I will guarantee you that so I hope your pussy's popping severely and if it's not um talk to your doctor. Bye. Bizarre experience of my life. Okay I feel like I'm not like able to talk. I've read Becoming. I have read Becoming by Michelle Obama and I agree I gave her five stars. I absolutely love Becoming by Michelle Obama. I recommend it a lot. I think it's a really interesting book and I do want to reread the audiobook at some point but I don't know. I feel like it's still a bit soon like I feel like in a couple years or so I would like to reread the audiobook. I haven't read Barack Obama's book. I assume William's referring to the Promised Land but actually me and Tom are like it's not my currently reading shelf on Goodreads at the moment because me and Tom are like kind of reading it together a little bit so I don't know if I read that so maybe I should read Willem's book. Suck less. Maybe we'll read that. That'll be fun. I feel like that'll be really really fun so well I guess we're gonna read that for Willem's pick because I've read Becoming but Willem gets a point in a sense because I gave Becoming five stars so I agree. That would if I hadn't read it it would have been a success for this video. Oh my god this is like the first thing I've ever done in my life. Our next video has just come through and this one is from Thorgy Thor. So listen an icon, a legend. I really love Thorgy. One of my favorite memes to use on the channel. Jesus. Gross. Oh Jesus. Gross. And again I just like thought he's gonna give us something. Thought he's gonna give us a good video so I'm nervous but I'm really really excited. Okay let's get into it. Hi! Thorgy Thor here from RuPaul's Drag Race, Susan Ait and All Stars 3, TLC's Dragonificent, Thorgy and the Orchestra Baby and A Million Other Things. Anyway so Megan reached out to me so I'm talking to you Megan and everyone who's listening. So this is a reading vlog so I thought I would talk about a little bit about how crazy I am but also my favorite books that I've been reading recently and the first one is 101 Poe Poems by Dr. Deuce which my nine-year-old nephew gave to me um for Christmas and I'd like to read one for you right now it's called No to Three and here we go one poop is great two poops is fine but three poops I hate it just crosses the line he's nine so whatever but also in all seriousness and on an intellectual level this book has always been my favorite book it's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance I've read it a bunch of times oh my god I can tell this is old I always love how the old pages melt anyway uh but this was just an amazing uh journey that I always followed and always read uh every couple years and uh I hope you enjoy it too so that's gonna be my recommendation and I love you very much also any books by shell silverscene any poems and I love you cheers bye Megan kiss my butt bye so cool I can't get around how cool it's how these videos it's so weird it's so weird anyway oh so listen we had a good poop I remember that okay so I guess I'm gonna be reading what is it the motorcycle book zen I can't remember I've heard the title zen whatever I'll watch it and I'll buy it and I guess we're gonna read that I have I don't know what it's about I just overalls heard people talk about the title but that's obviously a book Thorgy has read and read and read like read and read and read you can tell so I like that makes me nervous like obviously I'm also favorite books but like it makes me so nervous like what if I hate them uh anyway that's another book we're gonna be reading so far we've got suck less and the motorcycle book okay our last one has just come through and this one is from Alexis Reteos so I would say alexa mateu was one of my first like favorite drag queens because I watched the series like in order I did obviously like I think series 2 came out when I was like 10 or some shit not 10 but you know when I was really young so um I didn't watch them at the time but I did watch the series in order when I watched the show to be fair changela and alexa mateu were my favorites on season three but I just I loved alexa's like I loved all her catchphrases like I also I also think she's one of the sweetest like kindest drag queens out there and I feel like she'll have a good book recommendation so I'm really excited to see what she's gonna say so let's watch our final video oh my god I actually feel sick watching these though I feel so nervous okay hello Megan it's me alexa mateu and oh my god I'm so excited I can't wait to see your blog I'm gonna check it out now um thanks but yes let me talk to you about my favorite books first one is the secret of course because I really like um readings that helped me with my personal life okay and that one always explains to you how you can manifest things to the universe in order to get them and how to replace negativities in your brain into positive so yeah the secret is one of my favorite books and of course because I'm latino la llamarada from Enrique la guerra is one of my favorite books ever I read it when I was in high school and I still have it so check it out if you speak Spanish if it's not make sure you get a translator for this one baby anyways I love you keep it cute keep a sick name now bam okay so we have two options there we have the secret and we have what was the other book I think it's called the flare up I think so I'll see if I can find like an English translated version for that and I guess we'll either read both of them or we'll pick one of them I guess we'll see but oh my god okay so let me go away get the books and I'll I'll we'll just talk quickly about what we're gonna read before we actually get into reading the video okay I have gone and secured the goods so we have the books so first I am going to read suck less where there's a willam there's a way I think it's gonna be fun it's like I've got to be careful of what I flip through this because I'm gonna have to blur like the video that will have sent but it's like kind of self-help kind of stuff like covering skin problems okay how to do makeup stuff like that I think it's like a self-helpy kind of book so we're gonna read that then we have I found out what the title was then and the art of motorcycle maintenance by Robert M. Persick I don't really understand what this is I think it's like a self-helpy book but it's fiction it's a story of narrator and his son and their month-long motorcycle odyssey from Minnesota to California and it's like a look at life I think I'm a bit nervous this is like never the kind of book that I would have picked up and it's quite long it's like 400 pages I am really uncomfortable right now and I'm feeling like I want to get up and leave so I'm a bit nervous about reading it I'm a bit scared I don't know I don't know how well me and this is gonna go along so definitely isn't the kind of thing I'd ever pick up but listen Thorgy obviously read this like a billion times for Alexis I could not find her life me an English translation of the flare up I look literally on every bookish website you could imagine and I just couldn't find an English translation anywhere I don't know if it even exists which I'm kind of sad about because it sounds really interesting so we are just gonna read the secret for Alexis's pick and I've always his thing I kind of listened to myself I was never gonna read this because I didn't think it's way of thought necessarily aligned with mine so I'm a bit nervous but yeah I guess we're just gonna we're gonna go ahead and give it a go we're gonna give a go I think I'm actually gonna start with this because it's not very long so I don't feel intimidated by it and I've got the audio book and I'm kind of intrigued as to what I'm actually gonna think of it so we're gonna start with this one and I feel like this one is the most perhaps well-known books have all these so maybe you'll be more interested in what I think I don't know but also can we talk about why why are we all obsessed with self-help books I know I don't like that I can one of you I suppose motorcycle maintenance is fiction but I wanted like do none of you read you like mysteries fantasies horror even romances like why for these celebrity videos do I always always read self help anyways let's let's just go start it okay so I am halfway through the secret and I wasn't I was very nervous going into this because a lot of you have told me like this fucking shit like a lot when I said I was gonna read it a lot of you were like yeah I was really nervous going into it but I don't hate it so basically if you know the secret is essentially the law of attraction so the whole point of this book is telling you you can achieve anything you want if you basically believe you've already achieved it or think positive thoughts whatever and I I think there's some truth to that right like I think there's some truth to if you are thinking positively and are thinking really really focused on your goals then you'll probably are more likely not definitely going to achieve them but you're more likely to achieve them and if you're thinking negatively if you're in a negative headspace if you're anxious about a lot of things that's less likely to happen I know that's true in my own life when you get into certain funks in your mood and there's also then certain times when everything's going great and you feel so lucky and you just feel like you just keep kind of achieving what you would want to achieve but I don't know if I necessarily believe in it in that it's like guaranteed essentially if you like truly truly believe you've already got that car then you're gonna get that car within a certain amount of time but I think you know what I've tried really hard with this book and what I'm still trying to do with when I'm reading it is to not just switch off to it you know because I think with stuff like this if I just go into it with the opportunity that it's entirely bullshit and I don't believe in any of it then it's a waste of my time like what what is genuinely the point of me reading it what is the point of me coming here and vlogging about it if from the beginning I go into it thinking it's mumbo jumbo it's not real it doesn't work like what you know who am I to say that you know and also who am I to really say what I think in this book if I don't put it into practice if I don't try what it's saying because like when I've had problems with other like self help or like spiritual books like the four agreements I didn't really like that much for example I felt like it was just ideas that didn't really amount to much but this is like a way to live your life that kind of suggests you're gonna achieve certain things and who am I to say oh it's bullshit if I don't try that do you know what I mean I don't think I can really say that even if I think certain things about it if I don't actually try to implement it because like otherwise you don't know this could hold the secret alive and I just don't know but I was like reading it I did you know it does feel outdated like there's a whole section of losing weight and it's like you gotta think thin you gotta think thin thought and you can't look at fat people if you see a fat person stop looking at them which is like I mean come on girl I mean it's very 2006 2006 chick films magazines they all had like kind of you know obviously it's a more like spiritual version of that but they all kind of had that attitude but it does have flaws in it in like it says anything that anything bad that happens to you is your fault you you basically bought that onto yourself and in some ways I mean there's in minor parts of that perhaps I do agree with that if you are in a negative headspace consistently I know this I mean I'm only speaking on personally what happens to me if I'm in a negative headspace things start falling apart and it's easier to sit in that negative headspace and break out of it basically but you know when terrible things are happening in the world right now like they are in Ukraine for example like can can you say that that's like you can't say that people have bought that on themselves and all they need to do is picture themselves with money or with or literally believe that they have their house back and it will but it will happen like that's not the way that life works and do I really think the book is trying to say that or if someone's murdered they bought it upon themselves or whatever I don't I mean at least I hope not I hope that's what he's trying to say but it's very easy to bend what they're saying into that because it does say anything negative that happens to you is your fault and I think that is where this book falls apart is is with the yeah the bad things that happen in your life are a direct consequence of your actions and of your thoughts you know and that's just not true when there's so many moving parts in the world and this says like you know when you think the way you do the universe will make that happen or whatever and I just don't agree with that aspect of it but I feel like this book is written for people with fairly safe lives safe lives that they may be feel a bit disillusioned by do I think that this could work people like that probably like I think if you think if you're in that kind of situation where like outside factors aren't necessarily affecting your life in a negative way if you're benefiting from outside factors in your life do I think that thinking positively can work perhaps and do I think in my own life if I were to implement stuff like this and I think well I think if you have belief in yourself which is what this whole book's about in terms of work in terms of life in terms of relationships I think that does have an effect so I think on a personal level yes there are things that you can take away from this but I think the theory as a whole there's some there's aspects of it that take away from it as a whole does that make sense I hope so so I finished the secret and I have I have such mixed feelings about it I have such contradictory feelings about it that I really don't want to say to you also my window is open I hope that's not annoying it's spring it's spring anyway this is a reason to set up here's the thing right this book I think there's a lot about it that is very beneficial on a personal level I think it can really give you that like kick up the arse to think positively to to aspire for what you want believe you can achieve what you want and I think when you are in that headspace things do come more naturally you achieve things your life's better your life's on this kind of flow but I don't know if it's some of its wider ideas are very good I got particularly annoyed when it's talking about like the world section where it talks a lot about war and you know that's obviously very applicable to our current situation in the world it talks about when there's a conflict in the world we shouldn't like talk about it in the news or read about it or like pay attention to it because that feeds that gives the conflict energy and makes it continue on for longer there's certain times you read this and you just think that's a bit of a affluent sheltered view of life you know what I mean in that regard I don't enjoy it but I do think on a personal level it has some teachings in it that are beneficial for people to implement in their life you know the whole thing about losing weight don't look at fat people like it's fucking ridiculous like there's a lot about this work that makes you go like what oh there's this whole bit when talking about attracting money she talks about whenever she got a bill she would like she wouldn't let herself open it until she believed it was a check and she'd like dance and go I'm so thankful for my checks and she'd add an extra zero on to the number and feel like oh I'm so I've got so much money and then she started getting so many checks in the mail out of nowhere and like just stuff like that I was like girl girl girl but I think when it comes to a particularly like attitude towards life for like entrepreneurs and stuff I can see where people who are more self-employed on a bit of like a hustle kind of mindset are into this because I think at its core it does have some valuable insights for the individual person so that's my that's my view on it there's a lot of it about it that annoyed me but there's also a lot about it that I could see the value in so I can see like I feel like this book often people are out here giving it like five stars it changed my life or one stars this is like ridiculous and I gave it three stars and I generally can see both sides and I think both sides are very valid and I can understand both people's opinions so that is my opinion on the secret now I am gonna start suck less by Willem right so I finished suck less I didn't love it I didn't love it and I feel bad I mean Willems A not gonna watch this video and B not gonna care what I think but like I still feel bad because you're really like Willems in this video and I'm like yeah giving it two stars sorry okay here's the thing I think it's a very different reading experience I felt like difficult to separate myself from like being like a booktuber or book reviewer when reading this I think if you're someone who like very rarely reads or is just a fan and doesn't have to have like you know when I'm reading a book I'm constantly thinking like what am I gonna say about this what am I actually thinking about it rather than just having like a passive reading experience and I think that for me is what I didn't enjoy about it and it's like the book was particularly structured well I don't think that's Willems folks Willem isn't like a author I feel like the publishing house wherever the team behind this book I didn't feel like the structure of like this kind of self-help thing actually it didn't continue throughout necessarily it wasn't sustained I feel like I would have much preferred like a memoir or something but this book felt like it constantly like we couldn't be sincere at any point like it was just kind of funny do you know what I mean I also think I mean this whole book I mean Willem is kind of like the dark humor isn't the right word probably but like controversial humor right and this book has that and you're going to expecting it but I just think like reading it isn't the best form to to consume it in and something that I kind of struggled with and kind of actually made me switch off from the book halfway halfway up to that it was Prokka 3.5 I was quite enjoying it and then about the halfway point there's like a lot of chapters kind of joking about eating disorders and like vaguely encouraging them and like yeah explaining like the methodology behind eating disorders and I just felt very uncomfortable reading that and found it like triggering is the right word but you know like it made me uncomfortable and I didn't really want to read it and then from that point onwards I was kind of switched off the book I'm gonna be on this the last like 20 pages I just skimmed it I didn't really read it so if like you're someone who that wouldn't bother go ahead and read it I think if you're a fan of Willem go ahead and read it it's got good reviews but for me that section just like hit enough and then it meant my experience the rest of the book wasn't as good I'm not going to go into detail about what is said because I don't think that's like responsible for me and like you know my audience but um yeah it just made me uncomfortable and it also just felt like very like this book came out in 2016 so it would have been written like 2015 and the problem with like contemporary the contemporary romances have this as well the problem with these kind of books is it is written to be read when it comes out right so the humor I really love humor books but the humor in this was of its time and you can tell that you can I mean like 2015 is seven years ago now I'm getting older I don't know if I can if I want all this drama all the time if I'm being honest do you think 2015 you don't think it's that long ago but that's seven years ago and there is a marked difference as to what humor is in and what humor is out from 2015 to now if that makes sense I will say perhaps I think I would have enjoyed it more had I had the audiobook I just think williams humor you have to like hear said otherwise it doesn't land if it's your own voice in your head saying it so yeah I gave it two stars I'm sorry I'm so sorry I feel really bad I feel really bad but yeah it just wasn't for me and I just found it difficult to reconnect with the book but anyway we're gonna read the final book now which is zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance which I'm scared about I was actually speaking to my patrons about this and they reminded me that Kayla from books and lala gave it one star I completely forgot she'd read it I actually like I'd watch the video where she read it I obviously I didn't really know the book so I think I didn't make the link I just gave it one star so I'm really I'm gonna try and get maybe like halfway through that today I don't really want to spend that long reading it I'd rather just like get out of the way quick I fucking hate it I like could be worse no not really beyond hate it like I was only gonna check in with you halfway through I'm only a hundred pages in I'm already like mm-hmm can't do this can't fucking do this I wasn't even I wasn't expecting to speak to you tonight evidently but genuinely out the window I can't I can't I can't read this I hate it I hate it firstly I don't understand anything anything there is no reading comprehension going on here I'm just reading words at this point like what is the fucking point of this it's pretentious sorry this isn't any shade thorgy don't take this personally don't take this personally so essentially we're following this dude on a motorcycle I fucking is getting me a headache on a motorcycle journey um with some friends I'm with his son and it's kind of the story of their journey alongside some like philosophical life advice essentially and this dude he's like I know the secret to life I know the secret to happiness I understand everything in the world but you fucking idiots don't know a thing you know a thing I get it and I'm the only one is I actually I can't take it I never dnf and especially not for video for not for vlogs right especially when it's a vlog like this which I've been like this vlog I've been gearing up to do for months and I've been so excited to do it and the fact that I'm now like I I generally can't read this we can end this problem right now I don't know what to do you guys I never dnf but like I've been in such a bad reading slam and this is just putting me more into one like I I hate it I hate it I hate the narrator I hate the structure of the story like how we're flitting back and forth between like him talking about putting his motorcycle back together and then some fucking weird philosophical thing that I just don't understand there's a thing I don't read very intellectual things so what do you call this intellectual I don't read intellectual things I don't read classics I don't read like shit like that I'm here for a good time not a long time I think I'm a bit young this is no shade no shade no shade I think I'm a bit young to be reading this like I think this is a kind of book you don't want to read until like your late 20s max because it is this guy who is like is looking back on life and there's like figuring stuff out and I I just can't relate and I my brain is like what the fuck like this this concept is like fake like what the I hate the way he's acting towards his son I just hate the way he talks but I don't want to let you down by not reviewing this book like what the fuck like other people dnf they're like well dnf like it's so easy but like I paid money to to recommend readers but and then I'm like no I'm not reading this shit but I hate it I hate it I hate it so much you've lost me dude you've lost me so I really want to dnf this I just want to I don't want to read it anymore but I feel like I'm failing you in the vlog if I dnf it so I'm gonna I'm gonna get to at least halfway I'm gonna get to at least page 200 so another 200 pages which is actually over halfway and then we'll see but if I'm still not enjoying it by then I think I am just gonna quit and I think you guys can forgive me because I'm in an awful reading slump and I just like need happiness in my life and life's too short you know so I'll see you in the morning I'm gonna try and read the 100 pages tonight so it doesn't bleed into any more of my life I dnf'd it I'm sorry I read like 10 more pages I couldn't do it I couldn't do anymore I'm sorry it's a no from me I just genuinely wasn't understanding anything I wasn't connecting to the book I don't want to talk about it that much more because I I don't like dunking on like a book that obviously has changed people's lives including it's been a big inspiration for Thorgy like I was like oh my god Thorgy I failed you but like it's one thing talking about a fiction book that you didn't like but it's another thing talking about a book that obviously a lot of people you know have taken inspiration from and insight from and I just think I'm generally not in the right place my life be reading this it's not my kind of thing it's just a no from me and like I could feel I'm so deep in a slump right now if I tried to finish this book I would genuinely never read a book again it would be the end of my channel you would never see me again like I can't do it my heart is saying no so it was an act of self-care to not finish this book because I just yeah nope not for me sorry but I felt bad about this right and so I went back on Thorgy's video and at the end Thorgy recommends any poems by oh my god I forgot the name Shell Silverstein and so I went on script I found like a pdf of the giving tree by Shellville Silverstein and listen I loved it I loved it this is like a poem or a children's book and I gave it five stars I loved it I cried this morning when I read it it took me like literally two minutes to read it by the way I counting that which took me two minutes to read towards my Goodreads goal and I'm counting this towards my Goodreads goal I don't care usually when I dnf I don't but what this put me through is a valid you know it's valid I don't care what anyone says anyway they put me through purgatory yeah they put me through hell on this earth anyway back to the giving tree I absolutely loved it it's basically a story of this boy and this tree I love each other and like the tree gives to him and it was just beautiful it just made me cry I think it's a gorgeous you know book for children or people of any age really and I just absolutely loved it so listen Thorgy is out here with a five star and a one star who can have predicted it and to be fair Willem recommended Becoming which was a five star for me as well so although the books I read in this video weren't super successful apart from that little bit of the giving tree at the end which is difficult to talk about because it's literally like 10 pages yeah we had some success in it um I just would really recommend everyone like just go out and read the giving tree or take you two seconds and it's just gorgeous and I really I really want to try more of his poems out um because they kind of all seem to be in that vein it was just absolutely so touching and just so like poignant and just oh it made me cry it made me cry like I was not expecting that I was like let's go read this so listen Thorgy pulled through in the end I just obviously had picked the wrong thing but I hope you guys enjoyed this video let me know down below or you thought of it who your favorite drag queens are there are other drag queens I would love to do this with again in the future if you want to see it um obviously not all my favorite drag queens are on cameo and also some of them listen Shangela the price is too high I can't do it I can't justify it but let me know if there's any people you would like to see on this go on cameo and have a look who's on there and tell me who would you most like to see and keep my my bank account in mind please I really enjoyed doing this video it was so much fun to get those videos like it was absolutely just amazing it was really great like I never imagined I could do something like that but it was really fun to hear them give me book recommendations if you're new here make sure you subscribe down below I upload Tuesdays Thursdays and Sundays with bookish videos and if you go on to this video comment a lipstick emoji um so yeah I'll see you very soon in another video bye