 Previously on my channel. Should we really be focusing on quantity? My rep hopes are not as big. Quickly read about 10 to 15 books a month. Learning how to not give a fuck. Do I wanted to change the videos I was making? Hey guys, it's Julia and for today's video I'm going to be concluding my booktube rut series. This is basically a collab series where I have gotten other booktubers to contribute to this discussion as well as myself and discussing certain topics starting the booktube community. For the finale, which is this video, I wanted to kind of celebrate more the booktube community and I've been critiquing it a lot in the last two videos, so I wanted to show some appreciation for it because it has done a lot for me personally and for so many other people. Today we're going to be talking about why we love the booktube community and why it's a good community to be a part of and the perks of it and the community aspect of everybody involved and just analyzing some of these strong suits of the community. Some people are joining me to give their thoughts on this topic and yeah I'm super excited about it so let's get right into it. Hi everybody, it is Julie from Pages and Pens and I want to say a huge thank you to Julia for putting together this series of videos. I love having these conversations within our community which is a fantastic tie-in to the first thing that I want to talk about and I think that one of the huge strengths of the booktube community is the discussions that we have with one another. This is not just a platform where we discuss books which is why I originally joined. I just wanted to have people that I could talk about my love of books with but the reason why I stay, the reason why this community is growing the way that it's growing I believe is because of the discussions that we're having on this platform and how incredibly valid and necessary they are. I truly believe that booktube is becoming a lot more influential in the publishing world and I think that we're starting to set a standard for what we expect to see in books in the authors that we're choosing to support, the messages that we're choosing to support and our voices have so much power. You're seeing that in the movies that are starting to come out based on books because people know that the market is there, the community is there, the voices are there that are saying that these are the stories that we want to hear, these are the stories we want to read. I think that it's a really really powerful platform for change. I personally just love reading so if I could just do nothing but continue to read books I would be a very very happy person but the fact that the books that I'm reading and the discussions that I'm having within this community are also bettering the world that we live in is amazing to me. I just think it is one of the most inclusive diverse amazing communities where we're having discussions that are sometimes really hard to have. I think a lot of the times for me personally they're difficult to have as a white cisgender straight woman however I think that there are so many opportunities for me to learn, for me to grow, for everybody to learn, for everybody to grow, for everybody to share what they love. Having been a part of the beauty community and also the booktube community there is the most cross promotion and cross support. There are so many booktubers that I watch that don't read anything close to what I read but I still watch because I genuinely enjoy their personality, their platform, their voice and their message or I'm getting great recommendations from people that I trust and value and I think that the connections that are made here, the friendships that are made here are opportunities to actually go and see one another. I was lucky enough to actually meet Julia at BookCon and it was one of the most amazing highlights of that trip for me. I think that this is providing opportunities for people who are maybe introverted or maybe have social anxieties or anxiety in general or don't have people in real life that read to be able to form connections based off of a really really powerful shared passion. Whether it's bookstagram or book twitter, sometimes messy discussions are being had but important discussions are being had. That's what I consider to be our greatest strength is the support and encouragement that we provide one another and the way that we build one another up. I know that there are people that are in this community that don't feel a part of the community the way that maybe other people do and if that's the case I really do want to encourage you to just say hello. It really is that simple. I have never once commented on a video or on a twitter thread and said hey I would love to talk to you I'd love to be friends can we be besties. I have never had somebody be like yeah no no thanks not interested. If you are by some chance feeling on the outskirts of the community I really do encourage you to say hello to comment. Everybody's here because they want to talk about books so go ahead and say hi we're all here for one common reason and that's a really really powerful unifier and when you're a reader it's so deeply a part of yourself and when you can connect to other people on that deep part of yourself level that's a really really strong and beautiful thing. That is why I am so so thrilled to be a part of Booktube it's why I hope that you are too and if you're considering having a channel and you haven't yet I encourage you to do it and thank you again Julia for putting all of this together and bringing your community even closer by continuing conversations that really do matter. Hey guys my name is Peyton from the channel Peyton Reads and I am here today because Julia kindly asked me to add on to this video so hopefully it goes well. Our topic of discussion is basically the perks of the Booktube community. Sometimes we forget about the positives that Booktube brings to all of us and I think it is really important that we discuss and let people know who are not aware what this community can bring for you. I've been making Booktube videos since 2014 so it's almost five years now and I can truly say that Booktube has been such a huge part of my life and it's made my life so much better. I don't really even know where I would be without this outlet. It's been something like a creative outlet for me and it's been a place for me to go when I didn't know what to do and I've met some of my absolute best friends in the whole world from Booktube and I really wish we lived near each other but that's the fun part about Booktube. It brings you together with people that you probably never would have met but you're brought together because you love books and it's absolutely an amazing thing in my opinion. I don't know if my Booktube friends know it but they really helped me get through some hard times just knowing that I had someone who was kind to talk to. That's probably the number one reason why I love Booktube so much and I continue to be a part of it just because I love talking about books. That was the main reason why I joined Booktube because I watched some Booktube videos and I just couldn't help but want to make my own videos and talk about all the books that I loved and all the books that I was currently reading and getting answers back on what people thought about what I said. It also introduced me to a bunch of people who also liked reading because in my real life or not my real life, just my everyday life, I don't know anyone but a few people who like to read and will talk to me about it. Another amazing thing about the community is it definitely encourages people to read more. When I first found Booktube, I wasn't the biggest reader. I did read but I didn't read as much as I do now and as I continued with Booktube and watching Booktube, I've continued to read more and find more books that I never would have found if I did not have it. I've been introduced to so many new books and that also brings up the topic of how Booktube helps authors. Authors get discovered more often just because we are talking about the books and we have a whole community around it so we are all doing a word of mouth about these books and it in turn helps out the authors who definitely need it. So that's all I got for you today and I will turn it on to whoever's next if I'm last then cool. Bye. Hey everyone, my name is Zariah Rose and my channel is my name Zariah Rose and I am so grateful for Julia allowing me to be in this video. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. This video is so special to me because it is about a topic that is special to me which is Booktube and Booktube is wonderful for so many reasons and while we all know that the community isn't without flaws and nothing can be completely perfect, overall it is such a wonderful corner of the internet and I truly take so much pride in it. I think one of the incredible things about Booktube is that when you actually reach out to people, they usually respond and it's so easy to make friends here. It's so easy to find new people to talk to. The more you reach out, the more people will reach out to you, so you really get what you give and it's a great community in that sense. But one of my all-time favorite things about joining Booktube is just back to the basics. It may sound really simple but one of my favorite things about being in the bookish community is how much more it has helped me read. I have found so many incredible book recommendations through being in the bookish community and through seeing what other people are talking about and through wanting to be able to join in the discussion and through finding people ranting and raving and just gushing about their favorite books. I have grown a TBR that could devour the world with its size and I'm not even mad about it. I am so excited that I have so many more books to look forward to and to read and that I have guidance from so many people that I know enjoy similar things as me. But in addition to that, I have just consumed so many more books than I used to because I prioritized reading more. Now that my hobby for reading like also ties in with YouTube and creating content and I create content on Instagram and YouTube for books, it has really pushed me to keep up on my reading and to push myself as a reader and reading also goes hand in hand with writing. So all of those things have motivated me to read so much more and like for example in 2018 I'll have read a hundred books in the year and that is an all-time record for me and while it goes without saying that reading is never a competition, it's not about how much you read, it's about what you enjoy and what you're getting out of it and what works for you, for me to see how much I've grown as a reader and how much more I read every year and that I'm finding a pace that is my personal best and something that I've just been enjoying so much and discovering so many new authors and stories and topics, not to mention every single month. My wrap-up has become more and more diverse, not just in diverses in the sense of LGBTQ and people of color and women of color, although that is part of it, but I also read more diverse genres. I include manga, I read adults, I read nonfiction, I read young adult, I read contemporary, I read fantasy, I read audiobooks, I read graphic novels and I have been exposed to so many more different kinds of books and genres than I would have ever tried if I had not found booktube and been exposed to so many wonderful recommendations and ventured out of my box and also experimented for my own channel and it's been so wonderful, I learned a lot about myself, I made a lot of wonderful friends and most of all I have really just celebrated my love of reading and just got to enjoy my passion and that is why I love the booktube and the bookish community so much. Thank you guys for letting me talk to you for a second and thanks for letting me be part of this video, hopefully it wasn't way too long. Some of you guys said you want to see more of my opinions as well as other people, so I will be sure to do that. This is my cat in the background, hey buddy, hey buddy, he's so cute. So I personally love the booktube community because no matter what your channel size is, you're always going to be included, that's at least what I feel. No matter how many subscribers I had when I first started, I was always accepted by other community members, I was always included in discussions, I felt like I was always belonging in a sense. Belonging is not my number one goal, I really don't care that much about belonging but it's great to feel like I'm a part of something and that's what I feel in the booktube community and it's great to feel like I can contribute to discussions and that I'm a voice in the community and that people value my opinions and my thoughts and look forward to my videos. That's something that is kind of mind-blowing to me is that people sit around, not sit around and look forward to them, but some people look forward to them and that just means a lot to me. So there's many strong suits of the community such as the community aspect, it's a very welcoming community. I know many people search randomly like the booktube newbie tag to welcome new booktubers into the community which is really great. Part of it because I came from, I did beauty videos and lifestyle videos for a little bit before I found booktube and then I became a part of this community and the transition was like so like my channel wouldn't have gotten where it is if I didn't make that transition and I didn't find what I truly love to make videos about and what I truly love to talk about. Love to hear your personal opinions and I love reading through the comments of the feedback. I just wanted to also say thank you for the love that the first two parts of the series have gotten. It makes me really happy and I'm so glad that you guys have been finding more channels and how the discussion has become more open and things like that. So so I will see you guys all super soon with a new video. Bye!