Today’s post is part of the Let’s Talk Bookish weekly meme hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books and Dani @ Literary Lion. Today’s prompt is:
MARCH 12TH: DO YOU RUN A BOOKTUBE? WHY/WHY NOT? (DANI)
I recently started a booktube, as I’ve been longing to for ages and it made me think – if you blog and booktube why do you do both? If you only blog why have you chosen blogging over booktubing? Do you think one format does certain things better than the other? Do you ever want to run a booktube if you don’t already?
I only have a blog and I doubt I will ever have a booktube channel.
So, why did I decide to blog instead of create videos? That’s easy: confidence. Although having spent the best part of a year having to teach via video and audio clips and being much more confident in front of a camera, I do feel very uneasy about recording myself, or even just taking photos of myself, in general. I very very very rarely even take a selfie, and only if it’s for a specific purpose.
Blogging provides me with a degree of anonymity in a way, which is also nice because I get quite uneasy or embarrassed about my creative output. I’m a perfectionist with imposter syndrome and really struggle with not being the best and comparing myself to others. The only people who know me personally, in real life, who know that I blog is one of my book club friends (who blogs and booktubes) and my partner – but I won’t let him read anything! I know this is silly and there really is no judgement, and I know in particular my book club friends would be super supportive, but I’m keeping this to myself for now until I feel ready to share more. It’s seems counterintuitive that I’d be happier to share with stranger on the internet rather than my friends, but I think a few of you will get where I’m coming from.
Another reason is to do with my job – I’m a teacher and therefore I do need to keep my online presence private. While I don’t have a hugely common name, I don’t really like putting my face to it so that I can separate my private and work life. The thought of students finding me rambling on YouTube is terrifying! Also, I spend my whole day talking to (or, mostly, at) people that I don’t really want to spend my free time doing that.
I enjoy blogging because I find my thoughts flow when I’m writing. I haven’t really had to write anything in about 4 years since finishing my degree and PGCE so it’s quite nice to have that outlet. I’m also introverted, so I like being able to have this quiet activity where I can sit and think for a bit.
In general, I don’t really dabble much in booktube. This isn’t because I don’t enjoy it and there isn’t good content on there; it’s more that I don’t really have lots of time, or there are other things I will do with my time instead. I watch the occasional video my friend makes (because she is my friend and I really respect her opinion and warmth on screen), but otherwise I just read blogs!
I really respect people who put themselves on camera to talk about their views, especially because from what I see online many of you also struggle with some of the same things as me so I really applaud you there! Keep on making the amazing content you do.
I’d be really interested to see if any other bloggers have ventured into booktube or not! What are your thoughts?
Mikaela Reads 
Initially the reasons I chose book blogging over booktubing were mostly the same as yours. It’s still really nice to come back to blogging and have that anonymity and be able to write my thoughts. I never really considered the teacher angle, my boyfriend is going into teaching high school and he’ll probably need to be careful as well!
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Thanks for sharing! Same-same! My thoughts flow better when I write. Things go out the windoe when I talk. Also, I imagine I would have to do a million takes if I went on screen. If I was more adept with animation and stuff where my face did not have to be on there, I would possibly consider it…but then I think about the millions if do-overs I would have to do.
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