I recently put out a call to various people and groups on Twitter for recommendations for booktubers. Booktubers, contrary to what you may think, are not literary rhizomes. Now that I have that root vegetable joke out of my system, here we go.

There are multitudes of perky bookworms on YouTube talking to the camera about books that they have read, books that they intend to read, books that they have on their bookshelves (and how they are organised), and challenging each other to impossible questions (Only read your favourite twenty books or only read new books for the rest of your life? Whut!?).

In the style of the genre, here is a list of them in no particular order and with no consideration for continuity or respiration:

The Little Book Owl reviews a range of books but mainly talks about books for older readers. Check out her tips for overcoming reading slumps – another common booktube topic. Kellie’s Reads is a fun channel that covers, well, what Kellie reads. Love the jingle. Watch her review of The 5th Wave here. Books with Dylan is another Australian YA booktuber. His channel covers the regular stuff and Dylan is handy with the camera and soundtrack too so there is some interesting non-bookhaul/TBR/shelf tour stuff as well (like this bookshop tour and this…ummm….shelf art?). Kat from Katytastic seems to have an accent but then, so does everyone from the internet so who knows where she is from. Watch this funny video on the stages of book grief. Classic. Raeleen (AKA padfootandprongs07) talks really quickly and works in a bookshop so she knows her stuff. April (Aprilius Maximus)’s favourite book of all time is Jane Eyre. Solid choice. Michelle (Lovely Girl Reads) doesn’t seem to be posting anymore (none for months) but her channel led me to A Zombie Book Tuber. Check out this chocolate themed post. Which led me to Becca the Book Reviewer (slaying that series here). If you want to get shouted at by someone with way too much energy (and why wouldn’t you?), you can’t go past Xtine (polandbananasBOOKS). She has been at it for a really long time. Sasha Alsberg makes abookutopia. See what 14yo her thought of Girl Online by Zoe Sugg here. booksandquills covers gothic novels here including the spooky The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which can allegedly be read in 53 minutes (and she didn’t like, find out why). Love triangles, dystopia and lethal touches in this video on guilty pleasures from PeruseProject. And Bookish Thoughts, jessethereader, emmabooks and last but not least Tiernan Bertrand-Essington (AKA The Book Tuber) who doesn’t just review books but also gets to chat to authors like David Levithan, Ransom Riggs and Rick Riordan!).

CyberSafety WARNING: If you are thinking of getting into booktubing, consider your privacy settings carefully. There are heaps of people trolling around the internet looking for someone to upset. And being told by a stranger that they don’t like your hair (or worse) might be the last thing you need when you just want to let people know which books you like.