What does /lit/ think of this dude?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR89dGBPJbQ
he's pretty ok. very superficial however and acts a little too much for my taste.
Couldn't even finish the video.
>>7379382
I kinda agree. I can't really say he's any better or worse than other "booktubers" because god knows I can't even get through one of their videos before I get bored either of their presentation or material.
On the whole, I think video reviews of books are difficult to pull off just by the nature of the format. Most reviewers will give a brief summary of the plot, give some long-winded or blathering opinion about how they "felt" about it and call this "insight" or "analysis," and garnish it with some kind of shtick or act.
That being said, there is one book reviewer I like, and I follow her on her blog as well as watching her videos and listening to her podcasts. She's pleasantly bland, her opinions aren't try-hard or divisive, she's reasonably well-connected with the literary world, and her voice isn't god-awful. What more can you ask for?
>>7379461
who is it mate?
>>7379471
Sorry, I don't want her to get Katie'd.
>>7379376
The only booktuber I enjoy listening to, reviews some less known books, has a taste for edgy macabre shit. Better than any other booktuber I've seen, but found him by chance (through searching Michael Gira on YT) so I don't really know if there's actually noone better.
But he helped me find some cool books and that's all I've ever asked for.
>>7379376
I like him. Although I disagree with him sometimes, I still appreciate his efforts.
>>7379376
I'd probably like him more if he were a little uglier. I also don't care much for his dramatic silences. Otherwise he's one of the best out there.
just discovered him the other day. he's alright. in one of his videos he said he was in his mid-twenties which surprised me. I would guess the dude was approaching 40.
>>7379591
...He definitely looks mid-twenties, though.
>>7379663
I'd say he was 30-35.
>>7379663
Well to be fair I saw a different video in which he looks quite different.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IBT9FkruS0
I think it's the haircut
>>7379503
god, you massive pussy no wonder you watch book reviews instead of just reading published articles/essays on them.
>>7379695
Okay, that's fair. He looks pretty old in that
>>7379703
Sometimes you just gotta listen to a pretty girl talk about Beckett and Markson.
I like his reviews most of the time. His 2666 review got me to read Bolano, and I think he's the person who will finally convince me to read Gaddis.
His videos serve absolutely no purpose except to promote his own personality and thereby turn it into a profitable brand. He's not even offering a product. By his own admission, he doesn't review or criticize or analyse, he just talks about books he likes. And because he is a mediocrity without any insight (nor, most likely, sincerity or integrity), this translates less to Nabokov discussing Flaubert or DeLillo on Beckett, and more to some guy reciting plot points and listing off adjectives describing the prose, but with "passion" (acting) and "charisma" (Standard Youtuber "Hey guys!" Personality). There might've been one reason to watch his videos, or rather explanation for why you might, if he was entertaining, even if it's in a way irrelevant to the supposed subject, but he doesn't manage that either, as he mercifully demonstrates at the start of his videos with his little skits, giving the viewer a hint to the total lack of value of his presentation right away.
Nevertheless, people are watching, liking and apparently donating to him, despite the fact that there's NOTHING to gain from and NOTHING being offered by his videos if you take your own cursory look at the books, any proper discussion of them or even their Wikipedia pages, and therein is the reason people are watching - because they don't read. They like the hum of this nothing in their ears because their brain registers it as a satisfactory status symbol, and the status they desire is "reader".
Obviously the dad death video is fake, but the fact that people who believed it responded to it in any other way than to call him a tacky weirdo and walk away speaks volumes to the market he's aiming for. If you believe it or anything about what he's presenting is sincere, holy shit: his dad dies, and he makes a youtube video about it the next day, a video full of wide-eyed (but not actually teary) staring into space and long artful pauses, along with a guitar solo, and then puts a sad stylized title on it, and a sad (posed) thumbnail of him looking away solemnly, like a reptilian trying to evoke humanity, trying to garner sympathy, because the reptilian knows that empathy, emotional reciprocation, is the most effective way to get a fanbase to invest in your persona.
Now please, Cliff, would you stop shilling and fuck off.
>>7380103
>Obviously the dad death video is fake
It is not outside the realm of possibility, but...what? Why?
>>7380103
/thread
>>7379376
Definitely my favorite booktuber
>>7380103
i agree with you but you describe what people use youtube for, they don't want to use their brains it's the new TV.
>>7379517
The silences are one of the appealing things to me.
>>7380103
Wow, you sound jealous and I don't even care for the guy.
>>7379966
you mean 26?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXo3nZIpSNU
>>7379966
he is 26
>>7380103
He is pretty narcissistic, obviously. I also found it pretty disturbing to think that after he dad died he makes a video to youtube, edits afterwards (imagine how painful must be to make something like that, I would be able, just too embarrassing, he must be SO FUCKING narcissistic), post and comment afterwards.
The 'reviews' are pretty shallow, but at least he is talking about good books so that is way he is getting so much attention on /lit/.
