Reading YouTubers Book Recommendations | TBR Games [CC]

00:02 - Today, I am starting my February secret tbr.

00:06 - And I am going to be reading YouTuber Book Recommendations.

00:10 - [typing on a keyboard] [mouse click] Now, I’ve been wanting to do this.

00:17 - But the YouTuber’s that I watch outside of Booktube, don’t talk about books very often.

00:21 - So, I scrapped that idea until I was watching one of my favorite commentary YouTuber’s, Eddy Burback.

00:29 - He made a video on Timmy The Tooth who I thought was just a figment of my imagination? But, is actually real.

00:36 - That was a real thing that I actually watched.

00:38 - Eddy: The library is a beacon of knowledge where kids can find their love of reading and I didn’t give a shit about any of that because they rented VHS tapes out.

00:48 - Eddy: Books? Mom, you want me to read books? I’m five! I wanna watch a tooth puppet on TV! In that video, he was sponsored by Audible and he had a segment where he recommended a book he was reading which was Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

01:06 - And that’s when it hit me! So, I searched for hours and weeks trying to find which YouTuber’s had been sponsored by Audible and if they gave a good book recommendation or not.

01:17 - And I found some videos from 2018 and here is what I came up with.

01:22 - I compiled a pretty long list. So, if you like this video, I will definitely do a part two Because this is one of my favorite ideas I’ve come up with.

01:31 - In this video, I’ll be reading four books. And I’ll just tell you them really quick.

01:36 - In my February TBR, I gave you a hint which was Born a Crime by Trevor Noah And this is for the Woody’s Round Up Readathon and the challenge was To read a book that someone else recommended you.

01:46 - [crickets chirping] No one guessed anything.

01:47 - So, I guess you were really as stumped as I thought you would be.

01:50 - I shared this on Instagram and a lot of people said it’s really good.

01:54 - So, I really am excited and the YouTuber I picked for this.

01:59 - In their video, they also said that they really love this book.

02:02 - And it’s a good one. So, I trust everybody’s judgment.

02:05 - And for some YouTuber inception, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green.

02:09 - The Answer Is… by Alex Trebek and Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng.

02:15 - I am so excited to read all of these books.

02:18 - The first book I’ll be reading is Born a Crime by Trevor Noah and I started a little bit of it.

02:22 - And this is Corey’s book recommendation!! I was looking this up and I was like, maybe Corey had an Audible sponsorship? I’m not sure? I know most of his videos weren’t sponsored.

02:33 - But, I was so happy when I saw that Corey had an Audible sponsorship! And recommended this book.

02:40 - I was in a shop that sells used books and this book was there.

02:43 - And it just felt like fate, that I should do this.

02:46 - Corey is one of my favorite content creators who sadly passed away in May.

02:49 - And I have been going through that and also trying to keep his legacy alive.

02:53 - And I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to do so.

02:57 - So, when I saw that he had an Audible sponsorship in one of his videos, I just knew it was fate.

03:02 - I had to do this! And let’s see what he had to say about the book.

03:07 - Corey: I’ve been listening to a lot of audiobooks lately Corey: and also Trevor Noah is one of my comedian favorites.

03:11 - I’ve been listening to his book, Born a Crime and it’s helping me a lot with my comedy relief in my videos.

03:17 - Go listen to an audiobook by him. It’s amazing! Corey said that this is such a good book So, I trust him.

03:23 - Um he is someone that I was really inspired by for YouTube videos.

03:28 - One of my favorite Corey videos is “Camping in our Best Friends Room” and it is just so funny.

03:35 - I watch this all the time and it inspired me to do a video like that where I tried to do an overnight in a book fort in my room.

03:42 - So, I’ll have that up here, if you would like to see it.

03:45 - I like that video. It’s funny and I read Snapdragon in that video.

03:48 - It’s a fun one. I like it. So, I wanted to start out the video reading Corey’s recommendation which is Born a Crime by Trevor Noah and I think it’s the shortest one on my tbr? So, that’s why I started it.

03:58 - But, I’m very excited. This is Trevor Noah’s memoir.

04:01 - He’s a comedian and I don’t really know too much about him? So I’m excited to read this.

04:06 - I started some of it. So, I will get back to reading it today but I just wanted to intro this video and of course, I’m going to read it while I am repping my boy and his Under Appreciated shirt.

04:18 - So I’m gonna go and read some more of this and I will update you when I’m at the halfway point.

04:22 - [Music] Hello, friends. It is Thursday and I have finished Born a Crime by Trevor Noah.

05:07 - Today was a snow day so I got a lot of reading done.

05:11 - Bre from the Loc’D Booktician was running sprints for like seven hours.

05:16 - So, I got this book finished during that time and I really enjoyed it! Corey coming through with the good recommendation! I’m giving it a 4 out of 5 stars.

05:26 - It is all about Trevor and his life growing up in South Africa.

05:30 - Trevor was born in South Africa in 1984 during apartheid which was a time of segregation.

05:35 - Trevor’s mother is black and his father is white and Swiss and he talks about how he never got to see his father because it was illegal for a black woman to have a baby with a white man and it just talks about segregation and how he didn’t really have a relationship with his dad because of that.

05:50 - It talks a lot about abuse. There’s a lot of severe trigger warnings which I was so shocked by just because it says that it is adapted for young readers and on chapter 17, it is all about shooting.

06:04 - There’s a lot of blood and there’s a very traumatic experience in that scene.

06:09 - Overall, I really enjoyed it but I would say to look out for the trigger warnings and especially chapter 17 is very heavy to read.

06:16 - My one complaint is that I just wish I had more? I really wanted to know more about how he became a comedian.

06:23 - It talks about how religious his mother was um there’s a lot of funny instances of him in childhood but for the most part it’s a very heavy read but very educational as well.

06:34 - I really enjoyed it. I wanted to know more of his life and how he became a comedian because as he has grown up from poverty.

06:42 - I really love stories of resilience and I’m just curious of how he became a comedian.

06:48 - Um because it’s all talk about like mechanics and how he had a business where he did DJing and then there’s really nothing more about like the second half of his life.

06:58 - So, I just wanted that. I don’t know if that’s in the original version? because this is adapted for young adults but I wanted to write another book because I just want to know more about him.

07:09 - I did go and watch some of his clips of The Daily Show and loved them and I’m gonna keep watching him. I really enjoyed this.

07:16 - I think if you like Trevor Noah you’ll enjoy this and it’s very educational.

07:19 - It was interesting to learn about apartheid.

07:21 - It was something that I had never known about and I really enjoyed it.

07:25 - So, I would recommend it but do look out for the trigger warnings which I will have down below.

07:30 - Corey had a great recommendation! I knew I could trust him! And on to the next YouTuber that gave me a recommendation.

07:37 - The next recommendation comes from one of my favorite commentary channels, Jarvis Johnson! I love Jarvis and if you’re not watching him already like what are you doing? I found him in 2020 and I am just in love with his content.

07:51 - He is best known for High School Musical. He’s known for like the Troom Troom videos but he has a really great video on Smart House.

07:59 - I love that. I just love his channel and I wish more people would watch him.

08:03 - He hit a million subscribers but I think he just deserves more.

08:07 - Like he should have like a hundred million because he’s just that fantastic.

08:11 - And he recommended An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green.

08:16 - YouTuber Inception! I actually started some of this. I think in 2020? But I just never got around to finishing it.

08:23 - I had a library copy and I had to return it and then I got my brother this for Christmas one year when I had books control what I bought which I will have up here.

08:33 - If you haven’t watched it. But I actually ended up reading some of this.

08:36 - I really enjoyed it and I’ll have Jarvis pitch you the book.

08:39 - Jarvis - I recently just finished up An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green.

08:42 - Jarvis - I don’t want to spoil too much but it’s a sci-fi mystery about a girl who essentially becomes a viral YouTube star overnight.

08:50 - Jarvis - Can’t relate. Jarvis - I highly recommend it.

08:52 - On the topic of audiobooks, I had an audiobook for Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng.

08:59 - But my library on Libby just told me that it’s expired? Even though it has had like 10 days? On Saturday I get my Libro FM credit so hopefully I’ll be able to get the audio book through that? But I can also get the audio book for the Alex Trebek book.

09:13 - So that’s cool. But I wish I could have had an audiobook for all of these because I am a slow reader and I think it would just be better if I had all the audio books but I’m going to read it physically because that’s what I have available to me.

09:26 - So I’m going to go and read this per Jarvis’ recommendation.

09:30 - I trust him as much as I have trusted Corey.

09:32 - So I am hoping I enjoy this. I know it’s a really great book and it’s beloved by a lot of my friends.

09:38 - I don’t really watch Hank that much but I know of him.

09:41 - I’ve watched this content. I like him and John.

09:43 - So, I’m excited to read this. When I did start it, I really enjoyed it.

09:46 - So, I’m excited to get back into it and I will update you when I’m at the halfway point.

09:50 - [Music playing] The audiobook gods are with me because the unexpected just happened.

10:00 - I got my iPad out because I was going to go on Tik Tok and then my Libby app gave me a notification for this.

10:09 - Jarvis – Audiobook! That is the audiobook for An Absolutely Remarkable Thing.

10:13 - The book I’m currently reading! Now, I have the audiobook and I’m gonna read that shit and it’s gonna be a great time.

10:20 - I started it physically but I am just so happy! This was so amazing that I got that notification on my iPad and I am gonna go and read that right now (laughing) [Music] Later.

12:03 - Hello, I have successfully finished An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green giving it a five star.

12:10 - This was such a great book. It was phenomenal.

12:13 - I loved every minute of it. It was a very fun book.

12:16 - I haven’t read a fun, action-packed book in a while and I could see a lot of similarities to the reason why Jarvis picked this.

12:24 - Jarvis has a degree in computer science. This is science fiction and there are some elements in the book that had me think of Jarvis while I was reading it.

12:34 - But also it feels very much like a Hank Green book and I need the sequel ASAP.

12:39 - I am so obsessed with this and it is probably going to be one of my best books of the year and I understand the hype now.

12:48 - April is very much an unlikable character. She grows fame very quickly and goes viral and I loved the conversation of that.

12:57 - It talks about a young person going viral and how the fame can affect them and I thought it was so well done.

13:04 - April is bisexual. So, I will leave own voices reviews down below from bisexual reviewers.

13:09 - I just really enjoyed this. It was so fun the audiobook was incredible and this was just a really action-packed book and I had so much fun reading it.

13:18 - So, let’s move on to the final two books I’m going to be reading.

13:22 - I’m currently reading Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng which was recommended to me by Connor Franta.

13:27 - I’ve been watching Connor Franta for the duration of his YouTube career.

13:31 - I really enjoy him. I met him at BookCon once I was walking in New York with my friends.

13:37 - Connor walked down the street and I said, “Hi, Connor” and he said hi.

13:41 - Highlight of my life! I really enjoy his work.

13:44 - He has two books and my favorite is Note To Self.

13:47 - It’s one of my favorite books ever. I really enjoy it.

13:50 - So, Connor recommended Little Fires Everywhere and I’m going to let him pitch you the book.

13:56 - Connor- This week, I want to recommend you guys a book that I really recently finished listening to called Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng.

14:02 - Connor – I live in Los Angeles so I’m in the car a lot and I travel a lot.

14:05 - Connor - So, I’m in planes a lot. So, I find that audiobooks are super convenient and really enjoyable.

14:10 - Connor - Little Fires Everywhere was such a good book! Connor - It follows these basically two families in this little town.

14:16 - One family just moves to the town and the other family already exists there.

14:19 - The families relationships start intertwining and as the book goes on.

14:24 - Little things start happening in each person’s life and everything starts to cross over and the last 50 pages of the book.

14:31 - Let me tell you! The last 50 pages of the book had me on edge.

14:35 - So I’m on chapter five of Little Fires Everywhere.

14:38 - I don’t really know how to feel about it yet? I’m enjoying it but I don’t really have any concrete thoughts to say I like this um because we’re just getting introduced to the characters and I also have the audio book because I actually ended up getting it on Libby.

14:53 - I was really happy about that. So I’m excited to go back into reading the book.

14:56 - I’m enjoying getting to know the characters.

14:58 - I love character-driven books. I love dialogue.

15:01 - We’re really just getting to know the town of Shaker Heights and the characters.

15:04 - So we’re getting to know the family that is poor and the family that is like a white privilege wealthy family Um and I’m really enjoying it so far.

15:15 - I don’t really have any other thoughts, so I’m going to go and read and I will update you at the halfway point.

15:20 - [Music] Hello, it is Friday, February 26 and I have finished Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng Giving it a four star.

15:53 - I enjoyed it. I love books that are character driven and I love a book that wraps up at the end and comes full circle.

16:01 - So I would have given it a five but it was just really slow and I believe that that’s probably just the genre of literary fiction? It reminded me a little bit of Beartown.

16:11 - I’m not sure if Beartown is considered literary fiction? It reminded me of Beartown just in the way that it was paced and just kind of like the similarity of like it being set in a town of like a suburban town with like stuck up white people basically.

16:27 - But I just really enjoyed it. I love books that are character driven.

16:31 - My favorite character is Mia. She’s awesome and I just enjoyed all of the characters.

16:37 - They all had their own personalities. I will preface that this book talks a lot about pregnancy.

16:41 - So, if that is a subject that you can’t read, I don’t suggest you to read it because it’s a lot of the book.

16:48 - It follows families. There’s two that are like the main families but there’s also other ones like intertwined.

16:54 - We are following a case of a Chinese baby that was taken from a fire station and the birth mother is trying to get custody of the baby but the white family that took her thinks that they deserve custody and it’s a whole custody battle and it is just suburban drama.

17:12 - But it’s way more than that. There’s a lot of other dynamics in this book which I really enjoyed.

17:17 - Like I said I love character-driven books. The only problem for me was just that it was very slow and so I wasn’t really connected at the beginning but now I understand why everyone really enjoys this book.

17:29 - And so I can say I trust Connor’s recommendation as I enjoyed this book.

17:34 - And now for the last and final book of this video.

17:39 - This is why I don’t do four books in a video because then I’m tired.

17:42 - But I wanna read this book! So, the last book in this video is The Answer Is by Alex Trebek.

17:49 - This is his memoir and this was recommended by Kurtis – [Beep] and this was recommended by Kurtis Conner.

17:56 - Kurtis is one of my favorite comedians. Most of my humor comes from him.

18:00 - Um I just really enjoy him. I listen to his podcast, Very Really Good.

18:04 - It’s my favorite thing and I realized I forgot to say for Jarvis! I found Jarvis through his Sad Boyz podcast! It is the best podcast.

18:14 - It is two men talking openly about mental health and being on YouTube and just as a creator it is so relatable but also I just love men talking about mental health.

18:25 - It is one of my favorite podcasts. So if you’re looking for a podcast, highly recommend that one and I recommend Kurtis’s as well.

18:32 - I love it. it’s funny. Kurtis is really great.

18:35 - I love him and I did see one of his stand-up sets and it was awesome.

18:38 - I had such a good time. I just really enjoy him.

18:41 - I enjoy his content and so he recommended The Answer Is by Alex Trebek and I’ll have you pitch it to him. What? [Static] It has not been a good month.

18:50 - It has been a tiring month. So Kurtis recommended, The Answer Is by Alex Trebek and I’ll have him pitch it to you.

18:57 - I almost said - I almost said it. Kurtis - I decided to use my Audible credit this month to get Alex Trebek’s memoir entitled The Answer Is.

19:04 - Kurtis -It’s actually narrated by Alex Trebek and Ken Jennings. [Static] I’m excited to read this.

19:09 - I was really sad hearing the passing of Alex Trebek.

19:12 - So, I’m excited to read his memoir and close out this video because I’m tired.

19:18 - This has been a long month, even though it’s the shortest month.

19:21 - It has felt like the longest month and I’m tired but I’m having a good time! Like I would end the video and be like I’m not gonna read this, but I want to and this is all my own actions.

19:31 - So gonna go and read the book and then wrap up this video [Music] Hello, it is the last day of the month and I am halfway through Alex Trebek’s memoir.

19:56 - Hoping to finish it in a couple hours. I’m really enjoying it.

20:00 - It’s a fascinating book. I’ve always liked Jeopardy! I’ve never been like religiously watching it, but Alex Trebek is definitely a public figure that I have followed and just hearing about his life is really interesting.

20:14 - Um he’s been through a lot. It’s really funny.

20:17 - He curses in this book. It is so funny.

20:20 - The first chapter he says tough shit and it is amazing.

20:25 - Um he said a lot of other curse words. I’ve been laughing.

20:28 - It’s funny! Just reading about how he got his start on Jeopardy! is really interesting.

20:33 - My degree is in like media business, so I know a lot about the ins and outs of like TV Business.

20:40 - So just learning about how Jeopardy! got on air and has stayed on air ever since is really fascinating and interesting to me um I just really like learning about the business of TV.

20:51 - So, I am really enjoying this. I just got to a chapter where he talks about global warming.

20:57 - This was published in 2020 and it does talk about COVID, so, I imagine that they got this book done pretty quickly before the passing of Alex Trebek and it’s just an interesting book.

21:09 - I like it and it does remind me of Kurtis. Kurtis does talk on his podcast about how much he loved Alex Trebek.

21:15 - [Static] Kurtis - I felt like I lost like a like a like like someone in my family.

21:20 - Kurtis - It’s weird you know because I was - I would I grew up watching him every night on Jeopardy! with my grandparents.

21:28 - Kurtis - I think I cried because I thought of like my great-grandparents that’s who I watched Jeopardy! with.

21:36 - Kurtis -Um so I was like man, maybe they’re hanging out, you know? Kurtis -Maybe, they’re hanging out somewhere? In the afterlife? You know? in heaven hopefully or in another dimension or floating around maybe they’re uh hanging out shooting the shit and my uh my grandma my great-grandmother can finally yell at him for making the questions too hard (laughing) uh I think that’s what made me cry because I just thought about them.

22:06 - [Static] I didn’t know Alex Trebek was Canadian.

22:09 - Kurtis is also Canadian if you don’t know him.

22:12 - Um so yeah this is just interesting learning some fun facts about Alex Trebek that I didn’t know about.

22:18 - He also talks a lot about his white privilege and he also talks about how global warming is real and how basically we’re gonna be fucked because no one really takes climate change or global warming seriously and I really like it.

22:32 - Learning about game shows is just interesting to me I had like a class before in college where someone came in talking about game shows and it was just so fascinating.

22:42 - Many game shows don’t air for a long time. The lifespan of a game show is six months to a year.

22:49 - So it’s really good if a game show does get more than one season.

22:52 - But it’s really rare to have a game show that is on for more than one season.

22:57 - Um there’s a lot upcoming but I also feel like it’s streaming because of streaming no one really watches game shows? I mean, I don’t.

23:06 - Jeopardy! is on Netflix and all now. Um but I really only watch like Food Network competitions.

23:12 - So, I’m excited to get back into this book and learn more about Alex Trebek and wrap up this video.

23:17 - So I’m gonna go and read. Finish up the book and then I will come back with my final thoughts [Music] [Clapping] Folks! I did it.

23:37 - I finished the video. I finished the last and final book.

23:40 - I’m going to be giving this a 4. 5 out of 5 stars.

23:44 - I really enjoyed it. I liked learning more about Alex Trebek’s life and just learning about Jeopardy! He talks more about the behind the scenes of it which was really interesting and I just liked getting insight into his life.

23:57 - It was fun. I’m not gonna give this a full five stars just because I think the editing could have been better.

24:02 - There were some questionable things in this book that could have been edited.

24:05 - But other than that it’s really good. I like that he talks about cancer.

24:09 - At the end, he talks about his diagnosis and why he kind of regretted talking about it publicly because when people talk about their disabilities they’re then deemed inspirational and like the spokesperson for that when they’re just going through it and I really enjoyed that he talked about that because he was like, “I’m not inspirational I am going through a lot of shit” and he doesn’t want to be the spokesperson for pancreatic cancer because he’s going through it! So, I really like the conversation about that.

24:37 - He also talks about some of his favorite contestants which was fun.

24:40 - He also talks about how it became really hard for him to keep filming episodes of Jeopardy! He would have really bad pain and not even be able to walk and he said it would be really hard but just because he loved the show so much and he loved his job. He didn’t want to just retire.

24:55 - I just really liked his whole conversation about cancer and depression and how we treat people with disabilities as inspiration and it’s really ableist and so I like that he did have a chapter on that and he’s just very blunt.

25:07 - I really enjoyed it. I would say if you’re a fan of Alex Trebek just like Kurtis you will like this.

25:12 - I totally understand now why he recommended this book.

25:15 - I enjoyed it and that is the last book of this video.

25:19 - So, let’s just wrap it up really quick so I can go and edit this.

25:23 - We have Corey’s recommendation which was Born a Crime by Trevor Noah which I gave a 4 out of 5 stars.

25:28 - Jarvis’s recommendation An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green which I gave a five star.

25:32 - Connor’s recommendation: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng.

25:35 - I gave a 4 out of 5 stars and Kurtis’s recommendation: The Answer is by Alex Trebek.

25:40 - I gave it 4 out of 5 stars. So, those are all the books that I read in this video where YouTubers gave me book recommendations.

25:46 - If you want a part 2 give this video a thumbs up or leave a comment down below letting me know if you want a part 2 and you enjoyed this.

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26:13 - Thank you all for watching. I hope you’re all having a great day and staying safe and I will see you next time. Bye! [Music].