Hi there my name is Ceri and welcome to my
brand new Booktube channel. I'm quite excited.
I've been filming a couple of videos today
that I'm going to upload for you soon and
I'm really looking forward to getting involved
in this community and be chatting about books
to some new people. So I'm going to go with
tradition and start off with the Booktube
Newbie Tag which I believe most people do
when they start a Booktube channel. If I'm
looking down it's because I've got some notes
written in my lovely little notebook here.
So the first question is: Why did you start
this channel?
So I had various reasons, the first one being:
I recently finished a Masters course, I actually
had my graduation yesterday and I was studying
part-time alongside working. Since finishing
that course I've sort of been a bit at a loss
for what to do with my free time so I thought
- why not take up a new hobby and start a
Booktube channel? I'm hoping that this will
give me a bit of a creativity boost. I like
to, or at least I used to do a lot of writing,
but I was really sapped by doing my final
project which was a 15000 word dissertation.
Since finishing my course I've not really
got back into writing for fun. So I'm hoping
that by finding another creative outlet it
will help me get myself back into doing some
more writing as well. I have a blog which
is www.mayibethemoon.com, which as I say I
haven't really updated much this year. But
if I talk about it on Booktube then I will
feel obliged to actually post something on
there so that's another reason. I also have
a couple of novels that I've been working
on for a number of years and I really just
want to get a shift on and get some stuff
produced for them. So this may be a bit of
an Authortube channel if I can get into the
flow of writing again. And the third and final
reason was that I had quite a bookish month
in June. I read quite a lot of books, and
I'll be posting a wrap-up for that soon. I
also had a bit of a sort out and did an unhaul,
again I've filmed a video for that and that
will be posted soon. And finally I had what
I believe was quite a good idea for tackling
my massive TBR and so I've made a video about
that too. And all of these will be coming
soon. I'm looking forward to sharing them
with you and hearing your thoughts on them.
So those are my reasons for starting Booktube.
I'm really just looking for more bookish people
to chat with. I've also been watching Booktube
for a number of months now and have gradually
started commenting on people's videos a little
bit so I want to get stuck into the community
and contribute myself.
So question two is: what are some fun and
unique things you can bring to Booktube?
I think, from what I've seen on Booktube I
read quite different books to what some people
read. I read quite a lot of - well, I say
quite a lot of - I read some books that are
independently published that I've come across
through the book club I'm involved in which
is called NinjaBookClub - and I'll put some
details about them in the description - which
means that I'll read a much broader range
of books I think than perhaps some people
so I'm looking forward to recommending some
books that I've come across that you may not
have heard of. I also have quite a large TBR
collection and I'm looking forward to having
some chats about some of the different types
of books that I read and hearing some recommendations
from you. Other than that I don't really know
what's unique about me. I'm sure that as I
get more into Booktube I will find more fun
and unique things that I can bring to the
community. But I'm really just looking forward
to having some bookish conversations.
Question three is: What are you most excited
for with this new channel?
Mainly I'm excited about talking about books
to people who actually want to listen to me
because I have a few people in my life who
I can chat about books with but not as many
as I would like and a lot of them haven't
read the same books that I have. So I really
enjoy hearing other people's recommendations,
finding out what other people are reading
and that's what I've been getting from watching
Booktube videos and as I say I'm just really
keen to get involved in the community, make
some new friends and have some fun chatting
about books.
Question four is: why do you love reading?
Well you could just as easily ask me why do
you love breathing? Reading is such a big
part of my life. It is something that I've
always done. It has always been my sort of
escapism into just other lives, other stories.
We learn so much about the world even from
reading fiction. It is a way of gaining empathy
and understanding for other people and other
people's lives. Even fantasy books, which
is one of my favourite genres, and science
fiction, can teach you so much about society
by painting a picture of a different society.
So, yeah, I just really love reading. For
me it is escapism as well. When times are
hard, I've had a difficult couple of weeks
with some family stuff going on and it has
just been great to get home slouch on the
sofa and pick up a book and just lose myself
in someone else's life for a little while.
You get that as well from tv and from films,
but actually there's just something about
holding a book in your hands and losing yourself
in someone else's story that I really appreciate.
Question five is: What book or series got
you into reading?
Well I've been trying to think of something
for this one but actually as I said I've have
always been a reader my whole life. I've always
loved it even from when I was very small.
So I can't think of a particular book or series
that I would say got me into reading. I certainly
had some favourite books as a child that kept
me going with reading but there are just too
many. One series I still love and reread regularly
is The Chronicles of Narnia so I suppose you
could say that was a book series that really
helped my love for reading to grow. But as
I say I was always a reader, I always loved
it at school and at home and was always reading
way more than they asked of me. In fact, one
time when I was in school my teacher tried
to tell me off for not reading enough so I
wrote her a list of all the books that I'd
read so far that school year and that kind
of shut her up. My problem wasn't that I didn't
read enough it was just that I didn't really
like the books they were giving me to read
at school. So we had a chat about that with
my parents as well and came to a compromise
that I would read the books she gave me but
I could also keep reading my own books.
So question six is: What questions would you
ask your favourite booktubers?
I think the most common answer is the one
I'm going for - just basically some tips and
advice on how to get involved in Booktube.
Also, a lot of you guys have really great
intros and outros, and I have no idea how
to do that sort of thing, so if you want to
give me a bit of a lesson in how to make a
cool intro then that would be great. Otherwise
it's just going to be boring old me. That
would be awesome.
Question seven: what challenges are you anticipating
with starting a Booktube channel and which
will be hardest to overcome?
Finding the time, I'm quite busy. I've just
filmed - this is my fourth video I'm filming
today so I think I'm probably going to be
a bulk filmer and then upload them as the
weeks go on. Finding motivation to do it - I
tend to pick up a new hobby and do it for
a couple of weeks then lose interest. So I
don't think I will with this, but it is just
keeping up that motivation. And it took me
a lot of attempts to actually pick up the
courage to press the record button today.
So I'm hoping that as I get used to doing
it I'll get more natural. I don't love the
look and sound of myself on camera, and I'm
a little bit vain - as you can see I keep
playing with my hair. So hopefully just building
confidence will help me get over that.
Anyway, question eight: when did you start
reading?
Well, as I said, I've always been a reader
so I don't really remember a time when I didn't
read. I mean I know I must have learnt to
read at some point but I've always loved reading.
My parents read to me as a child as well so
even before I could read myself I was already
enjoying books.
Question nine is: Where do you read?
Quite often I read on the sofa here where
I'm sitting, I read a lot in bed, either to
help me to get to sleep or on weekends I love
having lazy Saturday mornings. Because I still
wake up at the same time I would wake up for
work, so I just sit in bed and read until
I feel like getting up. So I like to read
in bed as well.
And question ten is: What do you like to read?
So I read pretty widely. I like a lot of different
types and genres of books. I suppose my go
to genres are science fiction and fantasy,
I also really enjoy classics and historical
fiction as well I quite enjoy. But I will
give anything a try. I'm not a big fan of
horror, I don't like horror films or tv shows
either so I tend to avoid anything that I
think will be too scary for me. But other
than that I'll give most things a try and
I'm looking forward to hearing some recommendations.
So that is it for the Booktube Newbie Tag!
Thank you for watching and if you've enjoyed
watching me then please like and subscribe,
and find me on social media, I'm @cerilouisew
on twitter. I'm on Goodreads, I'll put the
link for that below. And as I mentioned I
have a blog which is www.mayibethemoon.com,
which will be linked below.
So I look forward to chatting with you in
the comments and I'll talk to you another
time. Bye!
