Hey everybody! Welcome back to the Cierra's Cynosure channel and welcome to a new video!
Welcome to the first time that I
am sitting down in my room from home
since I moved out of my dorm. I feel like
I never told that full story, but
basically, with coronavirus I moved out
of my dorm and I'm back home for the
rest of the semester so it's the first
time that I'm like actually sitting down
and like, talking to the camera since
I've been back home for a couple weeks
so, welcome! Here is the setup for the
time being. Today we're doing the book
talk real--booktube real talk 2.0 tag? I
can't even say this hold on what is it called?
Today we're doing the book to real talk
2.0 tag I was tagged by Kasey from Kasey from
Kasey Can Read I will pop her here please go
subscribe to her I love her and I love
watching her videos so thank you for
tagging me. I'm gonna make this super
quick because I have something to do
here soon, so, let's get started! First
question is if you could give yourself
one piece of advice when you started
making videos, what would it be? So you
never watched my booktube newbie tag
then you might not know that youtube is
not new for me, like making
videos is not something that's new to me
I was actually doing this back in like
2013? 2012ish? and I was under a totally
different channel totally different name
and stuff, so making videos is actually
not that new to me it's just something
that I like re-picked up at the
beginning of summer last year and yeah.
So with a little bit of a background in
making videos there's like I've already
kind of worked through the trials and
errors of like how I have my editing
style like I already know what my
editing style is and things, but I think
that one thing that I'm always trying to
do and one piece of advice that I'm
constantly trying to implement is to
just try something new with every video
that I do. This is particularly for
like my reading journal videos I'm
trying to make my spreads differently
trying to come up with new spread ideas
and things like that, but also just like
new editing tricks every single time
that I'm editing a video. And that's one
piece of advice that I give myself and
that I am trying to follow. The next
question is what are your thoughts on
cancel culture? So this is an
interesting question. Cancel culture is
effective only in certain situations so
I actually just attended like a webinar
a professional development webinar for
my job on cancel culture and basically
what I learned from that webinar is that
like there are times when calling
somebody out for doing something that is
outright harmful *is* appropriate, but
there's also a need to empathize more
with people especially online when
you're just behind a screen or username.
And try to call them in and try to build
connection between understandings of the
world so like the things that you see
are different than the things that other
people see so I think that cancel
culture has put the emphasis on just
shutting somebody else down because they
don't agree with the way that you see
the world. In other situations I think
it's more appropriate to try to approach
the situation calmly and not
call somebody out and rather just try to
have a conversation rather than shutting
someone down and telling them that
they're like inherently wrong. I think
that in general this generation really
needs to practice having some more
empathy and that's on that.
The third question is do you consider booktube a
welcoming community? So I watched Kasey's video before I made my video just to see
the questions and one thing that I have
to like echo from her video that I
didn't even think about when I was
originally planning to answer this question
is that, while I my personal self has
experienced booktube to be a extremely
welcoming community everybody has given
me so much love and so much support
booktube has just been amazing and I've
connected with some really nice people
here. But to echo Kasey in her video
is that it's not welcoming for everybody
and I don't personally know anybody that
has had a problem with booktube or
having like controversies with booktube,
but I mean--I guess I really can't speak
for everybody and say that everybody has
had a positive experience because
apparently, some people haven't. But for
me, it has been an extremely welcoming
community and every time I come on here
and I read my comments I feel exactly
like the shirt that I'm wearing you see
the rainbow that's how I feel when I
read my comments, thank you!
Question number four is what are your thoughts on
book consumerism? Do you feel pressure to
buy books? So this is an interesting
question too because I do struggle with
like consumerist culture and knowing
that I do need to be a good consumer or
just like a more conscious consumer,
however, I have kind of like an exception
for books because I think that they are
inherently valuable and they always have
something to offer whether it's just
mental like stimulation or intellectual
knowledge or just
plain aesthetic or like value and having
them so I really don't apply the same
kind of like thoughts on consumerism to
books just because I think that they
have inherent value like I said I don't
know it's not something that I've put a
lot of mental energy into thinking about
so that could be like an ignorant point
of view or perspective. But as of right
now, I don't really consider buying
books a consumerist culture.
Pressure to buy books? Not really. I read
what I want to read when I want to read
it, and I mean yeah I get into like hyped
things on Instagram and stuff like hyped
books and new releases and Netgalley
things and things like that but I rarely
ever buy books just because they're hyped.
I buy a book if I want to read it
if the synopsis sounds like
interesting because I think of every
book that I buy is an investment like
hardcovers are expensive, okay? So I
have to save my money.
Five is do you take part in readathons and what
are your thoughts on them? So, I
definitely do not take part in read-a-thons I
honestly do not own enough books that
fit the prompts for most readathons if
I'm being honest, and it's like even if I
did, they're probably books so I've
already read because most of the books
that I own I have read. I don't have that
very high of a physical TBR. So it's
like I never have new books to read
because I don't buy them that often it
feels like, so I definitely do not take
part in read-a-thon just because like I
don't know the structure of it stresses
me out the timeline of it stresses me out.
I don't know how y'all did The Reading Rush
a couple months ago but
Congrats because I could not have done
that. But yeah, my thoughts on them is
that they seem really fun and I love
watching reading vlogs from read-a-thon so I love watching them,
don't really love taking part in
them mostly because I can't but yeah.
People that do and people that
complete them? Good job.
And the sixth question or moreso task for this
tag is to recommend a book that has an
issue or topic that you are passionate
about. So I could not choose I have two
books here that I'm going to talk about
very briefly because I already have
reviews of them on my blog, but the two
books that I have that I want to talk
about real fast
is Don't Read the Comments by Eric Smith
and Lab Girl by Hope Jahren. So Don't
Read the Comments is a book that I got
off of Netgally back in December and it
was a book that I picked up just because
it seemed kind of relevant. It was a
contemporary and I was looking for something
very like you know fluffy and light and
just you know something easy to read
because at the time I was taking a major
trip to Costa Rica for like two weeks
and I didn't have any cell service. So I
needed a bunch of books to read and a
bunch of books that I thought that I was
gonna like so I got this from Netgalley
I was approved and I read it on my
Kindle and I--
This book really blew me away with just the amount of social commentary that it packed in the little
pages that it is--it's a very short book. I
adored this book I adored this book so
much that even though I got it for free
through Netgalley I actually did the
pre-order campaign and bought the
hardcover version of the book just
because like I knew after I
finished it that I needed it and that I
would want to take pictures with it
and just like always have it to re-read
in physical format someday. This book
talks about a lot of different things
like online harassment,
sexism in the gaming community, it
talks about online friendships, it talks
about how online harassment can
translate to actual real-life harassment
and stalking, it just talks about so many
things--online privacy. And just... I. Love.
This. Book.
It's a realistic fiction so it
takes place in like New Jersey I believe
or something but it also has the online
world of Reclaim the Sun which is the
game that Divya and Aaron play and
that's how they meet and just like I
love this book so much there was a lot
that I had to say about it in my written
review so if you want to know more of my
thoughts about it, it's on my blog!
And the final book that I'm gonna talk about
to wrap up this tag is Lab Girl by Hope
Jahren. If you know me, you know that I'm an
environmental science major in college
so this book was right up my alley.
It's about Hope Jahren as a woman in
science her life like it's a memoir
about her life and her road to her
career and her battle with mental health
life with a bipolar disorder I think is
manic bipolar disorder so she is just an
amazing author and amazing person
reading about her story was so impactful
to me as like an aspiring and upcoming--
hopefully--environmental scientists so
this was a really impactful book for me
just the representation of women in
science and especially natural science. I
love this book. I love this book, it's not
a book for everybody obviously because
it deals with a very specific field of
study, but for me, it was really, really
good. Also she has a new book coming out--
or no--it came out it's like the story
I've change--something like that. I
requested it on Netgalley--Netgalley if you see this/anybody from Netgalley sees this
please approve me because I want to read
the book so bad! It's like the story of
climate change and how we got to it and
where we go from here something like
that it's a super long title but I'm
really excited to read it and I love
Hope Jahren, and if you're a natural
science major
a woman in natural science, pick up this
book and her newest book.
Alright! That wraps up this time thank you so much
again to Kasey for tagging me and allowing
you to do this video if you want to
partake consider yourself tagged, and I
will see you all in the chan--
And I will see you all on the channel next Sunday.
Bye everybody!
