Supplemental Post - Sabrina Sonner

Over spring break, I went to one of my favorite spots in Los Angeles: The Last Bookstore. On my latest visit, I was surprised to discover this small section tucked between the theatre and film sections:


"Books by YouTubers"

While I was aware that YouTubers sometimes publish books (one of the YouTubers I follow has done so), I had never seen it given its own section in a book store, interestingly placed right across from biographies of classic film stars. It made me think again of the growth in this sort of celebrity that we've discussed in class. These books were some memoirs, but also some funny guides or pseudo-"self-help" books, essentially extensions of the YouTubers' own brands in book form. I did a little more research and found that there are 136 books by YouTubers listed on Goodreads. Granted, some of these are novels like ones by YA author and YouTuber John Green, and if you go down far enough you find The Hunger Games, Percy Jackson books, and Divergent, which are books published by a people who I suppose have YouTube channels but are known first as an authors. But a good number are these books by people known largely for their fame on YouTube. Has anyone read or bought any of these books? Do you think we'll see more with the rise of YouTube stars?