This is the space that our beloved former Layout Editor, Krista Murray, used to use to recommend her favourite podcasts - this year, we’re going to broaden our horizons a little. The goal is to pull out our favourite things from pop culture and share them with like-minded students.

Today’s recommendations are brought to you by a community on YouTube known as “BookTube”, where people who love books talk about books. Crazy, right?

One of my current favourite BookTubers is HaileyInBookland. Through her channel, Hailey shares her thoughts and feelings about primarily Young Adult (YA) novels. Recently she has begun the practice of putting out a weekly vlog so that her followers can see how she spends an average week.

The main thing that draws me to Hailey is that she is a fellow Canadian, which is not often represented in mainstream BookTube. I personally really connect to Hailey due to our shared country of origin, as well as the fact that she absolutely adores Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. While I am not a purist myself (Tim Burton’s 2010 remake of Alice in Wonderland gives me all of the feels), I do love the story more than is healthy.

If you’re looking for book recommendations in the YA genre, or want to connect with people who have the same taste in books, or even if you’re in the mood for a good, old fashioned friendly debate about fan theory vs. canon, pop on over to HaileyInBookland! As an added bonus, her vlogs heavily feature her adorable kitten, Ella as well as her older cat, Jackson. Who doesn’t love animals?!

Another of my favourite BookTubers, whom I’ve been watching for a little over a year now, is Cece Ewing. Cece runs a channel called ProblemsOfABookNerd. Cece is a new graduate of a post secondary institution, and the majority of the videos on her channel are SUPER relatable for those of us who are doing the university/college thing.

While most of her videos feature Cece talking about books that she enjoys, she also does collaborations with her girlfriend, Janel Gist (and they’re so adorable together, it hurts), and her sister Zoe, and she regularly does a series called HP Chats, where she talks about various topics within the Wizarding World. Her most recent HP Chat argued that Harry Potter should have been a professor rather than an Auror, and she gives well-thought-out proof that the profession would have suited him better. After that video, I found myself very much agreeing with her.

If you need further incentive to watch these wonderful young ladies, both Hailey and Cece are representatives for bookish subscription boxes, and provide discount codes to their subscribers for said subscription boxes. Click that subscribe button, people! Books are friends!