Raeleen Lemay first went into YouTube intending to create a channel with a friend where she would do book reviews and her friend would do music covers. When that venture didn’t quite go as planned, Lemay decided to try her hand at her own channel. Lemay created her channel padfootandprongs07 to review books, show off the books she owns, discuss themes in the books and to do some fun (and sometimes dangerous) book challenges.
After taking some time to navigate the community, Lemay found her online voice and started to make some friends in the BookTube circle through the social networking books site, Goodreads. Think Facebook – but for books. Now, 35,145 subscribers later, you could say Lemay has found her footing.
Some may find entertaining this number of people daunting, but Lemay finds encouragement in the large number of people who anticipate her next video upload. “The fact I have so many people supporting me makes me want to make more videos,” Lemay admitted. “When I first started I didn’t have that because there was no one watching my videos. I had to push myself and believe that some day somebody will love these.” Now, Lemay has people blowing up her comment sections saying, “I love your videos, keep making them.”
Lemay engages her subscribers with her knowledge of books from all genres, her ability to laugh at herself and by being as personable as she can be. Alongside notable readers like Regan (PeruseProject), Jesse (jessethereader), Ariel (Ariel Bissett), Christine (polandbananasBOOKS) and so many more, Lemay helps bring life to the community of book lovers on YouTube united by their love for words, stories and the escape one can find in a good novel.
BookTube and Lemay, as part of the BookTube movement, encourage readers to be analytical about what they are reading and to step out of their comfort zone to challenge themselves by trying something new. “People are always stuck in one genre or one kind of book,” Lemay said. “Through BookTube I’ve learned there are so many more genres out there [that] I enjoy reading.”
Lemay herself is able to get other people excited about reading by showing off books and giving recommendations about what books she thinks her readers may enjoy. Lemay shared that, to her, one of the most encouraging things about BookTube is “sharing new books or sharing books I love with the world that people would not have heard of.”
“[BookTube] helps [to] make more friends and [helps] the book industry as well. It helps people read and talk about books more,” she said.
Lemay puts a lot of time and effort into her YouTube channel. Now, with an audience to satisfy, she is (lovingly) pushed to create videos somewhat regularly. Regardless of the time it takes to set up, film and edit a video, she tries to put up at least one video every week. This can be tricky considering she doesn’t use lighting equipment, which means she is limited to filming during the day, when the sun is out. Lemay said that due to such time constraints, she sometimes films three videos all at once to edit later and upload somewhat sporadically. “There are sometimes when I upload so many videos at once and people are like “THIS IS AWESOME,” she said of the occasional spontaneous influx of book hauls, tag videos, and “to-read” updates.
“I can edit a video it ten minutes if I want to,” she admits. “I’m a perfectionist so I have to work pretty hard. The ones that take me long to edit end up being my better videos.” In the end, the work is worth it for Lemay.
“People are so supportive and always want to see more of us, so I do what I can to accommodate that,” Lemay said. “I’ve put up so many videos this year just because there are so many more people supporting me now. Some people just comment and say this video popping up made their day. I would never expect to get that feedback.”
BookTube may have started off in a small corner of the huge video-sharing platform, but now it has grown substantially. “[It’s] crazy how many BookTuber’s there are now,” Lemay said. Now, more than ever, the rise of BookTube has reminded us of the close-knit communities that reside within YouTube. If BookTube is a community, YouTube is a country. “[BookTube is] sharing the love of reading with the whole world,” Lemay said.
“BookTube has changed my life,” Lemay shared. “I’ve met so many great people and found so many new books. “It’s just taught me the world is bigger than you think it is, there’s a lot more out there
4YE FAST QUESTIONS: “This is so not rapid-fire” – Raeleen Lemay
BOOK MARK OR DOG EAR: Bookmark. It’s okay when the book is from the library but if people dog-ear a page they owe me a new book. I’m picky about condition.
LIBRARY OR OWNING: Owning. I only use the library if I don’t know I’m going to like it or if there’s a lot in a series.
NEW OR USED: This is tricky, I prefer new but I work in a used bookstore. I splurge for the new stuff because they’re shiny!
UNDERRATED AUTHORS: Jesse Andrews, Michael Hassan, Darren Shan, Andrew Smith, Isaac Marion .
FAVOURITE GENRE: I love general fiction and historical general fiction but I also love sci-fi, fantasy, dystopian and post apocalyptic.
OVERRATED GENRE: I feel paranormal is overrated because they’re always so heavily focused on romance, but it’s gotten better.
BOOK THAT SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN A MOVIE: The Host, they just ruined it and I feel no one will want to read the book after watching the movie.
A BOOK THAT NEEDS TO BE A MOVIE: Unwind by Neal Shusterman, that book is just amazing and if they did it right it would be the most amazing movie. It’s so creepy and eerie.
BEST BOOK TO TV SERIES: Game of Thrones
BOOK THAT NEEDS TO BECOME A TV SERIES: The Saga of Darren Shan and John Green books. They can use his characters and basis and carry it on. If John Green were to write a script for a TV show it would be full of amazingness. It’s something that should happen.
POPULAR AUTHOR WHO YOU HAVE NOT YET READ: Brandon Sanderson! I have three of his books and haven’t started them yet.
AN AUTHOR YOU WANT TO READ MORE OF: Rachelle Mead and Neil Gaiman, people rave about [his books] so much.
AN AUTHOR WITH ONE BOOK WHO NEEDS TO WRITE MORE: Stephen Chbosky! Perks of Being a Wallflower was one of my favourite books ever and I don’t understand why he doesn’t have a whole bunch more! It’s not fair!
A BOOK THAT YOU HAVE NOT READ BUT SEEN THE MOVIE: Memoirs of a Geisha…but I own it.
HARDCOVER OR PAPERBACK: Paperback.
ONLINE OR BOOKSTORE: Bookstore.
EBOOK OR PRINT: PRIIIINT!