Readwithcindy

[Sir Crocodile]

Cindy’s my favourite booktuber and is basically the source of 70% of my YouTube time. That said, I hear that quite some people here are irritated by her or what have you so would love to know why that is.

I feel that she’s one of the more critical and well-spoken reviewers who has substantial insights so I’d also like to know about other creators like her. I think her voice definitely plays a role in why I love watching her.

Anyway, yeah! Would love to hear your opinions.

[Guest]

I personally think (from what I’ve seen of her so far) that she’s really cool.


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[princessbubbl3gum]

I feel like she tries too hard to be funny like it seems scripted.
Its almost like shes a 40 year old divorcee who says "TEA SIS" and "AND I OOP" to seem cool

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[super_smize]

I like her. I like her schtick of being an outsider and "not like other booktubers" and that she pokes fun at the community. She has good criticisms and even though I don't read the same stuff as her or have the same opinions, she's cool to listen to. I feel like she's helped the booktube community to loosen up just a bit.

[oh_do_tell]

I like her videos, they are slightly different from others and you can see that because her number of subscribers grew very fast. I guess people wanted something new.

[sophisays]

She gives me the vibe of someone who one day woke up ,decided that hey I read books sometimes and I have edgy adult opinions and I can create a following there, so let's do booktube!!

Or someone who spent a lot of time eye rolling at regular booktube and decided to show em how it's done. Edgy snarky opinions style. Im not the biggest fan of paperbackdreams but she at least comes across as genuine in her edgyness (college age, critical thinking,, probably rolled her eyes at 'the other girls' during high school). Cindy doesnt seem genuine to me.

Dont know if Im explaining this right. I liked Cindy at the start but the more I watched her videos and her twitter, I got put off.

[Karas]

I like her videos, they are slightly different from others and you can see that because her number of subscribers grew very fast. I guess people wanted something new.

I don't even think her content is that different. I think a big part of why she grew so quickly is first because of her dick soap video. She made that early on, it was heavily re-tweeted, so she got a lot of subscribers out of it. And then her basic bitch booktube tag got a lot of attention when the drama about Book Invasion's newbie tag was at its peak, so that gave her another round of new subscribers.

I don't mean that as a negative, knowing how to play to those trends takes its own talent and good for her. And it definitely helps that as a designer in her professional life she knows how to present herself and her channel. But I don't think her content itself is that unique. But I also think the majority of people watching don't really want unique. They might say they do, but if it was true the genuinely unique channels like AG Macdonald's animated videos, or Tootight Lautrec's drag queen poetry readings would be more popular. But they're not.

The only issue I have with Cindy is that bit in her financial video where she admitted to buying clothes before she goes on holiday, wearing them while she's away, and then returning them to the shop when she gets home. That seems more sketchy than frugal to me, especially since she's talked about having a good job and a living in a low cost of living city.

[subtleslytherin]

I enjoy Cindy a lot, though I've cooled on her more recently. I think her approach to booktube and Twitter has been incredibly deliberate, which on a certain level I respect but on another leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Like that thread about her library ban tweet in the other thread. I almost commented but didn't, but will say here: we're assuming that tweet was true. I see a lot of people trying to go viral who tweet absolute bullshit. I'm half convinced Cindy's tweet was bullshit. All of her tweets are a bit try-hard and clearly designed to go viral. Platform building!

So to me, her "I'm not like other booktubers" thing is bs b/c it's all been a deliberate approach. At best, if you believe when she started she wasn't trying to become a big thing... as soon as she got a tiny bit of success, she ran with it in a very specific way. She blew up, got herself in with select people, and is now magically writing a book! How convenient she never mentioned that until her platform got nice and big. Good for her, but I'll just be over here side-eying the whole thing.

And then I didn't care for her "I paid off my loans and here is how" thing. She's a unicorn of epic proportions. Very few people walk into a high paying job fresh out of college, where they quickly ascend to a 6 figure salary, in a low cost of living market, to boot. Like good for you for paying off your loans, but living minimally and not buying a ton of books isn't going to get most people out of debt. Most jobs like hers only exist in massive cities where the cost of living is 5x higher, too.

[sophisays]

I can see two ways how her tweet will go if she sees she has warranted a thread on gg all her own .lol

[Sir Crocodile]

She blew up, got herself in with select people, and is now magically writing a book! How convenient she never mentioned that until her platform got nice and big. Good for her, but I'll just be over here side-eying the whole thing.

To be fair, she did mention that she's been writing books since her Drunk Q&A video where she talked about (and showed) the stack of books she's written back in high school.

[cabbagebus]

I used to really like readwithcindy, especially because she seemed down to earth and I thought she was really funny. But it didn't take very long for me to start to dislike her videos. I think she tries too hard sometimes, and honestly I'm kind of sick of hearing the same jokes over and over again. There's a few things she's said that really annoyed me but they're pretty specific/personal annoyances.

[sophisays]

She blew up, got herself in with select people, and is now magically writing a book! How convenient she never mentioned that until her platform got nice and big. Good for her, but I'll just be over here side-eying the whole thing.

To be fair, she did mention that she's been writing books since her Drunk Q&A video where she talked about (and showed) the stack of books she's written back in high school.

And she still chose to join booktube over authortube? Yea, gotta give her points for brand making.

[Guest]

"Not like other booktubers" is just another way of saying she's "Not like other girls" which isn't really on brand for her 'girl power' message in videos like the Basic Bitch Booktube Newbie Tag video (where she mocked the guy talking - "Did he just make a video about how he's not like other girls?"). And while yes I agree there was some underlying misogyny in that guy's comments, but we shouldn't completely silence booktube criticism because the community is far from perfect

[Karas]

And she still chose to join booktube over authortube? Yea, gotta give her points for brand making.

There are a surprising (at least to me) number of traditionally published authors with non-authortube booktube channels, although they're mostly on the literary side. I have no idea what Cindy's writing will be like, but I've been surprised by how many published authors have turned out to be hidden on booktube who rarely mention their own writing.

I doubt that Cindy is on that side of things, but even though I'm pretty neutral on her, I'm curious to see what kind of niche/genre she ends up writing in.

[Yogadog]

And she still chose to join booktube over authortube? Yea, gotta give her points for brand making.

There are a surprising (at least to me) number of traditionally published authors with non-authortube booktube channels, although they're mostly on the literary side. I have no idea what Cindy's writing will be like, but I've been surprised by how many published authors have turned out to be hidden on booktube who rarely mention their own writing.

I doubt that Cindy is on that side of things, but even though I'm pretty neutral on her, I'm curious to see what kind of niche/genre she ends up writing in.

I write (not published as a novelist) and I have a bookstagram, not a booktube, but I enjoy the reviewing, hauls, tags aspect much more than I do the typical authorcentric content (I have no interest in creating aesthetic boards of my MCs or finding their MBTI results.

I separate church and state by not reviewing in my genre, which I hope is enough to prevent me from being shady. Also as I said, unpublished, so the point is moo.

[Karas]

And she still chose to join booktube over authortube? Yea, gotta give her points for brand making.

There are a surprising (at least to me) number of traditionally published authors with non-authortube booktube channels, although they're mostly on the literary side. I have no idea what Cindy's writing will be like, but I've been surprised by how many published authors have turned out to be hidden on booktube who rarely mention their own writing.

I doubt that Cindy is on that side of things, but even though I'm pretty neutral on her, I'm curious to see what kind of niche/genre she ends up writing in.

I write (not published as a novelist) and I have a bookstagram, not a booktube, but I enjoy the reviewing, hauls, tags aspect much more than I do the typical authorcentric content (I have no interest in creating aesthetic boards of my MCs or finding their MBTI results.

I separate church and state by not reviewing in my genre, which I hope is enough to prevent me from being shady. Also as I said, unpublished, so the point is moo.

It shouldn't be shady to review in your genre either way. Newspapers/magazines/sites hire same-genre authors for professional reviews all the time.

There are several literary authors on the older, European side of booktube. Jen Campbell gets mentioned here, but there's also people like Britta Bohler, Marc Nash, Neil Griffiths, and I think a couple more that I'm forgetting. It wouldn't be weird for YA booktube either if people didn't feel the need to be fake about it.

[BookishBitch]

And then I didn't care for her "I paid off my loans and here is how" thing. She's a unicorn of epic proportions. Very few people walk into a high paying job fresh out of college, where they quickly ascend to a 6 figure salary, in a low cost of living market, to boot. Like good for you for paying off your loans, but living minimally and not buying a ton of books isn't going to get most people out of debt. Most jobs like hers only exist in massive cities where the cost of living is 5x higher, too.

All of this. I've always enjoyed Cindy but when she was asked how she was able to pay off her loans and her response was like "Easy, I didn't buy books" put a hella bad taste in my mouth. Like, so I'm fucking broke because I buy books sometimes? I hardly ever buy full price, I mostly do Half Price Books or Thrift Books when I'm not using my library. It just sounded a lot like when baby boomers say millennials can't buy houses because we're too busy buying avocado toast.

I KNOW it was a joke, but it was a fucking shitty one.

[CatsandKnitting]

And then I didn't care for her "I paid off my loans and here is how" thing. She's a unicorn of epic proportions. Very few people walk into a high paying job fresh out of college, where they quickly ascend to a 6 figure salary, in a low cost of living market, to boot. Like good for you for paying off your loans, but living minimally and not buying a ton of books isn't going to get most people out of debt. Most jobs like hers only exist in massive cities where the cost of living is 5x higher, too.

All of this. I've always enjoyed Cindy but when she was asked how she was able to pay off her loans and her response was like "Easy, I didn't buy books" put a hella bad taste in my mouth. Like, so I'm fucking broke because I buy books sometimes? I hardly ever buy full price, I mostly do Half Price Books or Thrift Books when I'm not using my library. It just sounded a lot like when baby boomers say millennials can't buy houses because we're too busy buying avocado toast.

I KNOW it was a joke, but it was a fucking shitty one.

I feel like she's very up-on-her-high-horse about not buying books, and that she looks down on people who do. She might not outright say it, but she takes so much pride in not buying books, it's pretty clear what her opinion of splurging on books are.

[Yogadog]

I feel like she's very up-on-her-high-horse about not buying books, and that she looks down on people who do. She might not outright say it, but she takes so much pride in not buying books, it's pretty clear what her opinion of splurging on books are.

I read a combo of books and ebooks I buy, books from sub boxes, library books and arcs. If you literally never buy books, you're not supporting the authors who are your bread and butter.

[CatsandKnitting]

I feel like she's very up-on-her-high-horse about not buying books, and that she looks down on people who do. She might not outright say it, but she takes so much pride in not buying books, it's pretty clear what her opinion of splurging on books are.

I read a combo of books and ebooks I buy, books from sub boxes, library books and arcs. If you literally never buy books, you're not supporting the authors who are your bread and butter.

Agreed. Borrowing from a library can only do so much, and evidently pre-ordering is the best way to support an author. I buy soo many books, with absolutely zero regrets, and I give them to a charity shop if I don't like them or want to pass them along for other reasons. That's not the reason why I haven't paid of my student debts, the market and the economy is. She seem to have been very lucky in how life after college turned out for her.