I paid a professional to choose books for me to read

hi friends it's Kayla today we're going to explore together this paid book recommendation service I just stumbled upon in filming another video which I'm now scrapping where I try out all these different book recommendation services I discovered this one called my TBR dot Co which was created by the people at book riot I didn't know this thing existed I wish they did more marketing towards it because like in my journey of book recommendation service it trying that I just filmed this is what I was looking for the entire time I looked at your Goodreads recommendations which I hate I tried these random sites where you just type in a favorite book and it recommend something else I looked into a bunch of recommendation services that were actually just book boxes and not catered recommendations but kind of pretending that they were catered recommendations but everybody actually just gets the same book then I found this one where you actually pay like $15 and you get three personalized recommendations there is a bigger plan from what I understand where you can actually get those books sent to you which is so cool but it's only available to people in the States so I thought instead of all of those other services where I ended up with terrible recommendations my goal was to actually read them and comment on them but they all turned out to not be what they seemed so we're gonna check this one which is the only paid one I discovered so that's as far as I got into my research that's all I know so far and now I'm gonna go ahead and do it with you and we're gonna get the books we're gonna read them we're gonna discuss it says in a book lovers life there's nothing as magical as a perfect surprising recommendation from someone who just gets you but finding those people can be tough agreed that's where TBR comes in o T V R stands for tailored book recommendations tell us what your reading habits and what you're looking for then select the plan the best suits your reading lifestyle choose from the hard Kocher plan or the recommendations only plan our experts Biblio logistic okay we've got a bunch of people and they're going to call on decades of reading to select three books just for you yeah so $15 per quarter I'm assuming that's Americans will be more like $20 for me what happens if I'm recommended a book I've already read that's the fear with getting the book sent to you without knowing what they are is like what if you already have them okay I'm choosing the just recommendation plan apparently I'll get my recommendations within two weeks I'm actually show this to you on full screen so you can see everything that I see it's definitely easier to use on like a desktop so it's asking me my favorite genre so we're gonna put mystery thriller contemporary yes and how do I explain my weird tastes with like magic realism or fabulous and more light sci-fi fantasy magical realism fabulous I think that all kind of fits next is what are the last few books you really loved just what the last few books I really loved okay so let's pull like if I want through the recommendation here are some thrillers that I liked recently the light side by I have you lives of magical realism type of stuff oh you know Wilder girls mill game we are me and what else maybe I'll fill this out more thoroughly after I'm done I'll go back and really fill it out and then for hard-hitting why a contemporary like what type of stuff am I looking for I'm looking for stuff like I hate you give what did I read recently the last true poets of the ye may be a movie the crust is no because that gives you an idea of like the intensity I want but also be a little apocalyptic stuff then I ask is there anything you want to explore more of in your reading life which i think is a good one and so I put dart games and competitions because that's not something that you would surmise from my list of favorites or my list of favorite genres because I haven't really found that many dark game type books that I enjoy but it is something I'm actively looking for I just don't have any examples of ones that I've loved and then you can choose if you want your big Leon just to stay like what - what you already like or to branch out I'm gonna say keep it familiar because the whole point is to see if I if I get recommendations that are perfectly tailored to what I already love loving them Oh perfect and then this one says are you looking for recommendations on a certain theme I'm gonna get them three things that I'm looking for to just see how this all works out so I want a good thriller mystery suspense recommendation from them I specified domestic and psychological just so it helps maybe dictate that I don't want courtroom or medical or detectives type mysteries the next month is hard-hitting why a contemporary because if I do get a why a recommendation I would like it to be here I do tend to like hard-hitting y-a as opposed to hard-hitting adult and then the third one I'm putting light or soft sci-fi or fantasy and this one I'm not specifying the age range because I'm down for whatever and then this one is anything else you want your biblical just to know before they pick your books and we're gonna say the gay or the better because we want some queer pics and then after that I actually get this whole team er profile that my person will look at okay now let's fill it out what are your all-time favorite books should i just link my video of all my favorite books can I tell them I have a Goodreads shelf for that and he books you absolutely hated oh my god I love that question so I can even put in this box like not books that I necessarily hated but books that I don't want that type of book recommended to me so like there are some examples and then by putting in like recently read thrillers that I hated maybe it'll give an idea of the type of thrillers I don't want and then any type of content you'd like your Biblio is a something you might find helpful I kind of included that in deal-breakers even though like my requests make it clear what I want I can specifically say like I don't want historical books or I don't want romance books I also added that I don't really want supernatural I put my dislike for famous characters detective POVs shape-shift I think that might not be something you're aware of a hate shape-shifting and I clip pregnancy and abortion these are just things that I don't feel like reading right now so that's it doesn't even mean that like I've hated every romance that I've read or I'll never like a book with famous characters but in this context these are things I don't want right now then what are a few favorite TV shows and movies I put person being Wallflower finding Carter it's the only to be true I could think of besides the challenge and then a bunch of like time travel me ones like the butterfly effect and about time and Donnie Darko they know what type of like sci-fi I'm into miles but the craft and 13 and Disturbia not all of my favorite movies cuz like I would add in almost famous in here but why if I really don't want to read about famous people would I do that and then what's cool here is you can link your Goodreads so they can look at everything I feel like I should add my channel in here but that might just get ridiculous that's it and now we just wait hello hello I'm not going to attempt good lighting or anything I should wait till tomorrow to this but I've been sitting on this email for 12 hours this morning I got an email at 9:06 saying your pigeon is ready I'm gonna screen share so you can look at these together oh my gosh I don't know what I'm hoping for I have been thinking about the fact that they want to see your Goodreads in order to not recommend you something already on your radar but in my case I would like you know it's one of the recommendations or all the recognitions to be things I've already heard of and I'm already interested in it took ten days for this to come which is kind of perfect in my mind because they said two weeks it's close enough for two weeks that I feel like it took enough like they took their time you if they didn't even if they knew what they're recommending after five seconds of looking at my list even if the recommendations were robotic like it just gives me a comfort and thinking even if it's not true that they took ten whole days to curate the list okay I'm ready you're biblio and selected three awesome new additions to your TBR open your letter and get ready to get reading oh my god oh okay both of them two of them okay hi Kayla I'm excited to offer you three picks I really hope you'll laugh a hard-hitting why a a great lightly speculative novella that is hella gay and ER why a mystery that has plenty of twists and turns okay apprehensive about the why a mystery but I'm not dying with you tonight bye Jilly single and Kimberly Jonz Lida and Campbell couldn't be more different Lena is black outgoing and has friends and a boyfriend she loves Campbell is white shy and knows no one in her new school when a moment of racial aggression at the high-school football game leads to an all-out riot in their neighborhood Lena and Campbell are thrown together and must rely on each other to get home even if they're strangers plot twist hold on I already own it I cannot remember how I originally obtained this it's an ark it came out in October too 19 but I do know it was an unsolicited R Camacho became straight from source books fire or if this was in like could it have been a Raincoast book box this is definitely fair because it wasn't actually on my Goodreads TBR and never made it there just on my physical TBR so this is kind of best case scenario they recommended something that I am moderately intrigued about but don't know enough about that like I've already decided like I have to read it or I never want to read it and I already own it like amazing the next book I'm pretty sure was a brand new release if not I have seen this mentioned a lot recently and like seeing the title a lot because the title is really familiar it's called upright women wanted and I think it's like a feminist kind of thing but I don't really know what it is it's by Sarah Gately I'll show you the cover in a minute it says okay first times I will acknowledge that this book looks like a historical Western but I promise you it's not it's actually set in the future Oh after the collapse of society as we know it with limited resources librarians travel by horseback to towns in the American West to deliver State Approved reading material Esther decides to join them rather than face and arranged marriage and she discovers that these moral upright women are actually very clear and very much a part of the resistance what is the cover oh it's kind of nothing that grabs my attention I don't know that I would have picked this up on my own okay and the last one hmm okay it's - can keep a secret bye carry em Karen and McManus this is actually such a good choice because I'm forced to read it now and can actually form an opinion so let me read this and then I'll discuss Ellery and Ezra are headed to their grandmother's house I don't actually know what this book is about I just am not particularly interested in this author not because of them but just because of a previous book their mom checks into rehab and they're not pleased about it they've never met their grandmother since their mom left home as a teen shortly after her twin sister disappeared now Ellery Nazareth learning more and more about their aunt's disappearance and the strange events surrounding it and when a teen girl goes missing it becomes clear that history will repeat itself okay so that's two can keep a secret I did read one of us is lying and I did not like it / did not appreciate some of the tropes it fell into and some of the representation i weirdly like this recommendation because they obviously had no way of knowing that and this is kind of a an easy recommendation it's a popular regularly talked about current why a title all I can do from here is collect these books I already have one going and discuss a little bit more okay I'm a little shocked right now I just went to my local independent book store to grab this and it's so small I had no idea was this small for $30 okay alright I got all three books we're in my kitchen because we're gonna be blogging just my life this week while I read these essentially the experiment part of this is over so some of you may leave because the thing is no matter how much I like these books that's not in their control it's the recommendations themselves that is the test of this service and I think they succeeded they did everything that I asked for and the thing is I feel like I could have been more specific in any work I think if I specifically wanted an adult thriller I could have said that and they would have given that to me but since I just gave them some parameters I mean they hid everything I really think this is a good mix of popular stuff like this has 38,000 reviews on Goodreads it was in the Goodreads Choice Awards this is a easy kind of pick this one has 8000 reviews currently on Goodreads it obviously had a marketing campaign behind it already because it was sent to me this isn't a book that everyone will have heard of but if you're very well versed in book releases especially why a you probably would have heard of this it's not from one of the big five publishers well these two are so we didn't get all like the most popular easy picks and then this one only has 3,000 reviews on Goodreads but it's a brand new release this definitely has a marketing campaign behind it too because I've seen this mentioned a lot is that because I follow tour or has there been ads I'm not totally sure for me before having actually read these yet I think this is my perfect type of selection if they had given me all three super popular already hyped books that like I've seen everybody read I feel like it would have been disappointed if they gave me three books I've never heard of I might be a little disappointed so for me the service worked perfectly I would have liked to have been sent the books I think that would have been interesting and I think the fact that they do send out the books in some cases might be why there are newer releases but I think if I had asked for lesser-known titles or older titles they would have fulfilled that let me know if you want me to do a part two of this and tell me what you would want me to ask for next time and now if you don't want to see me you know hanging out in my house in isolation making Instagram coffee and doing mini book hauls for the next week skip ahead to the end to see my final thoughts for those of you sticking around I'm gonna start with I'm not dying with you tonight I feel like I haven't read a really hard-hitting why a contemporary in a while and this is definitely not something that I have read before the entirety of this book from what I understand takes place during this riot I read books about riots people participating or people just watching them or people talking about them but not for the entirety of 242 pages this is shorter than it looks I feel like collaborative work has been really popular lately there's been waves of it but right now there's a search of two authors writing books together and sometimes I love it sometimes I hate it the most similar one that I can think of is watch us rise by Ellen Hagen and Renae Watson but I think that's a little lighter I love that book so much it's one of my favorites appear last year and it has a similar idea of like a white character and a black character coming together with themes of like social justice and racism in a high school setting now well we're all here for is the Instagram or no tick-tock frothy coffee situation I've seen this everywhere I need to try it I got two exciting packages today book mail Felix ever after I kiss and calendar which I'm just dying to read but I think I might hold off until the queer let read this one at the end of May but I'm gonna take a picture of it today because it's beautiful maybe I'll take a picture about with my coffee if it turns out well this is a milk frother basically you mix like instant coffee with sugar I don't put sugar in my coffee I also don't really put milk in my coffee but then it's like an iced latte because it's so much milk and then ice and then it all Frost's up and it's supposedly amazing so I want to try it with you and I'll tell you the plot of the book while I make it cool so the book says Lenna and Campbell aren't friends Lenna has killer style doors at Lena I don't know maybe I'll check out the audio book to make sure Lena has her killer style her awesome boyfriend and a plan she knows she's gonna make it big Campbell on the other hand is just trying to keep her head down and get through the year at her new school when both girls attend the Friday night football game what neither expects is for everything to descend into sudden mass chaos chaos born from violence and hate chaos that unexpectedly throws them together they aren't friends they hardly understand each other's point of view but none of that matters when the city is up in flames and they only have each other to rely on if they're going to survive the night overall it sounds really intense like the city is up in flames the entire city but seeing as it started at a high school football game I'm just so curious what the inciting event is like what kicks it all off we've got Julie Siegel and Kimberly Jones I mean there are authors I've ever heard of before and I don't know if this is their debut thing but I'm definitely excited to see how what their perspectives are different how the writing style is different so ignoring that this straw is too big for this cup it's definitely not instagram-worthy I probably added a little too much liquid so it didn't get like the hard peaks like I wanted but I feel like it's gonna taste like like milk shaky it's also gonna be really strong I'm just realizing cuz thinking about other people making this they didn't do it in a glass that they normally drink whiskey out of this has been way too long it was so ridiculous um ignoring the fact that the flavor is very instant coffee Thanks is [ __ ] good oh my god I'm so glad I've seen everybody like making this tik tok inspired coffee and everyone's like oh it's not as good as I thought this is exactly what I thought it would taste like and the sugar doesn't bug me too much I was wondering about it cuz everyone said you had to add sugar in order to get like the prof eNOS and since I don't normally buy sugar like I don't even buy sweetened almond milk I buy unsweetened I don't like my drinks to be sweet doesn't even taste sweet it is too much sugar though that's the size of a cup oh my god yeah I feel like I'm any [ __ ] wired today I'm ready to read so let you know when I read some of my book so this is definitely a read and one-day kind of book it's full action not a lot of exposition pausing to reflect it's just like they're in a riot I don't really understand to be honest like I don't understand I've never been in a riot so like they were at their school there was a somebody shot somebody and then a riot begins uh and then they escaped into like downtown let's say and there's a riot there as well with like thousands of people all of a sudden and I'm just like why don't you just like leave like I obviously am not understanding because I don't they're do like going from here to here to meet up with somebody but they're not there but her boyfriend didn't show up and they need to find this car and I'm just like why don't you just like walk away it's just like a walk it's getting dangerous because there is like people in the streets there's police officers there's looting going on and I'm just like here's that run in the opposite direction and just like get out of it so I'm over halfway through and I don't think this is gonna have a broader conversation I thought maybe it was kind of a commentary on police brutality racism discrimination because we do see those themes throughout but I don't think like that's the goal of the book which is fine I just I guess I was wrongfully expecting more of like an Angie Thomas Nick Stone Jason Reynolds Renee Watson thing we're like you know the plots right here but the themes are all-encompassing they are two teenage girls who misunderstand each other she's pretty new to school so they just don't know each other she assumes that she is a rich white girl who has like the perfect family and then she just like is really naive about the black experience and doesn't understand why like Lenna would be worried about being around police officers during a riot and I guess the whole point is just that they come together they learn things about each other they put their assumptions aside and they work together but I also don't think they're really that well-developed like we're getting glimpses into their life but not enough to really feel connected to anybody all right I finished it I don't know how to feel about this book because it didn't do anything bad it didn't do anything wrong it was enjoyable it was fast-paced it kept my attention but like it didn't really do anything I don't need a book to like teach me something or have some huge overarching like moral of the story it's just I'm a little conflicted on what this book like accomplished these two characters learn a little bit about each other they come to understand each other better I don't really care about them or their friendship it was her relationship when is a relationship with her boyfriend frustrated me a lot and that didn't like change at all which I was kind of expecting some commentary on her relationship with her parents like nothing came of that there was one scene I really liked at the end of the book kind of the finale of like what happens with her dad shop and I appreciated how that all came full circle but overall I've just never read a book like this this tone like everything felt like really high stakes but at the same time the behaviors didn't really convey that I don't know it was all a little weird yeah I think the middle of the road like three star is probably appropriate here I didn't dislike it I didn't really enjoy myself it's just over like that's it this was a day out of my life good morning Liam and I are just chillin today today we're working on fractions with buttons and we're reading holes and yes Liam if I could film a baby I won't smile and he just got this in the mail mmm we don't really know what it is but he's gonna build it today very interesting and I am going to read up right women wanted I'm assuming I'm gonna finish this in one day because three pages is us 171 pages easy so we're following Esther who is a stowaway it says she's hidden herself away in the librarians book wagon in an attempt to escape the marriage her father has arranged for her a marriage to the man who was previously engaged from her best friend drama her best friend who she was in love with her best friend who was just executed for possession of resistance propaganda the future American Southwest is full of bandits fascists and queer librarian spies on horseback trying to do the right thing they'll bring the fight to you very interesting so this isn't something I would have picked up on my own I can tell you that pretty confidently the idea of a Western just in general like this is not something that appeals to me I've read a couple westerns in the past but they also had fantasy elements so I don't think I've ever read a standard Western enough to say I don't want to read westerns and I won't be able to say that after this either because apparently it's a future American Western the idea of spies is also not something that really intrigues me but the idea of librarians is interesting and we've got queer characters which I appreciate this could really go either way since filming the introduction of this whole video like in February I have read of sarin daily since and didn't love it but I loved their writing so we'll see maybe this is like my new favorite book this quote right here he's really powerful so we have a main character who I think is gonna end up being the love interest I just get that vibe named sigh cye and they go by they/them pronouns and they ask Esther if um she's ever met someone who uses they pronoun it's not safe to be they in town no more than it's safe for bet or Lita or the other two main characters to be anything but librarians who happen to ride together they're in a relationship and they're both women when there's people around who we don't trust we let them think were the kinds of people who are allowed to exist and the only kind of librarian that's allowed to exist is one who answers to she haha interestingly already by like page 20 um she has been Esther discovery as the stowaway so I obviously this is a really short book so I think things are going to happen a lot faster then I'm ready for it I figured she'd be hiding out for a while before they discovered her but they discovered her like right away and now she's joining the team of librarians but we don't totally know what that even means yet I did it I'm done and I'm pleasantly surprised so I feel like if I looked at reviews about this book I would probably see a lot wishing this book was longer I think this is really for people who already like short books short stories novellas because you just have to get used to the fact that you're not supposed to have the most developed characters or plot or scenes etc for what this is I really enjoyed it I'm giving it four stars overall and I'll tell you why as far as a book about queer characters five stars we had some diversity amongst our queer cast I think it said some really good things and made good points it had great healthy conversation as far as a book about bandits and spies I think it was top-notch as far as what I want from a book like that that didn't dip too much into like the whole system and the political intrigue as well as a story about resistance and change I think that totally worked - now what does not get a five-star is the librarian neighs them of it all if you're picking this up for a book about librarians who are badass I don't quite know that that's what you get because they're not actually really librarians like they kind of are being a librarian is more of like a front like they're actually spies right and bandits and they have these other things that they're doing under the guise of being librarians and I just wanted some more like book content the main character basically wants to join the librarians because they are this resistance and they're handing out these materials and they're educating the masses but it didn't really focus much about that at all and I wanted it to I still don't think I'm gonna pick up anymore westerns or books that have the word bandit in the description because it's just not what I'm like typically looking for but for what this is I enjoyed myself I thought it was fun I thought it was sad I thought it was interesting maybe I would also wish for a little more like development as far as the idea that this is a future setting I guess the point is that it's kind of devolved into the way the world used to be but there's really no conversation about like where the world used to be or how we're said in the future I feel like if you didn't say that this was said in the future I wouldn't have known this was said in the future I'm not sure anyway enjoyed it so solid recommendation we're on to our third book it's called to can keep the secret by Karen and McManus I'm in Liam's room today I feel like Liam's personal assistant these days cuz I'm like alright you've gotta wake up at this time this times your lines you have a meeting it's 10:30 and then you have another meeting at one o'clock with your music teacher can we push your 2 o'clock meeting to like 2:30 I have two meetings today so I'm not really showing you any real life stuff Liam's mocking me here's a little book haul for you ghost squad by Clara Bow hey Ortega I was gonna read this with Lee and then he started reading it without me you haven't gotten that far have you page page nine that's as much real life as I've got for you cuz today is a long busy day and as soon as I find time to read this I'll let you know so in this book we're following someone named oh I thought her name was echo that's where she lives oh God this book takes place in echo Ridge Eloise never been there but she's heard all about it her aunt went missing there at age 17 and only five years ago a homecoming queen put the town in the map when she was killed now Ellery has to move there to live with a grandmother she barely knows the town is picture perfect but it's hiding secrets and before school even begins for Ellery someone declares open season on Homecoming promising to make it as dangerous as it was five years ago then almost as if to prove it another girl was missing Ellery knows all about secrets her mother has them her grandmother does too and the longer she's in Echo Ridge the clearer it becomes everyone there is hiding something the thing is secrets are dangerous and most people aren't good at keeping them which is why in Echo Bridge it's safest to keep your secrets to yourself this is pretty standard like 330 page why a I can't think of the last time that I read and loved a young adult mystery we're gonna go for it if it's one of the most popular ones of the year like it's got to be good alright I am 36 pages in so I've barely even began and I've already be introduced to so many characters then I needed to start making a chart because there's literally so many hold on let me count 30 characters have been introduced by page 36 it's too many people those probably point is to introduce you to love people to establish like it's a small town and everybody knows each other but also it's probably trying to confuse you so I'm already calling like who's the culprit of the entire murders which we haven't even heard anything about 10% into the book and he is and I'll believe that out if it turns out that I'm right part of my issue with the why a mystery fillers is I just feel like they're a little too predictable just in the way that the writing has done itself wouldn't claim to be enjoying it so far Sadie's mom is an actress and her storyline is talking about you know how she's got into acting and if people recognize her and how she wants to be famous she's always wanted to be famous she got this one walk-on role in a movie and then she got she was zombie number three years and that's fine but I hope that that stays as far as we get into that storyline because I don't want to read about famous people or attempting to be famous people or just people in entertainment in general I guess but I was not expecting a second a narrator and I'm wondering if that's gonna be the only other narrator it seems like it we have a boy and a girl teenagers who are going back and forth so I'm assuming we're also gonna have a relationship leaving some of this narrative yeah so that wasn't it they took me all freakin day to read shouldn't have taken that long but I could not it just didn't hold my attention honestly this is hard because like if I'm reading this for teens like yeah this is a great teen mystery but I couldn't fully enjoy this it was predictable it was cheesy it was repetitive but did it do anything wrong no was it like offensive or questionable no I would definitely recommend this to fans of Pretty Little Liars obviously the title itself is like the song from Pretty Little Liars I feel like this definitely would fit with that audience the people who are interested in reading about like just relationships like who in this small town of these forty characters we have who has slept with who whose parent is now the step parent of this other person who is cousins who dated who in high school and now like once revenge on them dating someone else it's really shallow and that's not necessarily a bad thing but for me reading something that I my goal when I'm reading mystery or thriller books is a feeling of suspense on being on the edge of my seat anticipating what's gonna come and I just didn't feel that this was a struggle I would have DNF this 100% if I didn't want to complete it for this challenge I don't want to be too harsh about this book because like it's not for me and I knew that going into it this isn't something that I would have grabbed for myself at this point in my reading life but it's two stars it's pretty late so I'm gonna do a final wrap-up for you tomorrow so my final thoughts for Tailored book recommendations I read three books with a mix of results I had a 2-star read I had a 3-star read I had a four star read so was it a complete success and did I find a new favorite book no but only like eight percent of the books I read anyway get 5 stars so the odds were stacked against them if this video was trying to answer the question is this book recommendation service worth the money I don't think I would have a solid answer but that's not even what I was trying to do I just wanted to show you the experience and feel this experience and just know what the process was like is it worth the money for me yeah because it was fun and I have content and I read three books that I might not have otherwise which is always fun for me I can already anticipate a lot of comments saying that this is a waste of money saying that why don't you just get book recommendations from booktube this is what the book review community is for get recommendations from somebody who works at a bookstore or your librarian and all that is totally true and valid but we also can't tell somebody that something that they spend their money on is wrong or shame them for it so if somebody wants to look into this book recommendation service if they have a disposable income if they have money to spend on this experience and they want to that's cool but if you're somebody who has limited funds and is very already purposeful with the books that you purchase this service isn't for you I wish that I could comment on the other plan where they send you the books and there are definitely ways I could work around this I could have got them sent to a friend in the States then had them shipped to me because I can't tell you without a doubt that if this process had been the exact same like I had done it the exact same and they had done it the exact same and I had received these books and paid full price for these three books to arrive in the mail I would have been disappointed but that's just because there's a lot more money involved obviously and you're going into it not knowing what you're paying for it's a similar idea as a book box there's a certain amount of risk that you're accepting when you pay for it however if I was spending more money on this service and I knew that I was buying three physical books I would have probably filled out the whole questionnaire a little more thoroughly so I guess that's my advice for anybody who is looking to sign up for this service I'll put the link down below I'm not affiliated with them in any way obviously but in case you want to sign up the link is down there it would be to really thoroughly fill out your profile if you are gonna be sent the physical books including connecting to your Goodreads profile and making sure your Goodreads profile is really well filled out because I could have easily had a shelf that said I already own this or had a shelf that said don't want to read ever and this could have been on there and then I'm sure there's a portion of the profiler survey or questionnaire or whatever it was that you can include a link to that specific that read shelf personally I think the service is cool and fun and interesting and there's no harm in having it as an option because you're not obligated to participate so it's cool that it is a thing if somebody wants to do it I am willing to pay for an experience as opposed to just physical items so overall even though I didn't like find a new favorite book or even though I had a 2-star whatever whatever it was an interesting time I do wonder if they have looked into kind of having a middle ground option in their service where you don't get sent to the books without knowing what they are this video initially was inspired by like this fashion trend happening on YouTube where people sign up for I think it's the Amazon personal shopper and they get sent a bunch of things that are curated to them but then they can pick and choose which ones they actually want for me I feel like there's just a little too much risk involved in not knowing what any of the books are gonna be which is why I guess they have just the paid service to begin with and I do think the amount they're charging makes sense because there is somebody who's taking the time to look at all the information they are a professional in the sense of these are people in the book community these are people who might be or have been librarians and booksellers bloggers reviewers and I do think it's interesting that they connect you with someone specifically and that you can like request somebody else to work with in the future looking back on my form we can deny that there is more I could have given them and for what they took from my requests I also appreciate that they gave me diverse titles they gave me an own voices non-binary book they gave me a book with a black author as a co-writer even though I didn't directly ask for those things I think that's something you can tell that I would want by looking at my Goodreads and it's just comforting to know that the people who work there are obviously giving thoughtful recommendations and do seemingly have a wide amount of experience to pull from with reading also I need to acknowledge here that I'm a picky [ __ ] and there's no way to know what I'm going to like I barely know what I'm going to like when I pick my own books so they're doing great overall an interesting experience I had fun making this video so it's worth it for me will I continue with the service personally no I don't think so but that's just because I have people here who are really good at giving recommendations you guys know my reading tastes better than anyone else but I can definitely see for somebody who doesn't have time to look through recommendations really fine books cater to them and doesn't just want to buy off of like the bestsellers page of a book store website like this is a useful thing for some people and I would love to know your thoughts down below what you think of book recommendation services in general what you think of paying for book recommendations is this something you would ever try have you tried it do you know anybody in your life who could benefit from something like this and let's be respectful because remember this is somebody's brand somebody built this business it's a really cool venture they obviously have staff who probably work super hard they should be really proud of building a business so I don't know if I fully like reviewed these as well as I could have so if you're new here I do videos at the end of every month about every book that I read with a with a better review than probably what I gave you in this video I will see you later thank you very much for watching I'm looking forward to talking to you in the comments below and let me know where you get good book recommendations from I'll see you later bye

Channel: BooksandLala

Views: 112,613

Rating: 4.9701405 out of 5

Keywords: books, booktube, bookish, booksandlala, obbsandlala

Id: iUN1Zx2N86M

Length: 45min 44sec (2744 seconds)

Published: Wed May 06 2020