- One thing about me is I'm gonna do
whatever the hell Emma Chamberlain says is cool.
(water pours)
Hello, and welcome back to my YouTube channel.
You know what's depressing?
I'm not even the best YouTuber in this video
and it's my channel because really and truly,
Emma Chamberlain is a pioneer of this industry.
She is on another level when it comes to
the YouTube and social media game.
You know when you were younger and your mom
would say to you, if they told you
to jump off a bridge, would you do it?
In this case, yeah, probably.
Yes, I would.
Genuinely though, Emma is the reason that me
and a lot of my friends who are now
full-time content creators are even still making videos.
You could say she's a role model.
If you know, you know.
So now I'm going to pull my head out of her ass
and crack on with the video but I did just want to say
that I have a huge, enormous amount of respect
for Emma Chamberlain and so of course I was extra excited,
ecstatic even, when I saw that she's into books now.
- Over the last week, I've fallen in love with reading.
I... read.
Reading is... harmless.
I would read a whole page.
There's something about reading a book.
I'm now a new advocate of reading.
Reading, reading, reading, like this is so good.
(beep)
- About a year ago, she posted a YouTube video,
a podcast episode, some Instagram photos
all about her new love for reading.
Literally me whenever I get a new hobby
and as you'll know, if you watch this channel,
please subscribe by the way, very close
to a million subscribers, I'm gonna scream.
Anyway, as you'll know if you watch these videos,
I run a celebrity book club where I read books
that famous and influential people have recommended
and then psychoanalyze them.
Is it any of my business? No.
Am I gonna continue doing it? You bet.
So anyway, Emma Chamberlain has recommended three books
so far and I already know that she has fantastic taste
because one of them was 1984 by George Orwell.
By the way (laughs) side note, but I recently saw
a tweet where someone called him 'Jorjor Well'.
I can never un-see that.
That is now ingrained on my eyelids.
I see it when I close my eyes.
That's his name in my head now
and 1984, really for me, was the book that made me
fall in love with books and studying literature.
So when I saw this recommendation, I was buzzing.
It's a dystopia and it's all about hyper surveillance,
being watched at all times and not even
having control of what you are able to say
and crucially, this surveillance and censorship
doesn't only exist in the public domain
but it also infiltrates the private sphere.
It invades the home as well and I can definitely see
how a YouTuber who has filmed their entire adult life
and has grown up with an audience on YouTube
following her every move, I can see why she would find it
interesting to see this blurred line between
the public and private spheres and thinking about
people having access to everything you do.
So this is a solid recommendation
and as soon as I saw that, I knew I had to read
the other books she's recommended and so here they are.
We have the Razor's Edge by William Somerset Maugham.
By the way, not to judge a book by its cover, but like...
shall we judge this book by its cover?
That is beautiful and then also East of Eden
by John Steinbeck, kind of one of
the greats of the American novel.
I've been working my way through these two books
and so I'll share opinions when I have them
but so far, thoroughly enjoying.
They're hitting me hard.
Hitting me like Will Smith at the Oscars
and I'm enjoying it.
I've been taking things pretty slow
and trying to really absorb these two books
'cause they are big brain energy and in the time
that I've been reading these, Emma Chamberlain
has attended both Coachella and the MET Gala
and probably started seven side hustles on the way.
Seriously, last time I checked Instagram,
she had her own salad bowl.
This woman doesn't sleep,
no wonder she drinks so much coffee
but I will let you know my thoughts
on these two books once I have some.
Now to help me really, really focus on these books,
today's sponsor Fabulous actually challenged me
to a seven day reading challenge.
The Fabulous app is a digital coach and happiness trainer
which uses insights from behavioral science
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and live a more fulfilling lifestyle.
It is the number one self care app
for a reason and myself needs some care.
So I said sign me up because small steps
each day can lead to really lasting changes.
You can use Fabulous to help make that part
of your daily routine and stick to it.
Like I said, there's a brilliant seven day
reading challenge that you can do on the app
which is something that can sharpen your memory,
improve your focus and enhance
your critical thinking skills and I get it,
sometimes these goals feel completely insurmountable
but Fabulous can help to motivate you
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You know, you are still doing the legwork,
but Fabulous is kind of just holding your hand.
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As you know, reading every day for me
is a really incredibly important part of my life
and the old mental health and also for me,
it means I can make videos like this.
So onto the first book.
Okay, we have progress.
I just finished reading the Razor's Edge
and I'm completely and utterly infatuated with this book.
Yeah, I am so happy that I read this.
It's essentially a group of socialites who are telling
the narrator about what's going on in their lives
and so a narrator is a kind of voyeur
but he's also close enough to them
to give them quite cutting and sometimes quite harsh advice.
I thought that proximity to the action works really well
because he's not omnipotent,
he doesn't have all the answers.
They're kind of all working it out in real time
and I thought that made the book incredibly endearing.
Also all the characters are so vibrant, so rounded,
so elaborately written and so memorable
and each of them is pursuing something,
whether that's wealth and comfort or social status
or in the case of the main character that we follow,
whose name is Larry, he's kind of on a journey
towards spiritual enlightenment.
He was a fighter pilot in the first World War,
and as a result of that, he's dealing with
a hell of a lot of trauma and so now he's sort of
searching for meaning again and he's given up
all the material goods in his life,
much to the horror of his affluent friends
and I don't know, maybe I'm reading too much into this
but I can see how this would maybe resonate
with Emma Chamberlain, whose recent content
is very much focused on the little things in life.
The small pleasures, things that don't rely on
material wealth and superficiality.
I think that she's been on that kind of journey too
and this is how he's described by his peers.
"Don't you think he may be pursuing an ideal
that is hidden in a cloud of unknowing-
like an astronomer looking for a star that only
a mathematical calculation tells him exists?
It may be that he has no confidence in the authenticity
of the vision that he dimly perceives in his mind's eye."
And the book is camp with a capital C.
It's a little bit pompous, it's a little bit frivolous
but it's so golden and it also has a lot of
deep and really well thought out social commentary.
The author, Maugham, is kind of mocking
these people and their snobbery, but he also has
a sort of fondness for them too and so it's observant
without being judgemental, which I really enjoyed.
The Razors Edge is genuinely very funny and witty.
It reminded me of bit of Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waug
and also The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood
and I also loved those books so there's a theme here.
This book though, has so many brilliant quotes.
Like when I read a book, I always read with a pencil
in hand 'cause I find that it makes me really focus
on every sentence that I'm reading.
I did unfortunately sit on my pencil
and my absolute dump truck split it in half
so that was unfortunate.
But my point is, I think a book tells two stories.
One is the story that is printed
in black and white on the pages
and the other is the story of you reading it
and so that's why I underline things, I fall down pages.
I make my book messy because I like the idea
that someone could pull a random book from my bookcase
and it would show them the parts that I loved
and I hope that would give them an insight to the book
but also to me and my mind.
So I underline my favorite quotes and then I fold down
the pages that I really enjoyed so I can find them again
and so you can usually tell how much I enjoyed a book
by how many pages are folded down and this one has
doubled in size because of how many pages are folded.
Truly, there's more lines in here than the MET Gala bathroom
and unrelated, but still important,
it's a very floppy book, which I appreciated.
I have to say though, I am biased
because this entire book is set in Paris
and they spend an awful lot of time just talking
about how lovely and splendid this city is
and as someone who lives here, it really hit a soft spot.
I read this mostly sitting in cafes or by the river
and so I did feel especially engaged
with the kind of choreography of the novel,
like all the streets they were walking down
I could completely envision
and so that's a very special reading experience, I think.
Just a warning, it will make you want to go to Paris
so just be prepared for that, if you do read it.
Again, I can see why Emma would enjoy this book
because I know that she also has
a real fondness for Paris and has visited
this pretty little city a fair few times now.
So yeah, I really enjoyed this book.
Don't say I didn't warn you that it
will make you want to visit Paris
and I'm also now very nearly finished
with East of Eden as well, which is the other book.
So I will let you know when I'm done.
So today I'm going to go thrift shopping
in true Emma Chamberlain fashion, literally.
I feel like thrift shopping is such
a staple part of her YouTube channel
and it's something I really enjoy as well
but I haven't done it at all recently.
In fact, I haven't bought any clothes really
since moving to Paris and also as far as I know,
all of the good thrift stores
are actually really close to my apartment.
So this is gonna be fun.
So I am no longer Jack, I am now Jacklemore
because we are going thrift shopping, baby!
By the way, what happened to Macklemore?
Is he doing okay?
Is he still popping tags?
I don't know.
Either way, let's go.
(upbeat music begins)
(music ends)
Okay, I'm home and thrifting was a big fail.
I didn't actually find anything I wanted to buy
but thrifting is all about being patient
and going often and occasionally striking gold.
But anyway, I stopped off in a coffee shop
and I finished this book.
I have defeated the beast.
I do have a confession that this book was actually
on my reading list during my literature degree
and I just didn't read it.
I skipped this one and someone get me a big red nose
'cause I am a fricking clown.
This book was great.
It is 600 pages and so intense but so worth it.
As you probably know if you watch these videos,
I have big book fear and so normally a 600 page book
repels me and also, can I just say it is
so hardcore of Emma Chamberlain to not read
for years and years and then pick up this?
Emma actually said this was recommended to her by her dad
so I suppose this video should really be
I read every book that Emma Chamberlain
and her dad have recommended
but it's basically because she was interested
in reading more classic works of fiction
and then made a video called 'READING MAKES YOU HOT'
in all caps, which I think is incredibly iconic
and also I strongly agree, but anyway, yeah,
completely and utterly unhinged behavior
to just dive straight in with a 600 page epic family saga.
But I love that for her, this is a hugely ambitious novel
and I think John Steinbeck is quoted as saying
that he thought this was his masterpiece, his Magnum Opus.
He said that every book that he'd written up until
this point was just practice for writing this one.
So that kind of tells you how much of his soul
he kind of poured into these lines
and it's an epic multi-generational tale
of these two families in America,
the Trasks and the Hamiltons.
There is a character called Kathy in this book who has
got to be the best literary villain of all time, I think.
I think she is so chaotic and just fundamentally
terrible and heartless and twisted,
but so captivating to read about.
Kathy is just a villain to her core.
She reminded me of a few people on YouTube actually.
(laughs)
Cancel Kathy.
Kathy is scripting and rehearsing
her apology video as we speak, I hope.
Not Kathy is over party, damn. (laughs)
This book just has you yearning for goodness
and humanity in a world that is so full of evil
and such terrible things happen regularly.
It's about love, it's about loss,
it's about lies, about murder,
about being a father and being a son,
about coming of age, about poverty, about wealth,
about enterprise, about inheritance.
It covers so much dusty ground
and I say dusty, because it's set
in the Salinas Valley, which is in California
which I'm pretty sure is where Emma Chamberlain grew up.
So quite close to home, although (laughs) written
a considerable amount of time before she was born.
It also includes a sort of retelling of Cain and Abel
and there is such a fascinating discussion about this
and how organized religion interprets
and translates holy scripture
and how different people and different organized religions
can interpret those things differently.
My friend Carly actually touched on this
in her reading vlog blog of this book
so I will leave the link down below because it's excellent.
But my conclusion really is that I can see why
Emma enjoyed this so much because it is a real page turner
and a good gateway into other classics, I think.
Not gonna lie, I found the first 70 pages a little dull.
I was a bit worried about this 'cause I wasn't sure.
It's mostly just beautiful kind of scene setting
and introducing all the characters
but the payoff after that is huge.
There is just drama unfolding from every angle.
It's like the Hollywood Reporter.
More drama than a bloody TikTok house in here.
So many banging twists and turns to the point where
despite it being so long, it's really well paced.
It chronicles the lives of these people
in screaming technicolor and I wanted to read you
my favorite quote, although I had many,
which is about the moment of realization that
your parents are real people, that they're flawed and how
that completely shifts your worldview and it's sort of
the precipice of becoming an adult, I suppose.
"When a child first catches adults out-
when it first walks into his grave little head
that adults do not have divine intelligence,
that their judgements are not always wise,
their thinking true, their sentences just-
his world falls into panic desolation.
The gods are fallen and all safety gone."
Is that some sort of sick and twisted joke?
That is the most beautiful thing I've ever read.
The characters feel genuinely real and honestly,
I could talk about this for much longer
than I have time for in this video.
I would not have attempted to read this book
if Emma Chamberlain hadn't recommended it
and so that is why I love making these videos
and I think it is so cool that the it girl
of YouTube recommended this book.
Thank you so much for watching this video.
I really appreciate it.
If you enjoyed it, you are more than welcome
to press that subscribe button.
I would love to have you here.
I hope that this video temporarily
kind of filled the Emma Chamberlain shaped hole
that currently exists on youtube.com.
We miss out, we want her back.
I don't know, they're my comfort videos, I love them.
So Emma, if you're watching, I'm sure you're not,
please take this as a collective cry for help.
We are so desperate for more content from you.
We are literally reading books that you have recommended.
We being... me.
Literally just me.
All my other social media is linked down below as is
the link for Fabulous, who very kindly sponsored this video.
So massive shout out to them, thank you.
There's loads more celebrity book club
videos over on my channel
and until next time, have a wonderful day.
All the best, stay in touch and goodbye.