"Hate to say it, but I'm kind of a nerd": Vlogging and Reading Passions with Samantha Newton
Written by Haylie Ventouras
It’s difficult to make sure the audio is recording properly as Sam and I sit down in front of the Italian uni café, La Vita. Trucks groan past us as we sit and talk.
Samantha Newton’s Instagram account, @sammies.book.corner, is a welcome surprise amongst the many reading and book-related accounts on the platform. Her style of videos range from monthly reading recaps to aesthetic reading setups to book recommendations. The casual backlog of videos encouraging a focus on a consistent reading schedule and succinct analysis of the books discussed offer a stepping stone of conversation on a variety of books.
After recently hitting five-hundred subscribers on Instagram and setting up a YouTube page along with it, I sat down with her to discuss her page, her motivation for creating content and how she started with her hobby of reading.
“When I was really young, my nan took me and my older brother to the library every Tuesday and Thursday after school,” she chuckles “that kinda just got me into reading I guess. I didn’t really have a choice”. It’s a point that many can relate to, me included, especially when it comes to reading. The encouragement to be absorbed into fiction rather than sitting in front of the television or on devices is one that is drilled into the heads of kids like a mantra.
Sam recounts how she started her vlog to connect with other readers online. “I mostly wanted to make content just because it’s… fun? … Like I just like having fun with it, like I don’t, I dunno, do it for any particular reason?” Sam also discusses the future of her platform, her keen interest laying in “reading ARCs (advanced reader copy) for other authors and stuff for their books coming out and I find it really fun and really cool. So, like that would definitely be something I’ll like, keep aiming towards is doing ARC reviews and yeah just continue to make more friends online who are into the same thing.”
I ask her about her coverage of content, from Young Adult fantasy to insightful non-fiction, which I was curious if was intentional or not. “It’s kind of both? I really like reading nonfiction, hate to say it but I’m kind of a nerd. I like learning, so I will very happily read stuff that’s learning towards my specific interest. But also like, I don’t know, bit of a political opinion but I feel like currently, publishing is having such a huge, like, I don’t know how to even word it… At the moment, what’s really popular and what people think is popular is ‘romantasy’, which isn’t even a genre, it’s just a name for romance-based fantasy books and I hate that people think it’s a whole genre.”
Sam’s frustrations with the boom of the imposter genre of romantasy also brings to mind the pitfalls of creating reading content online. While like in Sam’s case, it helps foster connections between readers and authors, it can also be exploited. As discussed in a research article by Gitte Baling on the subject of TikTok and the romantasy boom, she discusses how the presence of publishers and influencers aligns with financial interests, raising concerns of creating an authentic space and how this can affect the interests and motivations of young readers.
Sam continues, stating “a lot of people are like oh, people who read are only going to read [‘romantasy’] or like women that read specifically only read like smut and like porn in books basically which is not true and I definitely want to make it known that I do read those books. I like fantasy and I like romance, but I also enjoy learning, so I guess part of it because I enjoy reading all those types of genres but also because I want to make people more aware that we don’t just read porn. We also like to learn.” It’s an admirable drive, no doubt strengthened by her approach to content creation and her evident success in creating a less stereotyped and more open-minded reading environment.
The café quiets down ironically as we come to a close for our interview. I ask Sam if there’s anything she’d like to do specifically with her future vlogs, whether it means branching out in style or format, or if she’s content with the structure of her current content.
“I mean like I’m so new at it that like everything is still a learning curve. Like I try to change one thing that I do each time to like, play around with form and style of editing and stuff like that…” she answers. “I’m not like set in my way yet, I don’t think, of like how I make content or what I’m doing to make content so I’m always open to trying new things and like if there’s a particular style of editing that’s really trendy… I guess it just depends on what I like for myself.”
To learn more about Sam’s vlogs and other reading content, be sure to check her out through Instagram at @sammies.book.corner or check out her YouTube page via the same username.
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