Lost in a Good Book

Yes, I know I am being unconventional, ‘why is she uploading a non book review related post right in the middle of her series post? It will ruin the flow she so desperately wanted and irk her minor controlling nature of perfection she tries to hide.’ The reason dear readers is number one, this is not totally unbook related, and second because I feel the need to make a proclamation. I stumbled across a brilliant vlog on YouTube. And for those who do not know what a vlog is good news! neither did I. But I have slowly started to find these little gems of joy and happiness and need to share. A vlog is pretty much what yours truly here is doing but with pretty pictures and editing techniques that we in the world of typey typey cannot do. Though if you wish I could come back and edit in random pictures and add lyrics to give the illusion of fancy editing. But I digress.

This proclamation is about how I have just spent the better part of the past three hours during this frankly not overly beautiful or going outside welcome kind of day watching video after video of this vlog I found. I will tell you what it is but before I do I do want to point out that this is a very popular vlog and one that has been going for so many years it is rather embarrassing how long it has taken me to find it so please don’t hate me for being one of those people who suddenly discovers something and thinks it’s all well and wonderful when people have been thinking it is all well and wonderful for the past six years, which is how long this thing has been going. Any who! The vlog I found was the vlogbrothers channel and I have to say after a few videos I was fairly certain I was I love with one of the brothers and I am not entirely ashamed to say it was Hank.

Now to the important and relevant part that started these rambles of happiness off. After watching a series of these videos for the better part of the three hours on my overcast and otherwise uneventful Tuesday, I came across the newer posts and found out that the other brother (the one who I was only starting to love but just as intensely) was a writer. Oh isn’t that wonderful and cool, a writer on a vlog I like, I like writing, he has some great insights I love his thoughts on life and general nature of being a person. All the typical emotions one experiences when one is very excited and swept up in the fast paced action these two brothers emit and use in their allures to charm people like me to their crazy, adorable (though I apologise for calling grown men adorable but they are so deal with it), witty life and insights into the world around us (slight flashback to the great nature show that used to be on Channel Seven, shout out to old Australian TV shows.)

So as I am enjoying this second brother John who seems just as amazing and insightful and very charming like his other brother counterpart Hank, what do I discover? As the next video automatically starts in that sometimes helpful, sometimes not helpful way YouTube does, I see dear brother John talking about how he had finally finished signing the final sheet for his new book. Now I had seen a couple where I knew he had a book so I was rather pleased for him, nice that he had written a book, sounds all wonderful considering I had no real idea who they were or what was really going on. And then the marvellous moment happened: John shows us the copy of his book, and I have the greatest moment of my life (slight exaggeration for the purpose of the topic) as I realise that all this time I had inadvertently been watching and falling in love with the vlog of the guy who wrote The Fault in Our Stars. I have to say I was ecstatic (no exaggeration for blog purposes). I had been sitting here listening about how this guy had other books and all these other things thinking I quite liked him and might find out what these books actually were and then this happens. Now, I will admit that dear poor John may have been second best to other brother Hank who stole my heart initially with his chaotic and marvellous ways, but John did manage to get himself into almost equal place before my realisation so I will have no claims of liking for the sake of liking. I have since concluded that I love them equally for different things as they offer different things.

I do realise that this has very little to do with anything, trust me, but I would also like to take this moment to say that I will now intentionally hunting down this book (not hard, it is everywhere) and reviewing it at the first possible chance. I would also like to mention that I did actually have every intention of reading this book because it was raved about but now I have seen John in action and seen how quirky and amazing he and his brother are I want to read it for other purposes. I know having a book praised and talked about in every possible instance can make people think you are only reading it because it is said to be wonderful and I will say in part that is true, but also because I had a very close friend (her blog is here and her goodreads review is here) also praised this book, and I would like to say I trust her judgement about these things more than a few thousand/million people who praise a book (see Twilight phenomenon).

As I was saying I have heard brilliant upon brilliant things about John‘s book The Fault in the Stars and if possible I am finding the others as well because I know this is his sixth book it seems and I think a back catalogue is required as well. I can’t be liking someone for one book and one book alone. If only I’d know I could have been enjoying him (in the through the book and internet sense) all these years. I would like to blame the fact they were in America, and I would like to blame the fact the other books may slightly not have made as big of a fuss as The Fault in our Stars did over here, and also in part I probably was not paying that much attention if they had, but also because until a few years ago I didn’t even know what a blog was, let alone a vlog and so I wasn’t even looking for these kinds of things on the Internet. YouTube was pretty foreign to me for its first few years and I have no real shame in admitting that it kind of still is aside from my few subscribed thing. I have no interest in cats and watching children say weird and stupid things so unless I stumble across something through a video I was actually looking for or subscribe to, then YouTube is 99% uncharted territory in my world.

There may be people out there who loved The Fault in Our Stars who didn’t know there was a vlog, or there may be others who have loved the vlog for years. If you know not of the book or the blog then you must find out about both and get investigating. As soon as I have finished The Fault in Our Stars you will know about it and I hope you check out Hank and John’s vlog because it does actually have a lot about The Fault in Our Stars, but it has oh so much more about life, nerd things, funny things, obscure things, writing things and just strange ‘why am I watching this’ things. And! And! There is a Narnia connection because Hank darling has a map of the realm of Narnia on his wall in one of the early videos. May you fall in love like I have.