Looking for a good book, but don’t know if it’ll actually be good or not? Want to hear an opinion on the world at large? Well, Ryan Horner has you covered. An avid reader with an interest in the world, Ryan is a youtuber who does it all. Read more to find out all about him and his adventure!
Name: Ryan Horner
School year/major: First year Graduate Student for creative writing fiction
Hometown: Greentown, Indiana — “Lots of farmland, like Davis” Ryan adds.
What brought you to Davis?
There is a pretty good writing program here and I wanted to work with Pam Houston. California was more of a cool bonus to having the opportunity to work with her. I’m hoping to get my master’s in creative writing and make a living out of doing book slash writing.Â
Why did you start fortheloveofryan?
I started my Youtube channel because I was watching a lot of Youtube. I specifically liked the cool communities that are active on Youtube; the ones that comment and talk about important issues and even do activism in the real world. For a long time I was very comfortable watching the conversations happen, but I also felt that I had a lot to say and that I could do cool things if I had the chance and the ability to do it consistently. I decided to experiment with it because I was travelling over the summer, so I made a rule for myself that I would make one video per week for a year. That’s why I started and the channel has changed a lot in the process.
Do you consider yourself a vlogger or booktuber?
50/50 currently. The plan is one vlog, and then the next is book-related video. Since I’m in a writing program and I spend my time reading and writing, the vlogs end up being book-related anyways.
What separates content from being booktuber or vlogger?
I think they’re less separated than we think. They bring a lot of a person’s life into the content. I am an avid reader and can’t separate my life from the books I’m reading. I’m reading and seeing my life in them. Vlogger is labelled as investing in someone’s life as it’s lived, day to day or week to week. In booktube there’s a medium for those personal conversations to happen around a work of art that you’re reading and sharing with other people. Those conversations don’t always happen with vlogging, but vlogging is also more unfiltered which is cool as well.
In your recent vlog, you discussed if there is a “right way to write”? Do you have any ideas?
So, I think that the most important thing is not worrying too far in advance about the outcome and it’s pretty similar with Youtube videos, honestly. The best way to do it is to hop in and start whatever story you feel like you have to tell, or what ever you need to write. Pay attention to the details and get inside the story. When you’re finished working you can emerge with something on the page that’s workable instead of sitting and thinking that “it’d be really cool if I had that story done, or that video done”. The more you think about it, the more daunting it becomes.
Who are your inspirations?
VLOGBROTHERS I’ve watched every video more than once (at least). They were a huge inspiration for me, mostly because I feel like they were talking about stuff that was way more important than a lot of other things on Youtube. I wrote off Youtube initially, but the community opened my eyes as to like you can talk to anything in substance on Youtube– if you do it right.
I really liked that they weren’t focused on promoting themselves, but just doing justice to the topic. And then people will find it if they care about it.
For me, it was less about how small Youtubers will rampage through finding people who are similar to them and subscribing the crap out of them to build the audience before making cool material. For me, it was about making cool material and if I’m the only one watching it at the end of the day that’s fine. I’ll still laugh.
Snogging on Sundays Books and The_Bookchemist have been influential since I have taken an interest in booktube. They have the books that I read and the other has a really good community. I look to them and try to figure out what they’re doing because I want to do them as well.
What was your favorite book that you’ve reviewed so far?
Infinite Jest! It’s 1200 pages long and it took me a whole summer to read and it was impossible to do a review in ten minutes (which is my personal limit). I had no time to talk about it, so I was forced to be as creative as possible. I also believe that the book is life changing and I want people to read it. And people have! That’s the best thing possible from my channel.
Did you plan on continuing fortheloveofryan at Davis?
I didn’t know that I would be doing Youtube at Davis at all! When I started I thought it would be done before grad school, but I enjoy doing this and I decided to figure it out. So far, that’s been hard because I have a tiny apartment, but my roommates are cool with it.
What’s your process like?
I rely pretty heavily on a script, especially if I’m doing a book review. I don’t want to say anything off the cuff.
I have a corner of my room with a bookshelf and a sign with my name on it. It’s the only well lit and clean corner of my apartment. I’ll get my script and I’ll set my camera up to get comfortable talking to the camera.
I do a few takes of the reading before actually editing. Editing will take over 65%-70% of the time it takes to create a video. Everything needs to go in a certain order and you go through the bad stuff, feel really embarrassed, and then you cut something together that ends up on Youtube. Sometimes the things that get cut should totally be on Youtube. They’re hilarious, but are just embarrassing enough.
What are your thoughts on advanced reader copies?
I just started getting into ARC’s and started figuring out what books I want to read. Mostly, I want to get through a list of big name books that have been out for a while. There are few books that I should have tried to get ARC’s for such as Purity by Jonathan Franzen, and Welcome to Nightvale.
How was Welcome to Nightvale?
Really good, so much like the podcast! I was hearing it in my head in the voices from the podcast. I also saw the WTNV podcast live show in Sacramento a few weeks ago and that was right after I finished the book. I had a WTNV week and it was amazing.
Has Welcome to Nightvale had an influence on your channel?
Honestly, I can get bored watching some book reviews on Youtube, and if I wasn’t interested in the book already, I may not finish the video. The thing about Night Vale is that they do audio really well without it being boring because the sentences end with a twist and I try to incorporate that into my videos. It’s been a challenge and an inspiration because I don’t want to be bored watching my own videos, so I work at it constantly.
How do you balance student life?
I’m really lucky because my area of study and homework, work really well as research for my Youtube channel. If I’m reading four books for class, it’s a good chance that one of those will be on my Youtube channel. My next video will be on White Teeth by Zadi Smith, which is awesome because I get to create content on an amazing book that I wasn’t aware of beforehand. So the hard balance is finding time to edit, because it takes so dang long, but it’s a nice break from school. It’s a fun hobby.
What criteria do you have for reviews?
I don’t ever want to review a book because someone wants to give me a copy of the book, or because they want me to review it. This conflict of interest is why I’m skeptical of ARC’s because I don’t want to do a video on something I wouldn’t have wanted to read anyway. At the same time, I would also request ARC’s for books I want to talk about.
I also don’t want to exclude my audience by reading books the public wouldn’t have easy access to. This is something that I have seen some booktubers do, that’s kind of against my morals on what booktube should be.
Lastly, I don’t want to do a negative review, but if I do, it’ll be because I feel like a negative review is necessary. I just won’t review it– i’ll read it, but not review it. I only want to promote good stuff.
Any advice for Youtube starters?
My best piece of advice for Youtube channels is to set rules for yourself with consequences if you break them. I set it up so I have to make a video each week or I’ll do a punishment which are always mildly embarassing. The number of weeks that risked punishment kept me making videos instead of doing something else is most of that first year. Every weekend I didn’t want to make a video, but the risk of punishment kept me committed to the project. The most recent video I made, I thought “I can put this off another week,” but I want to keep to my schedule and that’s helpful every single week. Basically, set a schedule and punish yourself if you don’t hit it.
Watch Ryan here: