Book Journal Vloggers, Sigh

On Tuesday, I talked about how I watched a lot of book journal videos and that I had a few complaints. This is my blog detailing my frustration.

The idea of a book journal was exciting to me and I can actually tackle two new hobbies at the same time. The only thing tripping me up was what pages would work for a nonfiction book journal?

Surely, I can find all kinds of examples on YouTube. I went to find them.

There were many, many videos with titles like Setting up my 2024 Book Journal or something similar. I also had other years to work with. I had my pen at hand, ready to make notes on the pages I needed.

And what I got from these vloggers was videos on how they're decorating their pages. About why they chose the aesthetic they're using. About how they like to use double sided tape or glue sticks or what kind of markers they like to use. Now and then, they'd mention the page they were working on, but they were things like Book Battle, where the book they liked best each month throughout the year competed to win their book of the year. Or a spread for how many books they planned to read in a year.

Pages I'd seen a hundred times, but nothing new or different or exciting.

Okay, maybe if I watched the year-end flip throughs of their book journals, I'll get some ideas on the pages I want to create.

This is where the vloggers talked about the books they read for the year and if they met their goals, the reading challenges they participated in, their To Be Read piles. But nothing that helped me with the setup of my own book journal.

Maybe the book community who journals already knows what pages they want and no one else needs this information?

Or maybe my needs are just so drastically different that it's not a good fit?

I'm not going to do a yearly journal. I plan to use the same journal until I fill it up. This means I don't need monthly spreads. I also don't want a yearly goal or to do any reading challenges. I know me and setting goals on this front will only lead to me avoiding reading these books because I'm weird like that.

I did find flip throughs of two incredible book journals (Video One and Video Two) and I've decided to stay as close to these two examples as possible with my own journal. I know what I do will never look as awesome because I just don't have that level of patience or artistic ability, but I like the general layouts and it's something to aspire toward. Now it's a matter of figuring out what I want in there besides the books.

New Obsession

In my February newsletter I talked about my latest obsession and believe me, it was a shocker.

I've blogged about how annoyed I've been with having to pick up some of my podcasts on YouTube because they're either not audio only at all or the audio is released a long time after the actual show. While I was over on YouTube to find a podcast, the algorithm had a suggestion. It was about a village that had a lot of survivors of the plague in the 17th century.

I don't know why the algorithm suggested this video because I've watched nothing remotely related to it, but I happen to have an interest in the plague. Years ago, when I still lived in Minneapolis, PBS had an hour-long documentary about a gene mutation that helped people survive the plague.

The description for the documentary YouTube was recommending sounded as if it was going to involve this gene as well. (And it did!) It's called Plague Mystery.

Then I got another plague documentary recommendation that led to more history recommendations and somehow I've found myself particularly interested in the Tudors--King Henry VIII, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth I.

I even looked for audio podcasts with more English history. I found one specific to the time of the Tudors, but my favorite is called A History of England hosted by David Beeson. He's got a delightfully sarcastic sense of humor and the episodes are short. He also started Episode 1 with the Tudors.

In school, the only English history I learned was how it impacted American history. I was in AP American History, but there was no European history class at my high school, and I never sought it out in college.

I'm not sure how long my English history obsession will last, but for the moment, I'm enjoying everything that I'm learning.

Air Travel in Real Life

Someone I work with shared this video and it's pretty funny! The last minute or so is an ad, so feel free to stop it when the two men in purple come on the screen.

America's Small Town in Canada

This is a Minnesota story. :-)

Why Doesn't the Queen Of England Need a Passport?

This was interesting.

What Happened, YouTube?

Once, not all that long ago, YouTube's weekly emails with links to videos I might be interested in was extremely accurate. It included new videos from channels I've subscribed to and videos from other channels that were similar in nature. It was awesome and I would save these emails until I had time to click through on the many links that sounded interesting to me.

Then something changed. I don't know what or how, but now my emails from YouTube and pretty much scan and delete. It now only highlights three videos from channels that I've subscribed to and the choices are...interesting. You'd think the fact that I never click through any longer might improve the algorithm, but nothing has changed. And just to make it ever less exciting, they sometimes repeat the same video two weeks in a row. What? Do you think I missed it the first time?

These highlighted videos, BTW, are not from channels where I watch a lot of what they make and would love to know when they have something new out. No, these are from channels I rarely watch because they only occasionally have content that interests me. YouTube doesn't care.

It used to be easy to find content for my Sunday videos, but no more thanks to the changes YouTube made to their newsletter. Woo hoo. ::heavy sarcasm::

The Trouble With Transporters

This makes me sad. I like the concept of the transporter.

Ten Best Cat Commercials

Some of these are funny.

What Would A World Without Mosquitoes Look Like?

Interesting.

10 Disney Movie Theories

Ten movie theories that completely change Disney films.

Honest Trailers: Star Wars

Kind of amusing.

How to Insult Like the British

British Insults

10 Roads You Never Want to Drive On

Nope.

Irish Myth and Legends

Top 10 Irish Myths and Legends

Who Owns Antarctica?

Antarctica.

Zika Virus: What We Know

I thought this was timely.

Are Blue Eyes Going Extinct?

It also explains what makes eye color.

How Satellites Track You

With four satellites, they can even figure out your altitude.

Top Ten Historical Coincidences

Some of these are really odd.

3 Unsolved Mysteries That Have Been Solved

Hmmm.