Recommendation: Max Joseph

In 'How to read more in the golden age of content', Max Joseph words "Bookstores are basically like art galleries with stories attached" really spoke to me.

In an era of over-posting, it’s not always that you’ll stumble upon content on YouTube that is actually worth your time, one that not only makes you reflect on yourself but also moves the bones in your body to get up and do something. More than a year ago, my YouTube algorithm did an excellent job at recommending Max Joseph’s 38-minute documentary ‘BOOKSTORES: How to Read More Books in the Golden Age of Content’. From that moment on, that video would be a core memory, one which I will not stop recommending to people at any given moment.

The opening starts off with Max listing out the possible reasons as to why bookstores drive him crazy. “I think it has something to do with the cover art or the colourful and coordinated patterns of their spines” and right off the bat, my head nodded furiously in agreement as though I was hearing someone say something about myself that I’ve only ever kept buried inside of me. It’s true, I love visuals so the moment I see a cute cookie packaging or a gorgeous book cover, my brain tells me to buy it. That’s probably why I end up walking out of bookstores with a lot more books than intended and a lot less money than when I entered. Then he goes on to say that he has book FOMO (or book anxiety as one commentor calls it) because there are all these intriguing books before him yet so little time to read them.

I was impressed by the visuals and scenes expressed in the documentary. I’m no Oscar critic nor film major but as a regular social media consumer, I thought the shots Max took deserve some form of gold ribbon or other. In one sitting, he takes us to a church-turned-bookstore in Brussels, a bookstore in Porto where allegedly J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter, a town called Óbidos that has 14 bookstores and 62 inhabitants and more. It was like going on a virtual tour and in this current global affair, it’s exactly what I needed. 

If the visuals don’t impress you then surely following along Max’s journey to read more will. He meets up with a bunch of these people who give him advice on how to consume more literature and fit them into his busy life. As a uni student, I understand how hard it is to jump back into casual reading especially after having read a bunch of academic articles and textbook chapters every day. I may not be following most of the advice given because I am content with just picking up my book whenever my heart tells me to but if you want to religiously start reading again, look at what the video has to offer and then try what’s best for you.

I was in a reading slump for 2 years and felt guilty for not reading as much as I used to when I was in high school but Max’s video was like a rite of passage. It evoked this sudden need in me to take myself to Dymocks and get a book to read in the name of fun again. Though I’m not at the point where I’m going through book anxiety (I’ve got other things to be anxious about), I am striving to lessen my time online and decrease my embarrassingly high screen time. So, this short doc helps me get back into the groove of reading every time I catch myself going on TikTok and Netflix a lot more than I’d like to.