The Amazing Book Is Not On Fire - A Review 📚

Hello there Internet!

I hope you're doing well wherever you are in the world today 🌏

If you couldn't tell from the title, this week I've got a book review for y'all 😎

First off, disclaimer - if you aren't really into YouTubers, the fact that they write books sometimes, or 2 specifics YouTubers called Dan and Phil, this week's post might not be for you.

This week (and next week if I'm honest) has been dedicated to my YouTuber fangirl, so shoutout to all my fellow fangirls (YouTube or others) 💖You are all always valid 💙.

Now, if you scroll back through all my posts, you'll come across one called "Wednesday Wonderment - September Snooze, Honesty and Coming Soon...." (link is here if you want more context...). In said post, I promised you guys a review of Dan and Phil's first book. I'd been watching them for a while, and I decided to learn more about their origin story by reading it.

After about 9 months of it gathering dust on two different bookshelves... I finally read it. I've been busy OK, don't judge me 🙈.

I also thought this would be a fitting post for today (being Sunday the 12th August), as in a week's time I will be seeing Dan and Phil in person on their Interactive Introverts world tour when it comes to Melbourne 😲.

While I go mentally prepare myself for that evening, here is the review I promised you 9 months ago....

There is a book out there in the world called THE AMAZING BOOK IS NOT ON FIRE.

Shit, that’s a mouthful.

Yep, that’s really what Internet personalities Dan and Phil decided to call their first book. For their 2014 branding, that was a genius move. Plus, it abbreviates down to a neat little acronym: TABINOF. But in 2018, I’m not so sure they would agree with that assessment. They don’t talk about it much....

For those of you under a rock, Dan and Phil are two of the most successful YouTubers to ever exist on the platform. Combined, Dan Howell (formerly danisnotonfire) and Phil Lester (aka AmazingPhil) have amassed around 17.6 million subscribers across 6 channels, and an astronomical amount of views (I’m not doing that math). As of 2018, they’ve written 2 books, had a British radio show, cameoed in film and television, created a board game, and are currently on their second stageshow world tour. I’ve probably forgotten some of their accolades, but you get the gist: these dudes have been busy. They also have one of the most passionate and dedicated fanbases that’s ever existed on the Internet. You can fight me on that, but it’s a fact.

Not every YouTuber has a wrap sheet that illustrious. So what made these two awkward, introverted British guys so special? The answer, I believe, lies in the pages of TABINOF. All up, cover to cover, it took me about 3-4 hours to read. So it wasn’t exactly a complex intellectual experience. But it was still incredibly enjoyable.

The shining light of TABINOF was its personality. Flicking through, you can tell how much time, effort and quirky creativity had gone into making it. They certainly didn’t half-arse anything, which I appreciated considering I didn’t exactly buy it cheap. I don’t feel like I was ripped off, and I respect that.

It made me laugh on several occasions. Echoing the uniqueness of their videos, both the guys have a knack for telling stories in a really interesting way. It struck a good balance between their individual personality and charm, plus the tight friendship that has defined their success. Essentially, they’ve captured the exact reasons why people started watching and following them in the first place. Nerdy awkwardness combined with genuine and relatable quirks. Not a lot of fluffy bullshit, it was genuinely clever and authentic to who they are. I didn’t get any kind of superficial vibes, and it had all the spoofs, quirks and banter I’d expect from these two troublemakers.

There’s also a distinct sense of humour and repartee in every conversation. Is it sad that I have watched so many of their videos that in my head, I read all their conversations in their voices? That was a rhetorical question. I know the answer is yes. It’s quite sad. Please don’t judge me. But that’s slightly crazy to me. Their personality was so vivid in the text that I could properly visualise it!

Judging from the sheer size of the book, there’s plenty of content happening here. I could go on and on forever about how cool all the different sections were, but I haven’t got the time. But I definitely had my favourites.

I think the blurb captured the vibe of this book perfectly :)

The childhood moments, including the AOL chats and a dream journal, were truly some of the most innocent and wholesome literature out there. There’s ‘interactive’ pages as well. Ever on brand, there was How To Correctly Draw Cat Whiskers. Newsflash, apparently I’ve been drawing my cat whiskers all wrong. Now I know better.

Also look out for the Dining Chair Quiz. Full disclosure, I only really bought the book for this quiz. What dining chair I am emotionally is an utterly unnecessary piece of information, but I was curious. Shoutout to all my fellow Purple chairs. Apparently I’m one of you.

There’s also a YouTube video idea generator, based on your date of birth. But no, I will not be posting a video of the groundbreaking content that is a blindfolded drawing of the planet Jupiter. Nobody needs that.

All the storytimes were brilliant. The infamous One Direction tale lived up to the hype, and the Vegas story was a JOURNEY because I’m 98% sure it was all made up. But there is 2% of me that has genuine questions. ‘Twas suspiciously entertaining. The fanfictions were also truly genius. Surprise, surprise, they’re not bad writers. Perhaps they have potential employment in creative writing if this YouTube thing fizzles out.

Text message exchanges, drawings of the evolution of their hair, blindfolded portraits, apartment tours and an overview of their gaming channel were also featured. But I haven’t even scratched the surface of everything that is going on in this book. That’s how jampacked this thing was!

Aesthetically, it’s very pleasing. I loved the scrapbook style with the eye-catching motifs and fonts. There’s something bold and exciting on every page. Except for the one that’s just a photo of Dan’s wardrobe. That’s just black. It flowed really well too. The chronological evolution was a smart choice, and there weren’t really any moments where I got bored.

YouTuber books tend to make me nervous, because I never know what to expect. But this one was nice.

Seriously, this book was a lovely representation of everything I love about them. It’s crazy how accurate it is for me reading in 2018, because it was written 4 years ago! I suppose that’s a testament to how authentic Dan and Phil are as humans. Sure little things like their hair and official channel names have changed. They’ve dropped parts of their old branding along the way, but their core connection and dedication to creating great content for their audience hasn’t really changed at all. If anything, it’s only gotten stronger with every new project.

It's hard to be successful on YouTube, let alone keep any success going for the likes of 8-9 years. But Dan and Phil have done pretty well for themselves, and they’ll always have this book to prove it. Good job lads! 

★☆★☆★☆★

There you go, I hope you enjoyed that review. I was super nervous to put this one up, but I'm super happy that I was able to get past the nerves and post it. Also, if you have read this far, thank-you for indulging my inner fangirl. She really appreciates it 😉

As of right now, the plan is the next post will be a review/general conversation about my experience at Interactive Introverts Melbourne, so if you want to have a read of that, or anything else that I happen to post after that, please follow me @miss_memphis98 on Instagram and/or Twitter 😀

Thanks for reading,

Love, lions and llamas, Emily xx 😸