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Sunday, April 17, 2016

Book Review: I, Justine: An Analog Memoir by Justine Ezarik

Author: Justine Ezarik
Publisher: Atria/Keywords Press
Pages: 240
Format: E-book
Published: June, 2015
Price: $11.99 -> Rp159.227 (Amazon)
Rating: 4 / 5 stars

Date started: March 22, 2016 - Date finished: March 25, 2016

Synopsis:
A one-woman media phenomenon and a leading YouTube influencer takes readers behind the camera, and deep inside her world.

Justine Ezarik has been tech-obsessed since unboxing her family’s first Apple computer. By sixth grade she had built her first website. A decade later, she became one of the Internet’s first—and most popular—“lifecasters,” inviting people around the world to watch her every move, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. But it was a one-minute video about an itemized AT&T bill that gave Justine her first taste of viralsuccess: Within ten days of release, her “300-page iPhone bill” had garnered more than 3 million views and international media attention. These days, iJustine is a one-woman new media phenomenon: The popular techie, gamer, vlogger, and digital influencer has an army of nearly 3.5 million subscribers across multiple YouTube channels, with total views approaching half a billion.

Now, Justine is giving friends and fans a look behind the scenes, sharing never-before-told stories about the hilarious (and sometimes heartbreaking) reality of sharing your life online. With her trademark wit and delightfully weird sense of humor, Justine delivers an inspirational message in support of creativity, entrepreneurship, and the power of staying true to yourself, while reminding readers that the Internet is a very small world—you just never know who you’re going to meet.
Review:
I first found out about Justine's YouTube channel in late 2015 through her various videos about Apple products. When I watched her videos I just love her sense of humor, grand gestures an of course her crazy videos waiting in line for something that we might perceive as crazy, like camping out for an opening of a new Dunkin' Donuts.

Going into this book I expect to be filled with a lot of technical terminologies on Apple or gadgets and technologies in general, but this book is not about that (well there are excessive fingerling towards Apple and its products though). This book is Justine Ezarik's autobiography in which she tells us her journey as you might say it "from zero to hero". It starts off with Justine, fresh off of high school and not knowing where and what to study for college. She ended up taking a major on something she loves (I forgot the exact major but I'm sure it was something to do with video editing).

This book chronicles Justine's life as she became one of the first people to try out Twitter, YouTube and other new, exciting and interesting web-based platforms. Justine also told us how she quit her job that made her ends meet and investing fully on her websites, YouTube channels, etc. When you read about Justine in this book, you'll know just how invested and how serious she is in becoming a content creator of her online presence. Online is where Justine wants to make money. It's the job that she loves and now she gets paid for it.

It wasn't all that easy making money from doing what she loves to do. It was a loooong journey for Justine. Starting out as making funny videos on the internet with her best friend, to streaming her life 24/7 on Justin.tv. There are also some bumps on the road here and there but she kept going and pursuing what she loves to do.
“What we say to each other-even when it's anonymous, even when we think no one is paying attention, even when it's online-matters. Words have meaning.”
It feels like I'm on a roll isn't it? Finishing non-fiction book after non-fiction book. But nah, I think this is the last non-fiction book I read for a while. So, I started this book during my train ride back to my hometown and got about a good 80% of it done on my Kindle Jenner (that's my Kindle's name if you're wondering). I then finished the rest a few days after I arrived at my parents' house. It was very interesting to read this book, it just felt so real. It was like I was getting to know Justine layer over layer from what she has written in her book.

My favorite parts of this book are the story of when Steve Jobs seemed intimidated by her. Her experience when the police showed up banging on her door thinking that someone was going to murder her and of course her experience as a full time live streamer on Justin.tv. Ooh, I almost forgot, the part where she entered the Yahoo! competition was also a fun and sad part to read.
“We are surrounded by so many extraordinary things in this life that it's easy to become jaded. We carry around in our pockets and purses these unimaginable miracles of modern technology, these mind-blowingly powerful computers that allow us to speak-at a moment's notice-with anyone in the world, that grant us access to billions of pages of information; with the press of a button, we can read almost any book every written, listen to any song ever recorded, or gaze into the face of a loved one, even if they are thousands of miles away. I think that's amazing. I don't want to be jaded. I want to marvel.”
"And that's why Steve Jobs was so much more than an inventor of sleek gadget or a powerful businessman; he was someone who inspired awe, who made us marvel, who made people believe that anything was possible. He was a genius who wasn't afraid to think differently, and I miss him."
The interactive part in this book was also quite interesting although I missed it completely. Had I known about it I would surely ask some questions to her in the hopes of being featured in her book (HAHA). Ok, back to the interactive part of the book. So when Justine wrote this book during the process she asked via her Twitter to her fans if they had some questions and if the questions were related to the things she discussed in her book she'll feature them on the book. So you might see some questions from Justine's fans spreader throughout this book. Plus the essential pictures of Justine with the Apple products she has collected throughout the years.

If you know Justine, you know that She's a devoted Apple fangirl and from this book you'll get a look at how her obsession with Apple products started and of course her love of Apple's creator, Steve Jobs. I guess that's it, my recommendation would be the same as the previous non-fiction book I've read and reviewed. If you know about the writer and want to know more about Justine than you definitely should read this book, but if you know nothing about Justine you won't find that much enjoyment reading this book.

That's all for now!

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