Book Videos: 19 Of The Best And The Worst (VIDEOS)

Book videos, book trailers: Who actually watches them? Although we find ourselves pondering this question all too often, publishers, authors and publicists still push them all the time.

Beyond the standard -- and often boring -- book trailers, though, we've seen some amazing video content having to do with books this year. From Electric Literature's one sentence animations to Washington Post critic Ron Charles' awesome video reviews, from Richard Hine's crowd-sourced video campaign
to a new, satirical animation with talking bears, 2010 had plenty of great video content about books.

So, to find the best and the worst (to be sure we're entertained!) video content out there, on Monday morning we Tweeted:

#bookvideos: Got best/worst trailers or book related video? Tweet link w/hashtag or eml [e-mail]

Here's what you guys brought us -- and a few extras we just couldn't leave out! Let us know which are your favorites, either because they're that good or because they're just so gosh-darn bad!

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So Bad, It's Good?

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Is this the worst book trailer ever? Or does it somehow miraculously go 360 degrees past being bad, landing somewhere nearby "good"? You decide.

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Is this the worst book trailer ever? Or does it somehow miraculously go 360 degrees past being bad, landing somewhere nearby "good"? You decide.

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Comments

[Kevin David Anderson]

03:04 PM on 12/31/2010

Some on the list came out in 2009!

...and I can not believe this one didn't make the list
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyO2k-jApng

[Legerity Entertainment]

03:13 PM on 12/10/2010

I wish I'd seen this earlier - AHHH. Here is one of the best Book2Film Trailers I've seen.

The Barrier: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yOSwJv70RY

Based on The Books of James C. Patch: The Barrier (1st in the trilogy) by author Gary D. Henry.

[Razovsky]

10:32 PM on 12/08/2010

What an honour to almost be the worst! I don't know if you can judge the technological advances of my trailer without comparing it to my first trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV5CrHyORpo

Some have said I've really sold out to the mainstream since those early days.

[gappedtoothgodwarrior]

08:15 AM on 12/08/2010

OK not going to lie, I merely clicked on this story because the girl in the "Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters" vid is smoking hot in the still. And she turns out to be even more so in the actual vid.

So, yay?

[Joshua Caldwell]

08:06 PM on 12/07/2010

Really surprised that Anthony E. Zuiker's digi-novel "Dark Prophecy: A Level 26 Thriller" was left off of here. Having been a part of it's development and production, it's probably one of the best examples of video integration into a book yet. Here's the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isOpHBiN6ik

[hairydodger]

10:33 AM on 12/08/2010

I thought this enhanced ebook demo should be near the top of the list. It's simple and fun at the same time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjFMzgdUzfY&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[Richard Hine]

04:55 PM on 12/06/2010

For completists, all 30 of the videos entered into the Russell Wiley Is Out to Lunch book trailer contest are now archived online at:
http://www.youtube.com/richardhineauthor
One of the key things that made the contest a success for me was that we gave the creative teams who participated a very tight creative brief that listed major characters, spelled out major plot points and gave specifics about the target audience we imagined for the book. Within these parameters, we saw an outpouring of work, including live action mini-movies, some great animation and a funny rap-meets-the-Brady-Bunch video, which was selected as the winner by an international panel of advertising experts.

[TomHunter]

04:02 PM on 12/06/2010

I must confess that I am underwhelmed by Mr. Shteyngart. I also find it baffling how one can be a novelist who does not read even one word. Having read one of his books "Debutante", I also find it amazing that he can get his books published.

[rbloom]

03:23 PM on 12/06/2010

Why didn't my comment get through? It was on topic and unoffensive. This is frustrating.

[rbloom]

03:45 PM on 12/06/2010

OK. Thanks.

[owltattoo]

03:04 PM on 12/06/2010

Damn. I loved Shark vs. Train.

[DougSeelye]

02:31 PM on 12/06/2010

Holy Crap

[MrSmyth]

01:58 PM on 12/06/2010

I like this trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y6pX3rKNcA

[rbloom]

01:20 PM on 12/06/2010

How can you leave out Lincoln the Vampire Hunter? Beats the heck out of the sea monster one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X58RPS665V0

[VirginiaJeff]

12:09 PM on 12/06/2010

 
The XtraNormal characters are strangely addictive.

[underover]

11:03 AM on 12/06/2010

james franco is zelig.

[Jason Greenwood]

10:59 AM on 12/06/2010

Sorry, nice try guys... but this is one of the best booktrailers of the year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34auVNcmhPc