The Amazing Book is Not on Fire

Book, 2015

Premise - The official book for YouTube sensations Daniel Howell (at the time danisnotonfire), and Phil Lester (Amazing Phil), using a combination of their two YouTube usernames. Though they hold separate channels, the two have been considered a double-act since they started appearing in each other's videos back in 2009, and have since created a whole online world together based on their undeniable creative chemistry.

Review - Umm... yeah... so... I have a problem. I have always had an addiction to YouTube and YouTubers, particularly the old "dinosaur" YouTubers like Smosh, nigahiga, thevlogbrothers, and many more. I even went to VidCon to meet all of these folks. And yet, somehow, I NEVER got into Dan & Phil. I knew who they were (absolute internet icons), and that they had a massive fan base (ahem, the "phandom"), and perhaps most alluring to me, the reputation as a British Smosh. Why didn't I watch them? They are two attractive, funny British guys part of the old YouTube kingdom? I just never tried. Friends didn't convince me to watch them because they assumed I already did.

So... now to arrive at my problem... I've fallen deep. DEEP. 2019 was my year of finally getting into Dan & Phil and discovering 10+ years of content. And they post a LOT of videos across their two main channels, two side channels, joint gaming channel, collabs, unlisted/deleted/privated videos, and what has sucked up most of my time is their weekly hour-long live shows. I've watched these until my eyes hurt. I've bought merchandise. I very sketchily bought this book off someone on tumblr. This is all I do. It is a very serious problem.

Among their 10+ years of content includes this official book, published in 2015 (about halfway through their career thus far) and of course I have devoured it.

It is a precious thing to keep for Dan & Phil fans, but it does not have much value elsewhere. Part of what makes Dan & Phil's videos so great is their line delivery - hearing their voices, their laughter, their banting. It does not translate to text. So while any casual video-watcher can stumble upon a Dan & Phil YouTube video and get a good laugh out of it, I doubt the same is true of the book. The value of having a book is for deep fans to have something physical to hold and keep. That is the main reason Dan & Phil also wanted to write the book, to have something that (supposedly) will last longer than the internet and YouTube. If you have the book, you can keep a little piece of Dan and Phil's world forever. (86/100)

Quote - From "What Dan and Phil Text Each Other"

Phil: "What time is it?"
Dan: "There is literally a clock on your phone"
Phil: "I meant day"
Dan: "That is also on your phone"
Phil: "Oh yh"

What to read for - Some favorite pages include "What Dan and Phil Text Each Other", "Things Overheard While Writing the Book", and Phil's fanfiction "The Hand" (though you can listen to him narrate "The Hand" on his YouTube channel and it's way funnier than seeing it written)

If you liked this book, I'd recommend Dan and Phil Go Outside!

Written by Daniel Howell and Phil Lester
Published by Ebury Publishing