Oh my god I’ve seen bits and pieces of these people on youtube before, like 5+ years ago. If you look up “baby monkeys” on youtube, filter by playlists, they’re all like “stupid baby monkeys” or “ugly creepy baby monkeys”, with the videos’ comments either disabled or filled with “I wish someone would put a shock collar on these forest demons” etc.

According to David Gerard (youtube podcast link) they cut off the spines of the books to allow for rapid scanning

Edit: Ars Technica too, thanks alapakala