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I've seen the "virtual geography" idea as it has played out in Second Life, and it doesn't work for me. I find it much more efficient to be able to scan a list on a screen than to have to walk around in virtual space to find something. I don't like wandering through malls, looking for content. I like it even less in Second Life than I do in real life.
The exception, of course, is things that are best represented in 3D. If I were considering buying a house or hiring a builder in a remote location, I'd love to be able to tour a virtual house. Or if I were buying furniture, I could have a model of my own house, and try the virtual versions of different furniture in it until I find something I like. Maybe someday we'll have virtual representations good enough that I'd consider buying one-of-a-kind pottery that way, but we're not there yet. And for buying words, why would I need a 3D representation? I'm not going to read them that way.
On the other hand, I like being part of a community around books, but at this point, I think the site we're on right now (as I'm typing this, and later as you're reading this, whoever you are) is serving that purpose better than a virtual world which imposes "realistic" constraints of time and place.
As I type this, I'm sitting in a real-world library-- a real community of books. I'm here because I have a few hours free and this is a comfortable place to be. The combination of real local space and "flat" or text-based virtual space works well for me.
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