Social reading?

[paulsalter]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Dude, why are you arguing with me? I'm not even talking about the Kobo app.

I was commenting in regard to this and nothing more:


Emphasis added by me.

general comment on how i have seen this work

perhaps if you where commenting on another poster you could have actually quoted them, then i would have known you aimed the comment at someone else

[ScalyFreak]

Originally Posted by Matthew Bostock

I see where you guys are coming from, but don't you think there's some room for the web and social media to come into play?

For reading itself, no. Reading is a solitary activity, or something that we do face to face, in small groups. For example, when I was a child, one of my parents would curl up in bed with me at night and read bed time stories to me. As my siblings and I grew older the evening story time turned into a family activity where all of us curled up on the couches in the family room with mugs of tea or hot chocolate, while mom and dad took turns reading to us from whichever book we were currently working on.

So reading can be a social activity, but that's rare. Most readers read alone.

When it comes to talking to other readers about what we read, on the other hand... I can easily see using Facebook to create a members-only page for a book club, for talking, sharing quotes, voting anonymously on what to read next, and so on. So for sharing what we read, controlling who we share it with, and talking about what we read, social media gives us more people to talk to. More readers to get recommendations from can only be a good thing.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by paulsalter

perhaps if you where commenting on another poster you could have actually quoted them, then i would have known you aimed the comment at someone else

I'm a slow typist. I fully expected my post to immediately follow the post I was responding to. Please forgive my terrible netiquette as well as the audacity to have an opinion that differs from yours. Peace.

[ScalyFreak]

I would like to add to my previous post, that I think there would be a greater benefit to incorporate existing social media than to create yet another site/app where we have to create yet another account, yet another friend list, learn yet another set of privacy options, and so on... there is such a thing as massive over-load of social media as well as anything else.

[taming]

My local library recently had the book Oprah has chosen for her book club in an eBook edition that includes her notes and comments as part of the book. I absolutely did NOT want that edition. OTOH, I attend a book club and I love the social reading that a good book club represents.

I have the Kobo Vox and the Android App on my phone. Occasionally I check out what others have to say about a book if something intrigues me, but not often. I save annotations to a facebook account if I want to be able to refer to them later, but it is a very locked down account, nothing else happening there.

[Piper_]

Originally Posted by ScalyFreak

When it comes to talking to other readers about what we read, on the other hand... I can easily see using Facebook to create a members-only page for a book club, for talking, sharing quotes, voting anonymously on what to read next, and so on. So for sharing what we read, controlling who we share it with, and talking about what we read, social media gives us more people to talk to. More readers to get recommendations from can only be a good thing.

This. It's why I love Goodreads. I don't share a lot, or write public reviews, but I love reading other people's thoughts and following similar tastes, to get recs.

I use the Currently Reading feature, and sometimes add my own little progress notes in there, only to keep personal track of what I've read, when, and what I thought about it.

[Serpentine]

!zomg alert!
Serpentine has just read page 356 of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and left a comment : '

Spoiler:

Snape kills Dumbledore

'
[x] Like!

Well, that's about the only reason I could think of for such ~social~ services :/

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by ScalyFreak

For reading itself, no. Reading is a solitary activity, or something that we do face to face, in small groups.

Which is one reason I always hated reading books for English classes. Getting 30 people to all read the same book with each person reading consecutive paragraphs out loud was painful. Every* time it was my turn to read I had to ask where we were so I could read my paragraph. I just couldn't handle listening to most of the people stumble over 2 and 3 syllable words, so I tuned everything out and read ahead.

I never did understand what the teacher hoped to accomplish by this torture. Maybe she was just trying to burn time. Or maybe it was to make sure that some of the students actually read some of the book instead of just trying to guess at the answers when the test came around (this was pre-internet mostly). It certainly wasn't to help with comprehension or enjoyment of the book.

*At least if it was a 1/2 way decent book. I did eventually figure out to stop and go back about 4-5 people prior to me and quickly figure out where we were. It worked most of the time.

[ScalyFreak]

Originally Posted by Serpentine

Spoiler:

!zomg alert!
Serpentine has just read page 356 of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and left a comment : 'Snape kills Dumbledore'
[x] Like!

Well, that's about the only reason I could think of for such ~social~ services :/

I know it's hard to believe, but there are actually people out there who haven't read that far in the books and don't know this yet. Spoiler tag is the polite way of posting things like this.

[Serpentine]

Originally Posted by ScalyFreak

Spoiler tag is the polite way of posting things like this.

But... I was social reading

[RDaneel54]

Another thought on why I have trouble with the highlights and notes of others.

I'm reading, suddenly I stumble across someone else's highlight. Now, I wonder why they highlighted that? Even if there is no note, the highlight alone breaks my concentration, the mood set by the author, etc. Not a bonus to reading, but a distraction.

Adding the possibility of someone else's notes makes the situation even worse. Now I stumble on their thoughts which could be wildly different from what I am perceiving/enjoying in the book.

The first thing I do on my new Kindles is turn off the "social" highlights and notes option.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

We need an antisocial network where people can ignore each other.

Excellent Idea!

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Serpentine

Spoiler:

!zomg alert!
Serpentine has just read page 356 of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and left a comment : 'Snape kills Dumbledore'
[x] Like!

Well, that's about the only reason I could think of for such ~social~ services :/

[ScalyFreak]

Originally Posted by RDaneel54

I'm reading, suddenly I stumble across someone else's highlight. Now, I wonder why they highlighted that? Even if there is no note, the highlight alone breaks my concentration, the mood set by the author, etc. Not a bonus to reading, but a distraction.

Adding the possibility of someone else's notes makes the situation even worse. Now I stumble on their thoughts which could be wildly different from what I am perceiving/enjoying in the book.

The above is much less of a problem if you're reading non-fiction. Someone else's thoughts on guide books or an introduction to philosophy, or the history of the Chinese tea ceremony, could enrich the reading experience of a book on the topic.

[Sydney's Mom]

I'm late to the party, but I cannot think of something I would like less. I used to hate it when someone saw my book, and said "How do you like it?" I don't know, it has taken me 3 months to read the first 3 chapters, and meanwhile I forgot the first 3 chapters. In addition, a lot of times, I don't know if I would recommend a book until I read the entire book. I'm not much into "it is good for you" -- that was school, and now that I have graduated, I can read what I want, GD.