Comments on: Categories 1, 2 and 3

By: Rethink Books | SoBookOnline

Rethink Books | SoBookOnline — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 21:22:22 +0000

[...] suit Bob Stein de l’Institut pour le futur du livre, cette application se situe dans la deuxième catégorie de sa typologie de la lecture [...]

By: Bob Stein

Bob Stein — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 20:13:32 +0000

i think the latter.

By: Bryan Alexander

Bryan Alexander — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 17:56:04 +0000

Does “lit-blog” refer to the multiple ways blog posts discuss reading, or just to blogs whose primary topic is books?

By: La lecture sociale avec Rethink Books « SoBookOnline

La lecture sociale avec Rethink Books « SoBookOnline — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 15:49:17 +0000

[...] suit Bob Stein de l’Institut pour le futur du livre, cette application se situe dans la deuxième catégorie de sa typologie de la lecture sociale. #gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1 .gallery-item { [...]

By: Lisa Montanarelli

Lisa Montanarelli — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 14:25:50 +0000

While it’s important to keep the taxonomy simple, you might consider fleshing out Category 1. It strikes me that reading and talking about books in person plays an enormous role in transmitting reading skills and reading enthusiasm. Many parents teach their kids to read with children’s books.

By: Bob Stein

Bob Stein — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 18:16:40 +0000

i’m uncomfortable with “should’ve” here. there will likely always be a gap between the natural linear structure of reading and the impulse to comment. if i read a section all the way through before commenting i avoid premature conclusions, but i also may lose the thought entirely. a decent system for social reading on the page will have to account for different reading/commenting styles.

By: Jennifer Stevenson

Jennifer Stevenson — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 18:01:24 +0000

n.b. “fandom wank,” a spontaneously generated, meticulously scholarly group record of a specific event whose original site has been lost or, more often, deliberately erased.

By: Margaret Ikeda

Margaret Ikeda — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 15:36:22 +0000

Yep, should’ve read ’til the end of the page before commenting.

By: Margaret Ikeda

Margaret Ikeda — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 15:33:51 +0000

There was also an online, synchronous attempt to read David Foster Wallace’s novel “Infiite Jest” in 2009 (the summer after his death) called “Infinite Summer.” A website with a multi-author blog as well as a message board was set up specifically for the project at http://www.infinitesummer.org. There were also informal weekly offline book groups in different cities organized online (using the IS site, Twitter, and Facebook). Some people also blogged (and even started their own group blogs) their experience reading the book. As far as I know (as a participant) it was project set up solely by fans for no profit. If social reading tools (like margin comments) had been available at the time I imagine it would have made what was for me a pretty amazing reading experience even more transcendent.

By: Matt Bernius

Matt Bernius — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 19:48:10 +0000

To follow up on the previous comment, here’s an attempt to better sketch out this concept of interaction types (with corresponding taxonomic categories)…

category 1 with what we might call “Book Small Talk”

category 3 and 4 with “Exegesis” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exegesis).

One that I see missing is “Book as Metaphor” – where the book(s) is invoked as a shorthand for a specific point of view, or proof of a certain fact. The book may be used throughout this sort of conversation without it necessarily ever being specifically about the book.

Another one to consider is “Participatory (Meta) Feedback” in which, as Kathleen Parker and others have noted, the conversation is directed as gathering feedback to aid in the development for the author.

“Instrumental Commentary” is probably another category, especially important for business (and tech) books, which deal with identifying the most important/useful aspects of the text and then thinking about how they apply (or fail to work) in a specific situation.

Reviews are of course another type of social reading mode.

And, using Youtube comments as another source, “I read this and Loved/Hated it (and you should also read…)” is another type of global conversation.