9 ms·

To me, to change books, Kindle need to make reading a more social experience. Just like buying a book in a second hand store with notes made by others who read

To me, to change books, Kindle need to make reading a more social experience. Just like buying a book in a second hand store with notes made by others who read it, I believe that one of the most important aspects of an ebook is to add history so that it's not just a digital asset on a hardisk or in the cloud but a piece of work other people have also read and enjoyed. I also believe something like tokens could be an interesting way to add this history so that you could re-sell ebooks on a second-hand market and based on their history you might even see an increase in price.

drakonka 9y ago
I think Goodreads fills some of this gap (which Amazon has bought if I remember correctly). It shows highlights from other people as you read, lets you share snippets and notes to your own Goodreads profile, etc. One thing I personally miss though is the social aspect of connecting over a book in random places. This hasn't happened to me often, but sometimes when I would read physical books on a train or at a cafe someone would approach me to comment on the book. Having your book cover visible, and observing what other people are reading in public, just adds another possibility of connecting with a stranger. Carrying around a Kindle completely removes this part of the experience. I've actually considered making (or finding) a case that lets you switch out custom printed covers, so I can replace them with whatever I'm reading. It's not like I expect a barrage of new friends based on my reading choices, but it would be nice to get that _possibility_ and dimension back into the experience.
- ThomPete 9y ago
  Yeah i like goodreads, still think there is something around who is currently reading something more subtle than just annotation.
adrusi 9y ago
Oh but that experience would be so much worse if it were like genius.com where you see the most upvoted annotations. The beauty of reading somebody else's margin notes is that you learn something about that person not just what they have to say about the book. But if you limited the social experience to friends, people would be self conscious about what they wrote in the margins. And some people would have friends who didn't mark up their books and miss out on the experience. No one's going to buy your damn annotations though unless you're some kind of celebrity. And that's precisely what they'd be buying. In the used book store you're buying the book with the annotations because it's cheaper than the book without annotations, and then you luck out and the annotations are interesting. With ebooks, a second hand purchaser would be able to turn off your annotations and have the original book, good as new, so the price would be, at a minimum, the original retail price.
- ThomPete 9y ago
  THere are so many ways this could be done which arent at all like you are proposing. And if token based they wouldnt be able to do that.
MilnerRoute 9y ago
I always thought it'd be cool if your book club could pool all their highlighted passages and notes -- so you could really feel like you were reading a book together. It'd also be fun to see which passages were being highlighted and shared by celebrities or famous authors.

drakonka 9y ago

I think Goodreads fills some of this gap (which Amazon has bought if I remember correctly). It shows highlights from other people as you read, lets you share snippets and notes to your own Goodreads profile, etc. One thing I personally miss though is the social aspect of connecting over a book in random places. This hasn't happened to me often, but sometimes when I would read physical books on a train or at a cafe someone would approach me to comment on the book. Having your book cover visible, and observing what other people are reading in public, just adds another possibility of connecting with a stranger. Carrying around a Kindle completely removes this part of the experience. I've actually considered making (or finding) a case that lets you switch out custom printed covers, so I can replace them with whatever I'm reading. It's not like I expect a barrage of new friends based on my reading choices, but it would be nice to get that _possibility_ and dimension back into the experience.

ThomPete 9y ago
Yeah i like goodreads, still think there is something around who is currently reading something more subtle than just annotation.

adrusi 9y ago

Oh but that experience would be so much worse if it were like genius.com where you see the most upvoted annotations. The beauty of reading somebody else's margin notes is that you learn something about that person not just what they have to say about the book. But if you limited the social experience to friends, people would be self conscious about what they wrote in the margins. And some people would have friends who didn't mark up their books and miss out on the experience. No one's going to buy your damn annotations though unless you're some kind of celebrity. And that's precisely what they'd be buying. In the used book store you're buying the book with the annotations because it's cheaper than the book without annotations, and then you luck out and the annotations are interesting. With ebooks, a second hand purchaser would be able to turn off your annotations and have the original book, good as new, so the price would be, at a minimum, the original retail price.

ThomPete 9y ago
THere are so many ways this could be done which arent at all like you are proposing. And if token based they wouldnt be able to do that.

MilnerRoute 9y ago

I always thought it'd be cool if your book club could pool all their highlighted passages and notes -- so you could really feel like you were reading a book together. It'd also be fun to see which passages were being highlighted and shared by celebrities or famous authors.