Comments on: Books are like the news — it’s better when they are social

By: Lucinda

Lucinda — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 17:36:36 +0000

@gigaom Biggest problem for books? Publishers’ interests are the antithesis to viral http://t.co/1WZSK1Sm My business is about solving this.

By: David

David — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 15:13:47 +0000

Thanks for the thought-provoking post.

I see your points but I think you are working with a limited and ahistorical concept of the sociality of books.

Books are and have always been social: reading clubs, fan fiction, classroom discussions, lending books, employee picks in stores, recommendations, even bestseller lists are obvious indicators of the sociality of books. Sure, there are different forms of sociality but if your premise is that books have never been social, or are just becoming social, it is a weak premise. And it also leaves you blind to the important forms of sociality that are displaced by newer forms.

By: Carolyn

Carolyn — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 19:21:23 +0000

I agree. When I read a book, I want to hear what the author says and then mull it over in my mind. This opens the door for distortion of what the author is saying.

By: Henrik Ahlen

Henrik Ahlen — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 18:44:45 +0000

Great post, we need to expand the definition and functionalities of the concept “book”. Two core functions that will drive this are
1. Two-way communication between the author and the readers, and discussions/comments among the readers, enabled by integrated social media functions.
2. Continuous updates of book content. This also enables new revenue models such as subscriptions and update fees, especially in books for learning.
I am giving more examples in my blog post: Where’s the e in ebooks? http://alfabravo.com/2011/08/where-is-the-e-in-ebooks/

By: Mathew Ingram

Mathew Ingram — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 13:44:06 +0000

Thanks — attribution and credit for both photos appears at the end of the post, as it does on every GigaOM post.

By: Mathew Ingram

Mathew Ingram — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 13:43:11 +0000

I think that applies to plenty of fiction books, but I think many non-fiction books could benefit from more interaction around their ideas. Thanks for the comment.

By: emcomments

emcomments — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 01:34:37 +0000

The photo has the following copyright restriction:

Attribution — You must give the original author credit.

By: Otis Chandler

Otis Chandler — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 00:36:12 +0000

Books can definitely go viral. They are doing so every day on Goodreads. Here is the one that went viral today/yesterday: http://www.goodreads.com/book/stats/11084145-steve-jobs

Books are not social – but ideas are – and the best ideas are usually written down in a book at some point. I think Goodreads reviews are great at surfacing some of the best ideas in a book. But I think I agree that we are just at the tip of the iceberg of ways to let those ideas truly run free and easily spread through the social graph. It’s something we are actually working on.

By: Niraj

Niraj — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 22:56:39 +0000

And, there goes the end of books.

Books are not social. They are personal. Supposed to be read in solitude so that you actually get the depth of the book. If you make it social. The book will become like WWW. Which is not what it is supposed to be