Reading, a social activity. How could that be? Isn’t reading all about sitting quietly with some material and taking in the words and the style and the voice? Sure, that’s one way to read, but now, with the advent of reading apps for devices, the ability to talk with others from right inside a book increases the opportunity to take the solitary activity of reading and make it an instantly social activity.
If you think about it, reading has always had a social component. If it didn’t, there wouldn’t be book groups around the world that take place at libraries and in people’s homes. People love to talk about what they read. What’s different now is that discussion can happen during the reading experience, inside the book, and not just outside of that experience, but outside of the book as well. It happens via social reading apps.
The basic steps to start app-based social reading:
- Get an app that has social reading features. For example, Subtext or Kobo.
- Buy a book to read in the app.
- Invite friends who are also using the app to read the book with you.
- Start reading.
- When you read something you want to talk about, add a comment or discussion to that section of the book.
- Wait until your fellow readers respond and continue the conversation.
Think about the value of being able to talk about a book while you are reading. You get to a paragraph and love the way the author has described an event. Or, you are shocked by the actions of a character. Instead of waiting to talk with someone else at work the next day about the reading, you can actually talk about it at the moment you are reading and thinking about it. If a friend happens to be reading the book at the same time, you can even have a real-time conversation as you are reading.
For libraries, think about the possibilities of connecting with readers from inside a book. Along with virtual inside-the-book discussions, you could insert information as notes inside a book that highlight resources related to what’s going on in the narrative. If a reader asks a question from inside a book, you might add an answer that points that reader to a resource available in the library, in a database, or on the web. You can even insert resource lists and pathfinders as notes inside the book.
The challenge for libraries is that the systems currently used for circulating e-materials don’t all work with the apps available for social reading. That means if we want to have an inside-the-book discussion group, readers may have to buy their books instead of downloading from the library. However, social reading has a lot of potential for formal and informal learning environments. It provides new opportunities for library staff to connect with readers. It also expands the ability of librarians to reach community members where they already are—on their devices reading books. Keep an eye out for more on the topic as social reading apps continue to develop.
I’ll be talking about social reading in an app-based environment at the YALSA YA Literature Symposium in November of this year. Who knows: By then there might be more opportunities for connecting library materials to these apps.
LINDA W. BRAUN is a past president of ALA’s Young Adult Library Services Association and a consultant and writer about libraries, technology, and much more.