One of my favorite things to do in college was to take a long bus ride to Christiansburg, VA on the weekends to visit the Barnes & Nobles bookstore and spend a few hours there. I generally managed to drag a couple friends along, and we would spend the time on the bus (30 minutes each way) to talk about the books we were excited to read, recommend books to each other, and what it is that we were hoping to run into on this trip to the bookstore. It was a magical time !
Much has changed in the world for that experience to come back around though. The primary force for change has been the Internet, and how it has transformed the process of access, acquisition, and conversation around books & reading as a social activity. E-books have brought many good features to reading, but they have also led to the demise of physical bookstores. I, in particular sad about this, as I had blogged almost a year ago.
As with all paradigm shifts, some affordances of the prior paradigm need to brought along for their core value. The new world of books, reading, and contemplative thought needs to afford the following: showcasing a book collection (personal libraries are social places), sharing highlights and quotes from books with friends, and having conversations around books and articles
I am ecstatic to share that there is a new service called Findings, that enables many of these features in a flawless fashion. You can share clips from articles you read on the web, highlights from books you read on your Kindle, and even display your entire library in one nice-looking collection !
Here is a set of links I’d like to share with you:
Library — collection of digital books (physical books coming soon)
Highlights — from the books in my library (directly from my Kindle)
Wishlist — of books I am looking to buy & read soon (from Amazon.com)
Now, the last thing I am looking for really is a cool way to project/showcase my digital library in my office + home !
How do you share what you read, and how do you stumble into new content?
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Alok Bathija, Neel Uppal, and Faiz Munshi for being my accomplices to the Barnes & Nobles during our college days. Steven Johnson for his awesome writing and being one of the thought-leaders behind Findings; John Borthwick and the entire Findings.com team !
miten sampat 