Listen: 22:28

(Also in ogg)

With the web, people are reading more than ever before you could say. But what are we reading? Likely it’s all short form: blog posts, tweets, status updates. They’re words, but it’s not exactly literature.

But innovators attempting to bridge the gap between literacy and the social web have found that there’s not only a huge appetite for books, but that the web can actually make the experience of reading books more enjoyable.

LibraryThing is one of those innovations. A social network with links to tens of millions of books in its database, LibraryThing connects readers to one another to discuss, share recommendations, and generally celebrate literature.

David Weinberger spoke with LibraryThing founder Tim Spalding about what libraries can learn from their successful experiment with the digital book club.


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Creative Commons music courtesy of Brad Sucks and photo courtesy of adamcrowe.