NPR combines social media and book discussion
Posted by: Rebecca Vnuk
As I mentioned yesterday, I’m not too sure how I feel about virtual book discussions. Now I see that NPR is trying something new, “a book-club-meets-social-media experiment”. In a nutshell, they are going to use Facebook, Twitter and NPR.org to have people read Lauren Hillenbrand’s Unbroken throughout the month of February, and then present a live chat with Hillenbrand at the end of the month.
It’s an interesting idea, but it just seems kind of… disjointed to me. I don’t know anyone who has the time or the inclination to try and keep up with endless Twitter posts or Facebook chatter relating to one book, so I think that a lot of valuable input is just going to be missed by the participants.
Am I just being curmudgeonly here? Let the record show, I’m on Facebook several times a day (more often than I should be…not so much with my Twitter account, but I do check in there occasionally as well), so it’s not like I am a total Luddite – I just don’t see the value in this kind of book “discussion”. I’d love to hear what you have to say about it in the comments, particularly if you think it’s a great idea and plan to participate – convince me!
February 4th, 2011 at 7:07 pm
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February 5th, 2011 at 12:39 pm
My immediate thought about this when I first heard was “oh, how I wish our library system was participating.”
We hold monthly book discussions but there’s no way for people who are homebound to participate so, for them, this seems like it would be an ideal format.
I’ll be anxious to hear how you enjoyed it after it’s over.
February 8th, 2011 at 1:37 pm
Sally – thanks for your input – I actually never thought about how online book discussion could be a great format for homebound patrons. Thanks for the insight!