Is reading cool again?

So the other day Mike invited me to join a new social network centered specifically around books, http://www.goodreads.com. Now up until last year I hadn't read a book since college. It's kind of weird, because as a child my mother would read to me every night. I used to fall asleep while she read me "The Borrowers", "The Indian in the Cupboard", and "Stewart Little". Her encouragement led to me reading my own books during grade school. I particularly enjoyed "Encyclopedia Brown" stories, even though I could never guess the mystery, and I had a pretty impressive "Choose You Own Adventure" collection too.

By about 11 or 12, I ultimately fell in love with the science fiction and fantasy genre, and burned though "Dragonlance" and "Robotech" stories. But shortly there after, in junior high, my teachers started assigning books to read for class. I think some of them were OK, but I was going through that rebellious phase that pre-teens go through. For some reason, if I had to read it, because a teacher said so, it wasn't as enjoyable. Maybe rock and roll was just way cooler distraction, but I ultimately stopped reading? I used cliff notes for a few book reports, most notably "A Brave New World", which I think I would really enjoy to read today. I used to brag to my friends that I didn't read becasue I thought I was so Gen X.

In any case, Mike also started the "Mens Book Club" last year. It's been a fun opportunity to keep in touch with a friend who I don't see that often now days. Most of the books I've read in the last year have been book club assignments. I don't have enough time/diligence to burn through a 400 page novel in a few days, so ultimately I haven't had the chance to read as many other books as I'd like due to book club responsibilities, but that doesn't really bother me, because if I don't enjoy a book we're assigned to read, I won't bother finishing it. ("Naked Lunch" pretty much hurt my brain while reading)

So now we come to Good Reads, the social network for bookworms. I enjoy a web site with exceptional User Experience, and I'm pleased to say that the goodread.com guys have really nailed it. Perfect use of AJAX to update book status and rate in real time. Their catalog is exhaustive. (At least I've been able to find anything I've searched for) Oh, and the site is fast too! Which ties in to my next point.... nobody is using this cool site.

In the age of the internet we've debunked that old myth , "If you build it, they will come". There are just too many places where I can got o find relevant info or equally waste my precious free time on the internet. Who has the time to learn how to use and maintain a new social network when all my friends are already on Facebook and Myspace? The result is that DUNE, which tops the 'Best science fiction books' list, has only 600 votes. Clearly the good reads community is in it's infancy. Hopefully it will only grow larger with each day.

But I'm hooked already! I've invited friends and coworkers, and their general response has been very positive. I anticipate that with all the buzz that Amazon's Kindle is stirring combined with the good experience of websites like goodreads.com, reading might actually become cool again.