Slow Readers Book Club

I just joined the Slow Readers Book Club. I don't think I have ever joined a book group before. That seems odd. I'm sure I should have by now. I suppose I have done my share of talking about books with groups of people in other ways.

Slow Readers Book Club looks fantastic. It's a online gaggle of readers who discuss a set book. The best bit there is no race to finish the book and no pressure. The idea is connected to the slow food movement. It's all about slowing down, taking it steady and connecting with people as part of a community. Those are all my favourite things so I signed up straight away.

I love the possibilities for these sort of projects on the internet. Do you know of any similar online community projects that bring people together? Please share.

I Learned ...

10. One tree yields enough paper to produce 62.5 books.

What will happen to books? Will they stop being made from paper and ink? When will we all buy e-readers and download books? I ask myself these questions all the time. I wonder (as a writer, digital literature researcher and a reader) what will change. I worry a bit and then I get excited about all the new possibilities that I can't even imagine yet.

I was thinking about all this today and I found out that books, on average, use a huge amount of paper. I'm not sure whether I think we shouldn't use paper for books. We use paper for worse things. But it made me think about the world and the place that books have in it. I need paper books around for a bit longer. And libraries, I definitely need libraries full of books.