Book darts proposed functionality

abrahamKim
asked me my thoughts about how  I envision this so-called "book darts" functionality. I figured I might as well waste a post on it since I'm already wasting my morning waiting at the brake shop while they repair the issue they created.

I heard about book darts on a podcast. Book darts are thin pieces of metal that you clip on pages of a physical book. The book darts do not alter the pages and can be easily removed. I enjoy sitting down with a book and my tin of book darts and marking passages that I find interesting. It makes it easy to go back to those pages and reference them.

The first book I used book darts with is the perennial favorite Atomic Habits. I summarized the first set of book darts in a previous post. The problem with compiling book darts like this is that someone would have to reference any individual passage if they want to comment on it.

Here is what I envision. Each book is its own collection that's open to anyone. Inside the collection called Atomic Habits, there would be "mini-posts" that represent each book dart, which anyone could add. Each book dart could be tagged or categorized based on the topic. For example, this one:
Pg. 24 "Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress."
might be categorized as "Goals vs Systems" The purpose of these tags would be to allow someone to search the collection of all book darts for Atomic Habits and find the specific topic they are interested in. We all know the book is about habits, but maybe you're interested in a specific topic such as goals or eliminating a bad habit, or creating a new habit. 

Anyone can add a book dart and anyone can comment on any of the book darts. The potential is that each book dart could trigger a robust conversation about how people interpret it and share insights. I see it as an asynchronous, online book club. People who read the book can share their takeaways, and people who haven't read the book may also contribute or decide whether to read or pass on the book.
Thanks for this thoughtful writeup. I think it's different enough from 
Adagia
 that it might be better served as a standalone miniapp. Although if that were the case I'd make it so you could login with the same Adagia account and have all the convos linked. I'll think on this more.
2021-05-28 16:47:25
Thanks for this Brandon. I do almost all my book reading on audible so this feature would be difficult to execute. I have been thinking that it is hard to highlight and review audiobooks. 

But the idea of book clubs makes sense to me. I have gotten more out of the books where it isn't just a read and forget session. The more I review a book and discuss it, the more I get out of it. So this book darts idea could go far depending on the execution. 
2021-05-29 02:22:41
Audible seems to work for me if it's a memoir. I prefer a physical book or Kindle version for non-fiction perhaps because it is easier to tag sections to reference.
2021-05-29 12:36:02
Okay so this conversation is now getting somewhere. Because it seems that at the core what's wanted is an async book club. I think if we don't think about the features that's the effect all three of us are looking for right?
2021-05-31 15:34:37
Yes, I would agree "async book club" seems to sum it up.
2021-05-31 16:44:49