Booksquare

Possibly one of the most fascinating things going on this week (yes, back from vacation and ready to go) is the story of Borders and its online book club. After sitting on the sidelines for about ten years, the retail giant has decided it’s about time to go with a little book club love. Alas, it’s a decision to enter into a time warp as well.

We applaud the decision to go with original content — good move on the part of Borders. The rest? Hmm, not so much. First, let us say that there’s a bizarre, almost obsessive, interest in snacks at the Borders website. Now, snacks are important, but there’s a reason some people call it “wine club”. Seriously, three primary navigation nodes…and one is recipes? Already, one senses this is less about discussing great writing than selling more books.

Moving on, we, as noted, like the focus on original content. In the first month, you get a video of people chatting and snacking with Mitch Albom. Okay, if we had to chat with Albom, we’d probably be snacking, too, but, well, see above re: wine. It’s a book club, people, pull out the good reds!

Or the good reads, your call.

Here is the major issue with the Borders book club: it’s one way. You get to watch a video of people talking about a book. Or you get to read a book in the privacy of your home (or out in public, no rules about that) and then you get to watch the video. Or just selected “chapters” of the video (get it, clever, no?). You, the average reader, have no way, no mechanism of communicating with Borders or your fellow readers. It’s not a book club, it’s a television show.

There’s also no mention of next month’s book. Now, our book club is gearing up to read Thomas Pynchon’s V. We all know that it will take a while to get through all the pages, so club rules dictate at least a month’s notice. Courtesy, you know. A mere mention of the next title would have made this more useful to people.

Presumably, Borders is trying to drive traffic to its website. The problem with this book club is that it gives people no reason to come back on day-to-day basis. And if you don’t have a way of pushing information to potential readers (there’s a newfangled thing called “RSS” that would come in handy here), they’re eventually going to to forget about the book club. Of course, we could be wrong. Maybe Borders is planning on blanketing the planet with press releases every month.

Technorati Tags: borders, book club, mitch albom