At Digital Book World: Copia

Copia is a social reading platform -- web-based and for the iPad/iPhone -- one of the dozens of exhibitors on the floor at Digital Book World 2011.

Like Kindle users, readers with a Copia ebook can take notes on the text and share with friends. Like Goodreads users, Copia users can create groups and find an online commnity of like-minded readers to talk about books.

For people who like discussing a book while reading it, Copia is combining some of the interactive and mobile elements of ebooks effectively and engagingly. But does everyone want to talk about a book while they're reading it? I admit, I do -- but I look forward to a higher degree of customizability, perhaps creating specific reading groups for disucssing different books. Copia says something like this is on the way.

Like many things at DBW, Copia seems to be taking bits and pieces of what might come next and putting them together. These pieces aren't secret: Amazon could enhance its community offerings for readers. Goodreads could develop the technological back end so its reader base could share ideas through books, in addition to its existing website.

But Copia is betting that its social reading platform will be the one that catches on. And maybe it will be.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Copia's iPad interface and print fliers on display at the company's booth at Digital Book World. Credit: Carolyn Kellogg / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Lawrence]

The Copia reader app on iPad is mediocre at best. The iFlow Reader HD for iPad, in comparison, offers a much better reading experience, more sophisticated highlighting, annotation, and sharing features.