Bookdrum awe: where have you been all my life?

Full disclosure: I’m one of those people who obsessively looks up every little reference in a novel. In the old days, this meant (gasp) looking at the footnotes and using actual reference books. The Internet has made this much, much less tedious. But bookdrum.com makes it even easier. And more awesome.

Let’s say you’re reading The Kite Runner (which in my humble opinion is the To Kill a Mockingbird of this generation). If you toodle over to bookdrum.com, you will find this page to give you background on the text. There’s the usual stuff like a glossary, summary, and review, but the coolest thing is the bookmarks function. Basically readers can add a quote from any part of the book and provide context or commentary on it.

The bookmark section layout looks a lot like a wikipedia article, but all information is linked to specific phrases or passages from the book. For example:

 

Page 3. ” a face like a Chinese doll chiselled from hardwood

Hazara Boy

Creative Commons AttributionHazara Boy – Credit: Steve Evans

The Hazara come from the central region of Afghanistan, calledHazarajat or Hazaristan. Hazara are predominantly Shi’a Muslims and speak the Hazaragi dialect of the Persian language. They have been the victims of discrimination for many years, based on religion and ethnicity.

 

How cool is that? Bookdrum.com, where were you when I was teaching The Kite Runner? Well, at least we’ve met now.

 

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