The Game of Books

So, if you've seen my Facebook page recently, you've seen me trying to promote the Kickstarter project for The Game of Books.  This is, in my opinion, a brilliant idea that has such great potential to get kids and possibly even adults into reading.

This Kickstarter is down to its last day of fundraising with less than $10,000 left to go to see it funded.  I urge all fans of reading or writing to give it a look and contribute if you can.

To explain it all would take a while, so I'm going to be lazy and copy and paste the general info. from their Kickstarter page and embed the YouTube video about it.

Imagine a game where you - the reader - are the main character, and every book you read earns you points and rewards. The Game of Books is a game for adventurous readers where the books you read earn you points based on what they are about.

The Game of Books combines the physical world of books with the digital and imaginary.  It is a website and mobile app that combines "Foursquare for books" and Xbox Live-style gamer achievements, earning you badges and points for the rare themes you encounter in books.

At its heart, The Game of Books allows those of us that love reading to earn something extra for what we already love, to become the master of themes that we visit more than others, to discover books we'd otherwise miss, and to track how we have grown as readers over time.

The Main Points of The Game of Books:

• Readers earn points and badges for the books you read.
• Play The Game by yourself, or with friends locally or on social media.
• Each book in The Game has its own unique digital game card.  There are more than 100,000 game cards in the Game of Books today.
• Open Access: The Game of Books is intended to be easily connected to existing reading communities, such as Goodreads.com.  Play The Game in the places you already read,

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I personally believe this to be a cause worth supporting and Aaron Stanton, the man behind this Kickstarter, truly is invested in getting this game into libraries and schools to get kids to participate and have fun with reading.  Plus, Aaron has some heavy hitters supporting his cause:

-New York Times Bestselling Authors Patrick Rothfuss, Rachel Van Dyken, and Warren Adler 

-Former CEO of barnesandnoble.com - Jonathan Bulkeley

-Lulu.com made a $30,000 donation.

Okay, that's the last of my pushing for supporting causes this year.  Though, next year I will wholeheartedly be supporting the cause of supporting a fledgling indie author by buying The Forgotten King, the exciting sequel to The Dragon Gem and the middle volume of the Korin's Journal series.  :-)

Hope all are enjoying the Christmas season!

Brian Beam