Thing 7: LitLovers

LitLovers (http://litlovers.com/) is an online community, dedicated to books and books clubs. It was started by a former English teacher. It all began as an online course she taught. Then she decided to have a website designed that would cover how to read and talk about literature. The original posting of this Thing 53 on ExploreDiscoverPlay is outdated. The LitLovers website has just been updated with new subheadings. When the original posting said to explore and then hunt for a book to find resources, I did just that. I tried several children's books, such as Diary of a Wimpy Kid and a couple of the Battle of the Books books, but came up empty-handed.

There are four main categories to click on in LitLovers. They are:

LitClub
This area tells you how to start and run a book club with a 10-step guide on how to do so.
LitResources
This area includes reading guides, a list of book club favorites with further sub-headings, and book reviews.
LitCourses
Ten free courses, lasting 30 minutes each. There are five steps to follow within each course. Examples: finding meaning, plot, character, how to discuss a book, read-think-talk.
LitBlog
This blog is led by the former English teacher. The goal is to help LitLover readers stay up to date on everything that is new on the site.

I have to tell you...I'm disappointed in this site. It's really all my own fault. I became so excited when I found this Thing that I automatically added it to my Favs sites and signed up for their newsletter BEFORE investigating the website. I thought this site would be driven by all of the LitLover readers. But it is NOT. Other than getting to post stars for agreeing or disagreeing on a book review, I didn't find where readers were really able to get involved or interact as much on this site. For instance, I thought that this site hosted a lit club or posted the best of clubs. But, no. I also had hoped this would be a more extensive site and one that would offer more on children's books. But neither happened. So I will leave this as a resource to go back to in my Favs, but I plan on taking myself off of the newsletter list.

On the bright side, this is a nice spot to go for reading strategies for adults and a good resource on how and where to begin a book club. I think that the book club and reading guide parts would be a great resource for a public library.