imagining: a members only reading room
someone build please
This week in SF I have been really startled by the way that long form reading has come back into style. I start and end most days of my life with a book, and I think one of the consequences of LLMs is that deep reading has more value, with genAI’s lossy compression of the zeitgeist so freely available.
this week I also nipped into a public library in SF and really got a good look at how these spaces have changed since my childhood. Without any moral judgement, the fact is that the public library system seems on the surface to resemble a shelter rather than a place of learning.
these two experiences got me thinking about what I want from a reading room. there was a fantastic one in Boston that I loved going to in the evenings, and during my teenage years in Paris I spent a lot of time in libraries all over the city.
A private reading room
I want a private reading room that inverts the dynamics of conventional libraries. In the era of both e-readers and Amazon same-day delivery, the co-location of a lot of books has a lot of nostalgia but very little value.
Instead, I want to create a space that is conducive to reading well. A space that solves the three key issues in my daily reading habit:
What should I read next?
How can I focus to get good reading done?
Where can I share about a book I love, and the ideas inside of it?
I propose a private reading room to solve these problems.
Key principles
Unlimited Books: I pay to join, and I receive unlimited books, delivered to a shelf that is my private library inside of the reading room. A book concierge is available some days of the week.
Curation of Reading List: through a simple feedback mechanism and the a combination of clever curators and algorithms, my shelf is filled with things that I will enjoy reading. I can request books as well, but principally I learn to trust the taste of the reading room in determining what I read.
Great Space: The space is designed to be a sanctuary where you can get focused reading done. The space is deeply cosy, has good tea and perhaps snacks, and is open both early and late. There are classic armchairs but also nooks, tables, etc.
Salon Culture: the evenings past a certain hour host authors, discussion groups, and events related to reading. As my shelf in the room is public, so is the shelves of others- I can see who is reading what, and get to enjoy snooping around what my peers are reading.
Who would join?
There are numerous people in the SF technology community who love libraries: Brewster Kahle probably most famously (although he might think this idea is a classist nightmare, fair enough). I think there would be hundreds of interested people you could recruit, and as this is not a fundamentally capitalistic institution I think you could easily land on a monthly fee of between $400-$700 that would suit a private member’s club audience, as well as discounted rates for a group of interested students and those in need of financial assistance (the Gwerns of the world).
Given SF rent I think you could be break-even on a 10k sq. foot location (housing 100 members simultaneously) with about 600 members if you kept staff low.
Fun stuff you could do
A “greatest books” shelf: upon membership, you can contribute your favorite book to a common shelf.
Meet-Cutes: Bonding over books is a natural way to meet people, and I think there could be a subtle meet-cute planning angle to membership.
Reading/Listening Parties: While on this same trip to SF, Dwarkesh published an interview. I had the surreal experience of walking to a local park close to Hayes Valley and seeing hundreds of people with headphones on show up alone, sit in the grass, and listen to the interview. Hosting this in a better place seems like something that should already exist if it doesn’t. I’d love to do podcast, blog post, book premiers. Allow the members to preview interesting writing and have authors gather feedback.
Clubs in Spades: Having groups within the membership dedicated to different genres, styles and interests seems fun and useful.
Book graphing: There’s all kinds of fun data that would be produced, and that would be an obvious place to build on top of for the recommendation engine.
Corporate Seats: Easy to imagine membership being a perk of working at a startup or research lab that values book learning (or wants cool perks).
Branding & Positioning
Some considerations:
Booze? I would avoid alcohol being available, but I think there’s an argument for a whiskey bar or somesuch.
Cafe VS Self-Serve: Costs start to rise if you’re serving coffee and tea, but that is part of what I love about the idea (like the IoD in London). I think having a modest list of drinks served in mugs and teapots is essential.
Buddy Passes: should members get to invite non-members a certain number of days a month?
Screens & Devices: I think there should be a kind of device-purgatory room; if you need to do emails or whatever, you go there. The main room is for discreet screens only, with an exception for e-readers.
Books Over Time: As you develop the space, more and more books will be added. In the best-case, members want to take books they read there home (at cost). I would consider also using a great e-reader like what Daylight makes. The snowball of book accumulation would eventually need to be dealt with, however.
Different Environments: I am obsessed with different reading rooms I’ve visited, with the Boston Public Library being the most classic one, but my favourite being the “Sala di Lettura” at the Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli in Milano. I think the general feeling of calm and cosy should be the focus. Having a variety of spaces to read in would be important, with an emphasis on not having the space feel like a co-working. Basically I want the space to feel like the library in the 90s era Beauty and the Beast, not a set of Severance.
Who wants to build it?
If you’re interested in building this or some variation on this theme, get in touch.
