The Game of Books makes reading even more epic

If you wish the whole experience of reading books was just a little more epic, you need to check out Game of Books. Go here to check out their demo.

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.

Whoa. So, I'm the main character in a game where I score points by reading books? Indeed. They are taking the concept of Foursquare, layering on the idea of Xbox LIVE gamer achievement scoring, and turning the act of reading itself into a long-term journey.

If you're like me, the first thing this induces is imaginary scenarios of how much better the reading contest could have been when I was in public school. If they had made that whole experience into an adventure "game" rather than simply a contest about reading the most books, I think I could have gotten pretty into it...

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.

Primary elements 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.

If you're intrigued, you can dig in pretty deeply over on their demo site. The concept gets complicated, but also intricate, fun and exciting. For people who are into game-ification in general, this is an awesome opportunity to add a new layer to the reading you do.

They raised $109,970 in their Kickstarter campaign last December and are currently building the service. With the popularity of Goodreads and other services like it and the similar popularity of RPGs and social media checkin services, I can imagine this finding a very interesting niche.

Regardless of its success or growth, it's a fascinating take on the interactive possibilities in the new social publishing paradigm.

Image courtesy of Game of Books Kickstarter page