LOS ANGELES — For a few quiet hours you’ve been curled up reading the new Steve Jobs biography, a holiday gift from your dad. You find a surprising detail and call to your significant other, “Honey, did you know …?” but because he is busy making dinner, the idea fizzles away as you turn the page.

Or maybe when you get to that passage, with the swipe of a finger you highlight it and email it to your dad, adding a thanks for his gift. Or you click to add your thoughts to a chorus of readers who found that same passage interesting; or you check to see if there’s a link to a video clip; or you find an annotation from the author; or you post it to Twitter or Facebook or Google+, where others can comment on it too.

That’s called “social reading,” and it’s coming to an e-reading app or device near you.

“Increasingly, the devices we use to read — the Kindle, your iPad, various types of phones and other devices — they’re connected,” says James Bridle, a British writer and publisher who’s been at the forefront of e-book development. “They have a whole bunch of capabilities that the paper book didn’t have.”

Put those connected, capable devices together with books and add the best aspects of social networking — sharing, conversation — and the result is social reading. It is a logical step that’s still taking shape; it’s in its Wild West days, mapping out boundaries, players staking out sometimes overlapping territory.

Amazon was an early entrant; people reading on its Kindle have long been able to post favorite passages to Twitter and Facebook. It hasn’t gone much further than adding limited annotation.

One of the most ambitious independent social reading applications is Subtext. Built for the iPad and launched less than two months ago, Subtext offers all of the social reading elements with the added bonus of content from authors themselves. “I was very excited about this,” says Amy Stewart, author of “Wicked Plants” and “Wicked Bugs,” an L.A. Times bestseller. “As an author, I think a lot of us are thinking about iPad editions. We’re all asking ourselves, How could the book I’m writing be more than a book?” Marginal icons show where she added links, video, color images and commentary, including a “Spoiler Alert” warning just to see how the function worked (the determined reader has to tap a second time to see the spoiler). Just like on Facebook, Stewart can respond to reader comments, which also are indicated by icons in the margin.

“We find that one of the big opportunities on Subtext is bringing together book clubs,” says Matthew Boyd, manager of special marketing initiatives for Penguin Group USA.

One of the liveliest conversations that has emerged on Subtext is within George R.R. Martin’s “Game of Thrones,” from the best-selling fantasy series recently popularized by HBO. Although Martin isn’t there, his editor, Anne Groell is, but the book’s fans are driving the conversation. “Game of Thrones” readers discuss Martin’s uses of language and debate literary references.

 

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