A book club meets for two hours a month. The rest of it - deciding what to read next, working out when everyone is free, and talking about the book while you are actually reading it - happens in a group chat where it gets lost. ShelfAbsorbed is where that part lives instead.
Open ShelfAbsorbed in this browser. It works the same on a phone as on a computer, and apps for iPhone and Android are in testing. Clubs are private and invite-only.
Everyone puts one book forward, with its cover and a few lines about what it is, so the club is choosing between books rather than titles. When the list is closed the host either draws one at random or puts it to a vote.
A vote is as many picks each as the host allows, and the app suggests the number least likely to end in a tie for the size of the shelf and the club. Nobody sees the running count while it is open, so nobody votes with the totals in front of them. Hosts can also close the vote to backing your own nomination.
When a vote does tie, the host can hand it back to the club as a second vote on just the books that tied, as many times as it takes, or let the wheel settle it. Either way the reveal counts the votes up in front of everyone and ends on the standings.
The date sits on a countdown everyone sees, in their own timezone, with the location, a map link, and a note from the host. Members say whether they are coming, and the whole thing drops into their own calendar in a tap. A meeting that repeats monthly sets itself.
Discussion is split by how far through the book people are. A thread only opens once you have said you have reached that part, so the ending cannot appear over the shoulder of somebody on chapter four. Mention someone and they hear about it; everything else stays quiet unless they want it.
Every book the club has read stays on its shelf with what everyone scored it, the questions people saved for the night, and the photos from it. Old nomination rounds keep their shortlists too, because half the fun is remembering what nearly won.
There is no directory and no way to find a club and ask to be let in. You join with a code, a link, or a QR code from someone already in it, and the host can approve arrivals before they see anything. Signing in is a six-digit code to your email, so there is no password to lose.
The host pays, monthly or annual, and one subscription covers the whole club. Everybody else is free and is never asked for a card. It can be bought on the web, on an iPhone, or on Android, and it is managed wherever it was bought.
As many as you like. Clubs of six and clubs of twenty both work; the vote advice adjusts to the size of the club.
No. It runs in a browser exactly as it does on a phone, and members can stay on the web if they would rather.
Yes. One sign-in can host clubs of its own and be a member of others, and the app opens on whichever you were last in.
It goes read-only rather than disappearing. The history, the chat and the shelf all stay, and starting the subscription again brings it back.