Kghia Gherardi & Simeon Beresford
Bookstacks is a community within the virtual reality game Second Life (SL). As you can guess, it is a place for bookish people to meet other bookish people and get together and do bookish things. Originally founded by Simeon Beresford in the spring of 2007, Kghia Gherardi was recruited shortly thereafter to help with events. Bookstacks currently almost 600 members and an additional 100+ notification subscribers. Bookstacks is s collaborative effort. Let us know if you want to help.
Events take place at Bookstacks Isle on Awen, though the Sunday discussions often take place in topic-appropriate locations elsewhere in SL. Past locations have included The Globe Theater for the Shakespeare discussion and Rachelville for the YA fiction discussion. Additionally, Bookstacks is adding reading group discussions to its events, including a Cozy Mysteries group and a A Little Pub of Horror discussion. Jago Constantine hosts a weekly Science Fiction Saturday event, inviting participants to discuss their current reading or listen to and discuss a scifi podcast. Poetry Libre, lead by Leonardo Zimring and Serene Bechir, also holds its weekly open mic poetry event at the Bookstacks Pub.
In late 2008, Bookstacks partnered with The Guild of UK Writers to better offer events to both the readers and writers of Second Life. Co-sponsored events include the Victorian Steampunk-themed skating party and a Horror Fest.
Featured inside the Pub is a rotating art exhibit, which changes every six to eight weeks. There is often something new to see.
In March 2009, Kghia and Simeon began a new project with Radio Riel. Off the Shelf is a fortnightly podcast featuring authors, poets, book-related venue owners, librarians, and others associated with making texts available to a reading public. The podcasts are recorded live in the Off the Shelf set above Bookstacks Isle on Sundays at 1 p.m. People are welcome to attend the taping and ask questions of the guests after the show. Be sure to check out the section on this web site for more details.
