Faves and Raves: Bookworms United

Faves and Raves: Bookworms United
by Angela Solis

There are a few Philippine-based websites dedicated to Philippine literature and Filipino readers, but then again, some of them are very much like diamonds in the rough. Bookworms United is probably the first online journal community for Filipino book-lovers, and the number of posts, along with the flow of discussions show how active its members are. Pinoy Book Reviews interviews Bookworms United’s founder and moderator, Gail Limcumpao as she tells us about what is behind this group.

Pinoy Book Reviews: Could you tell us something about yourself?
Gail Limcumpao: I am Gail Monique Limcumpao. Call me Gail - for short. I am a 20-year-old senior at the University of the Philippines Manila majoring in Social Science. I like to read and it does not matter whether it is in the form of a novel, essay, magazine, current events, e-zines, or even blogs! As long as it is interesting, I read it! Aside from reading, I also enjoy things like photography, traveling, music, movies, writing, and designing my own templates for my blog.

PBR: Please tell us something about Bookworms United.
GL: Bookworms United is a community where fellow geeks or bibliophiles come together to review, criticize, or just post anything regarding a book they like/hate/want to get their hands on. It is pretty fun considering that a member gets to write anything as long as it is related to books (or any reading material that is worth sharing).

PBR:Related to the previous question: why did you set up an online community like Bookworms United? How did you invite members to join? Did you have a hard time "recruiting" members?
GL:Bookworms United is a fruit of my dismay when I joined a certain readers’ community in Livejournal.com. Everyone there is from the Western world and I figured that it would be cool if I started one with fellow Filipinos as members just so we could talk about books or any reading materials that can actually be bought within the country. That way we do not have to wonder about how good the book actually is, so on and so forth. Oh, of course, we are not discriminating non-Filipinos. EVERYONE IS WELCOME.

PBR:What are the usual topics that you discuss in the community?
GL:So far the topics discussed include book reviews, questions about certain books (whether if it’s worth reading or not, where to buy a certain book, etc.), random thoughts on books, general questions, criticisms (which usually contains a long line of discussion threads especially when everyone seems to enjoy discussing the topic), and announcements like the time when Neil Gaiman visited the country and held a press conference.

PBR: What separates Bookworms United from other online communities centered on books and literature?
GL:Bookworms United is pretty informal because it is all about having fun and enjoying literature. No one is forcing members to strictly follow rules (except for non-related plugs and bashing fellow members). Anyone can be a geek here because we are all geeks and geeks have more fun than others think they do!

PBR: Bookworms United is composed of different members with different tastes in literature. Do you look at this setup in a positive manner or not?
GL:This is an interesting question. When I started the community, I was hesitant because I knew that eventually having different tastes could be a problem. I started by looking at it in a negative way thinking that I did not want problems to arise within the community. But after a long discussion on a certain book, I realized that having clashing ideas is okay because people are different that way and that is the beauty of debating. You see both sides of the story and you realize things that you oversaw before. Now, I definitely look at conflicts of ideas positively and I welcome new ideas. The community welcomes new ideas.

PBR: Do you have any other plans for Bookworms United?
GL:For now, I do not have other plans because I am still busy with school. But I would like to think that someday when the community is big enough, I can purchase a space on the World Wide Web and the community can settle there with its domain name called www.bookwormsunited.com.

PBR: Do you think that this online community will remain active in the long run?
GL: I cannot really say that it will stay active in the long run because it is not up to me to keep the community alive. I am the one who brought it to life and moderate it but it is the members who keep it going. As long as they remain active in participating, then surely it will be active many years from now! In addition, it is important that their enthusiasm for literature never die because this is what brings its members together—we may not know each other personally but it is the PASSION for literature that binds us Bookworms United together.

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Visit Bookworms United at http://www.livejournal.com/community/bookwormsunited .