“Take a look, it’s in a book” is about to get an update.
The social reading app Fable has launched the LeVar Burton Book Club, led by the erstwhile Reading Rainbow host and veteran actor (Roots, Star Trek: The Next Generation).
Fable was founded by Padmasree Warrior. Burton is leading the first premium Fable Book Club and joins Folio’s curators. Fable Folios spotlight exceptional book recommendations which are handpicked by tastemakers, experts, acclaimed authors, world-class athletes, and industry titans. The Fable book app allows members to read together and share highlights, comments, links, and pictures to discuss them.
Burton hand-selected books written by Black authors to read alongside Fable’s premium subscription members, for his first Folio.
“For me, books are more than words strung together. They are portals into existences of every variety, stripe and hue; the universe and all there is, captured in the pages of good books!” Burton said on Fable’s website.
James Baldwin’s book, Go Tell It On The Mountain, is Burton’s first book club pick. Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower is another one of Burton’s book club selections.
“At a time when Black people had very little representation in the publishing industry, Baldwin delivered a debut novel that introduced to the world an essential voice in American literature. I invite everyone to join me on Fable as I am both inspired and energized by the opportunity to not only re-read this story but also share my point of view and hear everyone else’s as we read together,” Burton said in the announcement.
The book lover told Entertainment Weekly that his passion for reading began because his mother was an English teacher who insisted that reading, and the written word, would be a consistent part of life when he and his sisters were growing up. Nevertheless, it took Burton so long to create a book club because he was just looking for the right platform.
“And it wasn’t until Fable was created that I saw an opportunity to gather together those who wanted to be a part of the LeVar Burton Book Club in an environment that gave me the access to my audience in a way that was able to engage them in a successful exploration of the literature that I chose for us all to read,” Burton told Entertainment Weekly.