You can at least slow down cheating by having some sort of automated questions that the user has to answer in order to claim a book. Like, "Which of these characters is from the book you just read," or something of that sort. That isn't hard based on what the Book Genome Project can do, which is where the "big data" behind The Game of Books is coming from.

There are other methods, but that's at least a starting point in the balance between ease and function. :)

Somewhat like the accelerated reader programs, or summer reading programs at libraries. Just a thought.

(Disclaimer, btw - I work on both The Game of Books and the Book Genome Project) - was thrilled to see someone submitted this to Hacker News. :)

Interesting idea, would have to figure out how not to let people cheat though - a test or something?

I like the whole genre-specific experience thing, maybe it could be used with an actual game that you would play when you're not reading? Maybe that would somewhat defeat the point...