ElJunto: The App That Unites Book Lovers Around the World
- Lauren Hope
- Mar 1
- 6 min read
In today’s digital world, where everything moves at lightning speed, finding a space to slow down and truly discuss a book can be challenging. Yet, sharing thoughts, exchanging interpretations, and discovering different perspectives are part of what makes reading so fulfilling.
That’s exactly what James had in mind when he created ElJunto, a virtual book club app designed to bring readers together. Inspired by his own experiences, he wanted to offer an alternative to the often-superficial discussions on social media and create a platform where people from around the world could connect over books.
I had the chance to be one of the beta testers, and even though I tend to be a bit shy when it comes to book clubs, I have to say the concept won me over. Today, James shares more about his journey, the creation of ElJunto, and his vision for reading in the digital age.
Hi James, thank you for joining us today on Mind and Thriller. To start, could you introduce yourself to our readers?
Thanks so much for having me, Lauren. I grew up and central Pennsylvania (USA) in a small college town. Louis L’Amour westerns kindled my appetite for reading when I was a kid. I did 5 years in the US Army Infantry before landing a job with power generation in Boston, Massachusetts. I’m big into outdoor adventure. I’ve been devouring books for a decade, and I especially like reading the classics. There’s something special about reading a book that a lot of people have valued for hundreds or thousands of years and knowing that future generations will be reading those same books.
You created ElJunto, a book club app. What inspired you to come up with this idea?
I was part of a virtual book club with some old friends for years, but I became crunched for time at one point and left the club. In 2022, a year after leaving that book club, I read Middlemarch by George Eliot, a serious classic book, and it felt like a waste to spend all those hours reading the thing without having a conversation about it.
Because of the book club I used to be in, I realized just how much I got out of a good conversation with smart people. Let’s say you spend 24 hours reading a long classic. I thought about my past book club discussions and decided that I could get +3x more insight from a book simply by having a 2-hour discussion about it—so you spend 26 hours instead of 24 hours on a book and get 3x the return—not a bad deal. Plus, it’s fun to talk with your friends.
Also, having a conversation about a book helps you retain the insights better—you find yourself remembering some insightful comment someone had about it—you remember how they said it. These are things you miss out on if you just put a book on your shelf when you’ve finished it. Sad!
Based on the timestamp of recent Middlemarch Amazon reviews, there were probably dozens of people that had recently finished it. Surely, there must be a way to connect with some of these people, I thought. I tried to find a book club app online, but none of them were helpful.
Another source of inspiration came from my hobby as a Ham Radio operator. In Ham radio, you bounce radio waves off the ionosphere to talk with people on the other side of the world if the conditions are right. You throw out a “CQ” call and just see if anyone else out there wants to talk. It’s magic when you talk or send a Morse code message into the void and someone from Poland or Brazil or some lone island in the Pacific responds.
What motivated you to take the leap and create ElJunto?
Selfishly, I wanted to use it myself. Also, I think the app will promote genuine friendship and connection between people all over the world. The world can always use more friendship and connection.
ElJunto celebrates the love of books and meaningful discussions. In today’s society, where scrolling dominates, how do you see the role of reading evolving?
We’ve all done it—spend half an hour, an hour even, scrolling. You feel terrible afterward. I’ve never spent an hour reading and regretted it. My old book club always had 2-hour-long meetings, and I never regretted those meetings either. Reading and conversations are timeless—they don’t evolve, and will always be there calling for people despite the permutations of the latest scrolling-based social media. Even though they come up with all kinds of new processed junk food every year, steak and potato dinners are still here to stay, fill you up, and leave you satisfied.
How did you manage to balance people’s growing appetite for quick online content with your vision of creating a space for true connection and conviviality?
I think people crave genuine conversation. Continuing the junk food analogy, even people accustomed to eating a lot of junk food appreciate a full course meal if it’s put in front of them. The current options out there for book club apps are still mostly based on chatroom or Facebook/Reddit/X.com-style posting. Opposable thumbs are meant for wrestling, not for having lively conversations.
El Junto club meetings are in-app video conferences. Yes, not as good as a face-to-face conversation, but still infinitely better than launching texts and pictures back and forth.
Also, El Junto has two kinds of book clubs. “Standing” clubs meet regularly to discuss different books. “Impromptu” clubs discuss a single book and then disband. I’m hoping the “Impromptu” clubs will be a low-commitment way to get people to dip their toes in the water and to make new friends for “Standing” clubs.
What were the biggest challenges you faced while bringing ElJunto to life?
Time and money. It takes a lot of time to build an app like this, and you need to plug away every day to make it happen. Also, unless you’re rich or want to deal with venture capital (both a negative for me), you have scarce resources to get the job done.
In your opinion, what does the perfect book club look like?
7 people discussing a classic book for 2 hours on a Sunday evening. 21 alcoholic beverages get consumed. No one hogs the time, the discussion is lively, and everyone gets 3x times more out of the book than if they had read it alone.
As a creator and entrepreneur, are there any books that inspired you during the journey of building ElJunto?
Middlemarch was the book that helped plant the seed. Now that beta testing has begun, I’ve been reading books that beta testers have been reading or setting up clubs for. Because of El Junto, I’ve read: Mythomania (Lauren Hope), A Game of Thrones (George R.R. Martin), Dead Souls (Nikolai Gogol), Elephants Can Remember and Murder on the Orient (Agatha Christie), Quicksilver (Callie Hart), Fourth Wing (Rebecca Yarros), The Gifts of Imperfection (Brene Brown), and James (Percival Everett).
What kind of books do you personally enjoy reading?
I like reading the classics, but I also like reading popular stuff. It’s useful to see where the zeitgeist is at, and to be able to talk about what the cool kids are writing and reading.
Did your literary preferences influence the artistic side of ElJunto, like the colors, logo, or design templates?
Definitely. The name for the app was inspired by Ben Franklin’s “Junto,” a mutual-improvement club that a young Ben Franklin formed to talk about books, philosophy, and current events. I tried to give it a simple, classic, old-timey look and feel.
If you had to choose one book to represent ElJunto as its mascot, which one would it be?
Ben Franklin’s Autobiography.
Is there a quote that inspired or motivated you to bring ElJunto to life?
“He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more…And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’” Matthew 25:16,20
What exciting new features can we expect on ElJunto in the coming months?
In the current beta version of the app, we are developing “matches.” So, if you have the same book or author in your “Currently Reading” or “To Be Read” section of your El Junto profile as someone else, that will count as a “match.” If you have given a book a 5/5-star review, anyone else who has given a book by that author 5/5 stars will produce a “match” between you. I hope to refine this match-making process to provide each El Junto user with relevant people and book clubs to connect with.
Finally, if you had to describe ElJunto in just three words, which ones would you choose?
Conversation. Discovery. Fun.
Through this interview, we get to know a creator who believes that books deserve to be more than just a solitary experience. With ElJunto, he offers a platform where every readers whether a beginner or a seasoned book lovers can find meaningful discussions and perhaps even build connections through literature.
If, like me, you’ve ever finished a book and wished you had someone to talk to about it, ElJunto might just be the solution. The app will be available by the end of March, so stay tuned!
In the meantime, you can visit www.eljunto.com
to learn more and follow the project on socials to stay updated on its launch.
Threads: www.threads.com/eljuntoapp
Comments