Bol.it, the digital bookstore that brings together the best of Italian and international publishing, and Zelanda, the company that is responsible for the web management of the “Zelig” and “Smemoranda” brands, have joined forces for a new space dedicated to reading.

The agreement will lead to the creation, on the Bol.it site, of a digital space to share readings, a love for words and authors and a passion for the capacity to tell and read stories. The space will allow users to buy books, music, films, magazines (both print and digital) and provide an opportunity to talk about, debate and comment on them, bringing together videos, blogs, lists and communication approaches inspired by social networks where Bol.it users will find the mechanisms for relationships built around reading of which they are an intrinsic part.

Bol.it will become a new place of meeting and will create a more lively and original way of enjoying all things cultural; bringing the process of buying, recommending, criticising and loving a book inside a social network setting, with people united by a shared enthusiasm. The users of Bol.it will be able to transform their cultural pursuits by using everything they find on the site, such as profiles for the 350,000 titles in the catalogue, book-trailers, interviews, cultural events in streaming, personalised lists and favourite quotations. All of which animated and enlivened by the kind of content – under the Zelanda brand – that represents the best of Italian comedy and entertainment.

This partnership will make it possible to reach out to a young, curious and dynamic audience that uses the internet extensively but is perhaps less used to reading. And at the same time it will provide a pleasant, reliable and professional meeting place for an older audience, perhaps less familiar with the digital world, but strongly motivated by a love of books.

“The aim is absolutely clear,” claimed Vittorio Veltroni, general manager of Mondadori Digital, “just as the digitalisation of music has led to an improvement in its distribution and a substantial increase in consumption, so the digitalisation of books (in its physical form and marketing) provides an opportunity to bring generations together and to increase the consumption of culture, stories, words, inspiration and passion.”

“The most amazing thing, and the great gamble, about the web is the pleasure of being part of it and knowing it not “in place of” the printed word, but “in addition to” it. To communicate, get more detailed information and exchange views on the internet can lead to a considerable improvement of our relationship with books. Our efforts are focused and will continue to focus on valorising the printed book without denying, on the contrary. Encouraging the progress that the web has brought with all of its applications, including commercial ones,” declared Gino & Michele, the creators and co-directors of “Smemoranda” and, for more than 10 years the authors of “Zelig”. “We have accepted the proposal from Vittorio Veltroni to make our contribution with Zelanda to the new Bol.it project with a mixture of curiosity and expectation. The curiosity of seeing whether our skills and, sometimes, intuitions will be able to make the leap into a world that is generationally far from us as the new technology generation is. And the expectation that we can make a contribution, however small, to expanding culture and attracting and drawing in those who are currently, for whatever reason, far away from the world of books and reading.”