Today we want to let you know about some new functionality we just pushed live - merit awards. You can now earn awards in two different ways:

1) Earn awards based on your reading and cataloging prowess. If you reach 1000 books read, you become a member of the 1K club; 2000 books the 2K club and so on, up until 10,000 books, in which case you're be a "Top Reader". If you earn one of these awards, you will see a ribbon award adorn your profile picture in certain spots as well as your shelf.

2) The "Community Enthusiast" award is given out to a member of our Reading Community who truly exemplifies the spirit of sharing book knowledge and collections with others in order to create a more vibrant book community. The recipient of the award is someone who is viewed as a leader in the community by others, actively participates on a regular basis, and fosters good will among other readers. The award is given out on an as-needed basis and will be reflected on a user's publicly viewable "shelf" page for all to see.

The inaugural recipient of this award is Mark Woodland. Mark exemplifies the above traits with aplomb and his collection of books is only surpassed by the thoughtfulness by which it was put together. Mark is an active participant in the community and is consistently looked to for advice around application functionality, book suggestions, and much, much more. Congrats to Mark on receiving this first "Community Enthusiast" award.

Out at GraphingSocial Patterns in San Diego, we were fortunate enough to be chosen to demo one of our products in the OpenSocial division of the app contest. After putting some finishing touches on things that afternoon, Aaron took to the stage and presented ReadingSocial .

The demo consisted of showing our Facebook app, Visual Bookshelf integrated with our sandbox versions of ReadingSocial in Orkut, MySpace, and Bebo. We showed how, literally a MySpace user could respond to question from a Facebook user. Lastly, we tried to tie it all together by showing how it was all accessible outside of any social network at ReadingSocial , which is part of LivingSocial .

Thanks to Dave McClure, Charles Rive Ventures and Social Media for supplying the prize of a Gift Certificate to the Apple Store for a MacBook Air. For more coverage, check out Rafe Needleman from CNet's Webware blog or a Video interview with Information Week's TechTV.