OP here. Thanks for reading the post! I agree with you. It seems that the HN crowd is very much interested in tools while I explicitly mention that the tool question is the least important one. I'm curious to know why folks are more interested in tools than principles or why there is little discussion about the principles.
1. How would you keep it discussion-centric (not GoodReads) ...?
2. How will this be any different than a simple online forum about literature?
To answer your first question -- the idea is to use the guided questions as a basis for your discussion. So, you already start on firm ground followed by questions/prompts for the group you're in. A lot of this is dependent on the UI/UX however, I am considering having structured responses which aren't entirely free form or even, a series of responses with a mix of both.
Why is this not just a forum about literature? Literature forums typically are composed of, essentially, smaller book clubs. The problem is that book clubs will have a group of people that you'll have to edge your way into and they'll be going at a specific pace and roadmap. On the other hand, with Qitab, you're not beholden to the whims of a book club etc. Instead, you start with structured questions to engage you with your text so you have the upside of a book club without being a part of one _and_ when you're ready, you can search out other people on Qitab who are also reading the book so you can engage when you want.
I hope that answers your questions! It would be awesome if you could visit http://qitab.club and sign up (you're e-mail is 100% confidential and _will not_ be shared with advertisers etc.) -- that'll be a really great vote of confidence and I can follow up with you as we're developing.
One option is Wolfram Tones (tones.wolfram.com/generate). It uses cellular automatons (so not quite AI but achieves your goal) to generate music.
- You can change the type of music (Jazz, Classic etc.), select instruments and so on
- You can download the music as well
The only downside is that you can only get a maximum of 30 seconds. What you can do however, is go to their free programming lab and write some code to generate any length that you might want.
I second your recommendations and would like to add the blog "Farnam Street." [1] Mostly because, when it comes to reading, it emphasizes comparing and contrasting books and evaluating arguments and having them checked by others.
Getting your arguments checked by others is critical to making sure your arguments actually make sense in form.
Furthermore, if you are interested in getting started with philosophy I would recommend starting with some books in the "Very Short Introductions" series. Not all of them are good but some of them are and enough of a jumping off point.
Have you seen Outdoors Stackexchange [1]? It has questions and answers on a variety of topics and although it might not have a definitive guide to camping for first timers, it definitely has plenty of questions and answers that would help.
And the great thing is, you can ask questions too!
"personal CRM" - this fits exactly with what followup.cc is doing and what you described. The only downside is that it only works with GMail and Chrome(mium).
[1]: https://iselmdead.info/
Edit: moved the position of the citation.