Kobo today added Pulse to its "Reading Life" platform, which launched in December last year with Facebook integration, recommendations, and "awards," which work like video game achievements. Pulse is designed to connect you with the "life" of a book through a glowing purple indicator at the bottom of the page. The icon brightens and grows with increasing social activity related to that page, such as reading, liking, and commenting. Touching the glow lets you bring up stats about the book, see a full list of who else is reading, and participate in the comments. This sounds like it would be especially useful for book clubs and classrooms, augmenting the already social nature of those settings.

Of course, Kobo isn't alone in the social reading game — Kindle has Public Notes, and sharing through Facebook and Twitter, and Nook Friends (beta) does sharing, recommendations, and even lending. Pulse is only part of the "revolutionary advancement in social eReading" Kobo announced at f8 last week, and the company's blog says there is still more to come. Watch for Pulse rolling out on Apple devices first and then to other platforms.