Several online communities and social networking websites have book groups focusing on contemporary fiction. Three of the more prominent networks are Facebook (try Book Lovers, Passion of Books or All I Really Need Is A Good Book), Google Groups (try Bookbabblers, Book Worms or Google Reading Forum) and Yahoo Groups (try BookCrazy, The Book Lovers' Club or Books a Month).

There are also several active newsgroup discussions on the various topics referenced in Octopus Intelligence, including sci.bio.paleontology, misc.activism.progressive, soc.culture.usa and alt.politics.