1book140 Twitter Book Club

Has anyone heard about the Twitter book club organized by The Atlantic? It was just brought to my attention in class the other week and sounded really cool, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to share information about it on here.

 

The basic premise of 1book140 is to promote reading on a global scale, where all members need to participate is access to the monthly book and a twitter account.  

 

My understanding of the logistics: The community picks a general topic or author each month, and then all participants have the opportunity to nominate potential books. Of those nominations, a shortlist is created and then voted on. The current read for November is Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall (which I'm really interested in reading myself).

 

Right now I am learning how librarians and those tied to professions that promote literacy have to constantly look for new ways to make literacy accessible, affordable, and interesting to their patrons. There are book clubs hosted by different organizations, within friend groups, even within communities. But I love that not only would a twitter book club be generally accessible to most people, but it would be a way to learn about so many different societal/cultural perspectives. After all, aren't book clubs supposed to be about taking the personal experience of reading and then sharing your experiences with others and learning their thoughts as well?

 

More information can be found on The Atlantic's 1book140 page.

 

Have any more information to add? Has anyone participated in 1book140 before? I'd consider participating, if I was interested in the book selection and had the time. I tend to overwrite, so it would be a useful challenge to write thoughts within the 140 character limit constraints of twitter.