One Book, One Twitter ... aka #1b1t

Cross-Posted from the Crowdsourcing Blog

I have a dream. An idea. A maybe great notion. Actually, as Auggie March might say, "I got a scheme." What if everyone on Twitter read the same book at the same time and we formed one massive, international book club? Usually such programs are organized by big city libraries. Seattle started the trend for collective reading in 1998 when zillions of Seattlites all read Russell Banks' book, Sweet Hereafter. Chicago followed suit with To Kill a Mockingbird a few years later, and then other cities started jumping on the bandwagon. When the program works—and it doesn't always—it gets more people reading, more people talking, and more people generally appreciating the written word. What's not to like?

A few weeks ago I was reading about the Chicago's read-along for a grad seminar on social capital I'm taking with Robert Putnam this semester. My strong suspicion (and I'm hardly alone) is that networks like Twitter are rife with social capital, especially the so-called "bridging" social capital that connects communities of people who have little else in common. The thought struck me that Twitter would provide a much better platform for a book club than the mere accident of physical proximity. Just think, we could supplant #howyouathug with #chapterfourexegesis in trending topics! Actually, no, we probably couldn't, and that's not the goal anyway. I love books. So do you. Let's love one book together, our actual geographical location be damned.

Here's how it'd go:

• Now: We collect nominations for what book we want to read.

• Soon: We pick a winner out of the top selections. Why not just pick the one with the most votes? Because it's not too hard to game the system. The final selection needs to be of general interest. It needs to be translated into many, many languages, and ideally it should be freely available.

• Soon After That: We start reading, and tweeting, and reading, and tweeting.

In the meantime, the hashtag for One Book, One Twitter is #1b1t. If you want to keep up to date, follow me, @crowdsourcing.

A few quick notes: This is not a book club, per se. There are some wonderful book clubs on Twitter, including #thebookclub and the Twitter Book Club (#tbc). The aim with One Book, One Twitter is—like the one city, one book program which inspired it—is to get a zillion people all reading and talking about a single book. It is not, for instance, an attempt to gather a more selective crew of book lovers to read a series of books and meet at established times to discuss. The point of this—to the extent it has a point beyond good fun with a good book—is to create community across geographical, cultural, ethnic, economic, and social boundaries. 

At best we start an annual summer Twitter tradition, and bring a bunch of people from all over the world to read together. At worst a handful of us pick a book in an ad hoc fashion and we'll simply have started another Twitter book club, and—if you're a word nerd—how bad could that be?

Comments

[Correlationist]

Great idea, Jeff! Count me in :) I guess some sort of a framing post, data collection, and analysis scheme will need to be figured out?

"How the Steel Was Tempered" by Nikolai Ostrovskii would be one I would recommend. Of course, my must read would be "Crowdsourcing", which could not be more appropriate for this endeavor.

Cheers,
Prince

[David Adams]

Like it Jeff,

Im in, in any shape or form, but don't want to wait for June, and don't think the devil is in the details, devil is in starting this beauty of an idea. I think looking at any old book through this lens could be real fun, not really all about the book after all. Looking forward to it.

Let me know if you need help,

Dave
@dmadams2

[Emahlee]

Brilliant! I almost can't believe no one's thought of this before now. Agree with Dave that this can probably start sooner than June. Doesn't need to be perfect. We can start small and then scale. I especially love the idea of an international project/discussion. My suspician, however, is that one book/ one Twitter will at least start off being English and US centric but we can learn as we go how to improve. And it will be good to get people READING and discussing. I'd love to trade off between fiction and non-fiction works.

Thanks again for sharing this idea. :) Excited to see where it leads us.

-Emily
@emahlee

[Wolfgang Reinhardt]

Cool idea. You can count men in. As I'm from Germany I also would agrre on the point that the translation into many languages would be a key point to worldwide participation. Despite the bible seems to be available in all languages, I think it's not appropriate here. But what about Saint-Exupery's Little Prince (available in 160 languages, short and easy to read)...

-Wolfgang
@wollepb

[Casillia]

What a wonderful idea, Jeff!

I may suggest Elias Canetti's classic "Crowds and Power" from 1960.

It starts with "There is nothing that man fears more than the touch of the unknown. He wants to SEE what is reaching towards him, and to be able to recognize or at least classify it. Man always tend to avoid physical contact with anything strange. In the dark, the fear of an unexpected touch can mount to panic. Even clothes give insufficient security: it is easy to tear them and pierce through to the naked, smooth, defenseless flesh of the victim."

... and it ends with "The system of commands is acknowledged everywhere. It is perhaps most articulated in armies, but there is scarcely any sphere of civilized life where commands do not reach and none of us they do not mark. Their threat of death is the coin of power, and here it is all too easy to add coin to coin and amass wealth. If we would master power we must face command openly and boldly, and search for means to deprive it of its sting."

Looking forward to experience the beauty of the crowd,

Silvia
@casillia

[Rebecca]

Maybe it's worth checking out how the folks at infinite
summer (read and tweeted David Foster Wallace's Infinite
Jest managed. Granted, IJ is probably more complex than something you'd
want to start with (and not translated) but given its complexity might be a useful object lesson in how the discussions work.

Love the idea can't wait to join in!

Rebecca
@frankrebecca

[Drew]

I like the idea. In the spirit of Crowdsourcing, selecting a book that is in the public domain and available through Librivox.org and similar sites would eliminate many financial and geographic barriers.

[twitter.com/phillydesign]

Great idea -- if successful on any level would be a great example to show those who disdain Twitter as frivolous that it can be about so much more that "What I ate for breakfast." Will be tough to come up with the selection so I think it will take some time. But worth it! Looking forward to it.

[Belinda Darcey]

Love the concept. Maybe ask that speed readers use a hashtag like #spoiler alert? In the spirit of democracy, a book that is in free e-book format would be truly accessible and (bonus) would avoid the idea being lobbied/hijacked by book publishers the way the Oprah Club is, DRM hassles with e-readers, etc. i.e. a classic from 19th century that is in the public domain for fiction (Twain, Dickens), or a free e-book for something contemporary.

[Blowoutcomb]

Great idea! I work in a library and our "Valley Reads" program was less than spectacular...difficult to get the "crowd" together. Twitter is perfect for this.

I'd suggest Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. It captures the theme to eliminating barriers and becoming visible in the mainstream.

[MarkHarmel]

I suggest selecting a new book that is only out in hardcover. This way the project will also generate financial support for the author. Crowdsourcing can both enrich the culture and undermine the financial foundation of creators. It would be great to use the practice to perform a double good.

[Bgaffnbk]

i love the idea! i'm in. i'll definitely retweet and attempt to bring the concept to the attention of some local bookstores, they would make great advocates for this experiment in the physical world. additionally, i'd like to suggest reading something by a living author, as it might be fun if he or she chimed in (in the right spirit, we would hope). given our attempt to find something that has been translated into several languages, i'd like to suggest a title by Paulo Coelho, who is also very active in the twitterverse.

[Seamus Condron]

Great, mad idea. If you need any help orchestrating. I'm in.

[Dr. Carin Bondar]

I think it's a fantastic idea! If my book was chosen I would pledge a free E Copy to everyone involved. It's a fun read about the circumstances of the 'Human Species' in the animal kingdom. Looking forward to hearing more!

[Kir]

This is just the coolest idea, I'm so in. Can't wait to see what suggestions people come up with (bonus: crowdsourced reading list). Thinking of titles...

[WotV]

I would be very interested in participating... I think whatever book is chosen should have a wide-ranging appeal...

[sherman]

Check out Canada Reads organized by CBC for an example of this taken to the national scale: http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/

will have to give some thought to what book(s) to recommend given that Twitter really is international... would be cool to have some poetry on the list, though.

[TransmediaAgent]

Love this idea, Jeff. Count me in. Ellen

[Mariana]

Love love love the idea! I´m from Mexico City. Count me in. I will be sending some mails and retweets to make this happen.
The only problem would be if some stupid guy decides to tweet the end of the book. How would you manage that?

Mariana
@marianitapc

[jenn topper]

I hate to be the big dick here, but I just can't get behind this because this great, communitarian idea will be hijacked by the lumbering publishing industry. This one great chance for an independent writer to break through the walls; or for an unknown mainstream-published writer to gain the visibility s/he needs to make it, is going to inevitably be the sole objective of the industry to own. They will lobby, claw, fight, and pay to have this opportunity. It'll lose credibility among the huge population of independent writers and the readers who enjoy non-formulaic works. Hey, I would love for my books to be chosen, but what are my chances, right? R-E-M-O-T-E. And that will alienate many writers.

It saddens me to think that I could be so cynical. (But hey, I write a blog on the topic of the dying publishing industry!)

Of course I would love to see this idea work and see free dialogue about literature take hold in lieu of #justinbieber on Twitter. But Jeff, I'm also afraid that independent and free thinking ideas may be drowned out by the louder voices on this internets. Sometimes groupthink takes hold when everyone agrees to something, and I've notices that it takes hold in a fierce way on Twitter. Most people--sorry to say it--are sheep. Their opinions won't shine and won't be heard, if they voice them at all.

Blech, I'm getting depressed just writing this.

Look, I hope it works and I'll support you either way. Thanks for being positive and brilliant. And hot.

~jenn
@revolucion0
http://dontpublishme.blogspot.com

[Jake]

I'm in.

[Dabeard]

OK, Jeff. In casting that great big net this and next month, I'll be throwing in David Weinberger's "Everything Is Miscellaneous'' and two novels from far afield, Ali Sethi's "The Wish Maker'' and the upcoming book from Gary "Absurdistan'' Shteyngart, "Super Sad True Love Story.'' Dave

[Dreamedof]

Can't wait! Vanity Fair rocks. How about Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End or anything by Elizabeth Bowen?

[Margaret]

Great idea, Jeff ~ but a bit grandiose. The idea definitely is not new. On a smaller scale check out the Univ. of Wisconsin's Go Big Read @ http://www.gobigread.wisc.edu/. The first book read by students, alumni, staff, professors, Madison residents, etc. was Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food." It has been a great way for me to stay connected to my roots.

[Brunilda Rivera]

I am in... Any genre sounds good. I like a little of everything and I nothing else will gain from this experince and grow from it. Will work on suggestions to help kick start this in terms of titles or genres for same.