One Book, One Tumblr

Update #1: View the long list here.

Update #2: Vote on the short list here.

Everyone is doing it. Seattleites started the trend in 1998 and Chicagoans followed suit a few years later. It wasn’t long before the idea trickled through to other cities and they started doing it.

Then, a writer from Wired wondered: what if, instead of being bounded by the limits of a physical place, people on the Internet did it? So he chose Twitter and, together with its denizens, made new what was old by creating “One Book, One Twitter,” a massively online book club in which everyone on Twitter read and talked about the same book. It was such a success they’re doing it again this year.

And that’s when I began to think, why isn’t there a “One Book, One Tumblr” project? Tumblr is large enough that at least one or two (thousand) of us like to read, right? If my research is correct – and it probably is because I Googled with quotes – a Tumblr equivalent of “One Book, One Twitter” does not yet exist. So here goes:

Official nominations for the first annual “One Book, One Tumblr” begin today, May 31, 2011. Book nominations will end June 6, after which voting begins to select the final title. But because there will potentially be hundreds of suggestions, it would be better if we pared it down to fewer choices. And to do that, I will enlist the folks in the Books and Writers Spotlight to pick the final 5 titles. After all the votes are tabulated, the official title will be announced June 13. And then we can begin reading and discussing. Hate it? Love it? Tag your posts with #onebookonetumblr and we’ll see what happens.

But for now, we need ideas, so reblog this with your book suggestions. Please keep it to books in English and by authors who are still alive because, well, every project needs a few ground rules.