It just so happens that I am a fan of book clubs. The whole idea of sitting around with friends and some wine and cheese is just fun. But, being able to talk with them about something that doesn’t typically enter into the conversion, such as great/strange/interesting book is amazing. They force you to read books you might not have chosen on your own and think of them from a different point of view. Now what if you could do this on a global scale? That would be really cool.

One Book, One Twitter launched last week. This club is the social media version of the One Book, One City programs that have been very popular in many communities. The aim of this club is to get as many people reading and discussing/tweeting about the same book.

Readers have been voting on the book over the last month and the winning book is a fantasy “American Gods” by Neil Gaiman.

I have to admit I will miss the wine, cheese and occasional gossip, but I’m going to give this book club a try.

Now you can enjoy Alice in Wonderland, without all the Hallucinogenics. Can’t wait to see all the new ideas that the iPad will inspire. And I also can’t wait to stand in a very long line somewhere when it gets to Canada.

Last week I came home to a brown box from the amazon.ca fairy. Low and behold it wasn’t my copy of New Moon on BlueRay (the only way to watch a teen vampire drama) Nor was it my book about Dieter Rams. What it was, was something more. 37Signals has been in my top tier of favorite places that consistently does great work. Chock full of smart people, with simplistic designs which I’m always looking at for hints on how to accomplish great functional designs. To say that I sometimes thing WW37SD? is an understatement.

REWORK is a book about business, from the perspective of 37Signals. Each chapter is like a punch to the face. I’m not much of a reader but I’ve read more of this book in the last week than I had of all the books I bought last year. (I like to buy books but rarely read them fully) If you cant take my word on the importance of this book then read the words of other more famous people from this link here. 37Signals – REWORK

If that doesn’t get you clicking “add to cart” hell I don’t know what will. Maybe watch those nice videos on that link too. Below is a video that 37Signals made as an attack style add against Karl Roves new book. Which was number 1 rework coming in at number 2 for its release week. Its a good watch, the book is an even better read. you should buy it. Plus its even got great illustrations from Mike Rohde.

I’ve blogged about Kickstarter before, so I’ll save talking about it again. But there is a real neat thing happening over at Kickstarter.com and that is the Designing Obama project. Basically this project is about independently funding the production of a book about the design process involved with Obamas presidential campaign. Kickstarter is a great platform to get your ideas produced with the help of backers. This crowd sourcing socially oriented approach fits perfectly with the overall campaign and I encourage you to if your interested in getting a book then you need to pledge via the Designing Obama Kickstarter page. You have 38 odd hours left to get in on this. So head on over there and watch the video about the project and their current new goal of 80k to make the book a bit more fancy.

An interesting concept that opens new perspectives on the way we publish books.

Thanks to Julie L.

I love books. I really do. Thanks to amazon.com, I have piles of them stacked around the house, and ran out of shelf space years ago. I shamelessly admit, that many of them I am drawn to purely because of the cover designs. So in my attempts to downsize my book collection, I follow the following blogs on a weekly basis. Although I can’t say it’s done much to curb how much I spend on books, quite yet.

The book design review / Chip Kid’s jounal / David Drummond | Covers

So go ahead, update your Amazon summer wish list.