#1B1T

I've recently put aside Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy (review of the second book, The Girl Who Played with Fire, coming soon!) to take part in One Book One Twitter, a worldwide book club that is currently reading Neil Gaiman's American Gods. A worldwide book club! What a great idea! I've always found it fun to read books at the same time as other people, and then talk about what we've read (which is why I loved being an English major in college). And anyway, American Gods has been on my to-read list for quite a while now, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to read it. Right now I'm halfway through chapter ten (this week's twitter discussions cover chapters nine through eleven), and I'm liking the book a lot so far.

The basic premise of the novel is this: throughout history, immigrants arriving in America have brought with them their various religious beliefs, and with these beliefs came gods. European gods, African gods, Caribbean gods, you name it. Unfortunately, as the immigrants assimilated, their belief in their traditional gods declined, leaving the diminished deities to fend for themselves. Now a storm is coming: a war between the Old World gods and the new gods of technology and progress. And our hero - an ex-con by the name of Shadow - is caught in the middle of it. 

Here's the discussion schedule, in case you would like to participate (the twitter hash-tag is #1B1T):

Week 4 : May 26-June 1
Discuss Chapters 9, 10, & 11

Week 5 : June 2-8
Discuss Chapters 12, & 13

Week 6 : June 9-15
Discuss Chapters 14, 15, & 16

Week 7 : June 16-22
Discuss Chapters 17, 18, & 19

Week 8 : June 23-30
Discuss Chapter 20 and Postscript

PS - Neil Gaiman is on twitter (@neilhimself) and has been participating in live question and answer sessions about the book. Awesome!