1book140 follows last summer’s One Book, One Twitter club, which saw 12,000 people discussing Neil Gaiman’s American Gods on the micro-blogging site. Originator Jeff Howe, author of Crowdsourcing and a professor of journalism at Northeastern University in Boston, decided to relaunch the initiative this year, in conjunction with the Atlantic magazine, and to make it a monthly virtual meet-up for readers. “One Book, One Twitter was a smash. The only problem? It disappeared, like barbecues and seersucker suits, when summer came to a close,” said Howe. “Now it’s back … It has a new name – 1book140 – but what hasn’t changed is the global, participatory nature of the affair: The crowd is still in charge.”