I’ve recently become enamored of Twitter not only as a social watercooler, but as a way to share ideas and meaningful content among like-minded individuals. There’s a growing community of speculative fiction authors, publishers, and bloggers on the micro-blogging site, and I’ve been thinking about ways to collectively engage that community.

To that end, I’m happy to announce the first iteration of the Twitter Speculative Fiction Book Club (#sfbookclub). Our first selection is Joe Haldeman’s seminal classic The Forever War. Here’s how it works.

In the next two weeks, read or re-read Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War. The book should be readily available in brick-and-mortar stores, on Amazon, or in audio format through Audible.

Starting on 15 May, we’ll discuss the book on Twitter for a week, appending the hashtag #sfbookclub to all relevant tweets to make the conversation easy to follow, either through the site TweetChat, Twitter Search, or the search functionality of most Twitter clients.

Feel free to spread the word about #sfbookclub in the next two weeks, but please don’t share any major plot points until the discussion starts.

That’s it! The concept is, I hope, elegant in its simplicity. Since this is the #sfbookclub’s maiden voyage, I’d value any and all input before, during, and after the event to refine the process for future discussions. Post ideas in the comments below, and of course follow me on Twitter.