Tweaked, tightened and tweeted

Twitterature, by Alexander Aciman & Emmett Rensin (Penguin, $19.95):

If you’re one of those people who knows you should take the time to read the classics but just don’t have the time to spare, this could be the book for you.

Seventy-five of the greatest works of Western literature have been tweaked, tightened and given the Twitter treatment, retold in snippets of no more than 140 characters.

So, catch up on your reading of Sherlock Holmes (“Another case solved. I’m the Batman of Britain”), Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre (“I wish my parents had died impressively. Like Harry Potter; that kid’s got one hell of an orphan story”) and Shakespeare’s Hamlet (“WTF IS POLONIUS DOING BEHIND THE CURTAIN???”) and impress all your friends with your knowledge.

You’ll find everything from Beowulf and Shakespeare and Bronte and Dickens.

Aside from the cute, concise and reasonably accurate retellings of some classic novels and plays, there’s also a handy-dandy that explains some of the internet shorthand you might stumble across in this book, such as FML and <3 and a useful list of Twitter codes.

A fun little book.

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