I don't usually pull the cover picture through onto my blog (I'm one of those "click through if you're interested" people) but in this case the cover is partially responsible for my purchase of the book. I developed a case of the chuckles when I saw the cover illustration. The main reason for my interest in OJTGMWDF is due to McSweeney's Internet Tendency and a little piece by Sarah Schmelling titled "Hamlet (Facebook News Feed Edition)" that made me laugh. Schmelling converted Shakespeare's tragedy into a Facebook feed (the old-school version) which conveyed the entire story in only a few pithy status updates and pages and set off a number of imitators who probably felt gypped because Schmelling thought of the idea first. She's now built on her idea and has produced a whole book of Facebook feeds, profiles, and groups for the wacky characters of classic literature with "Hamlet (Facebook News Feed Edition)" leading the pack.
I am a Facebook addict, a little less so these days due to the loss of the old-school Facebook feed and its replacement by something less fun (in my opinion), as well as a classic literature freak (oh, you didn't know that? ha!) so when I heard that Schmelling's book was due out last week I was 90% positive I would buy it. The cover pushed it to 100% and so I spent the latter half of last week chuckling over Jane Austen's profile, the virtual-gifting from Goneril and Regan to King Lear, and watching Hemingway get trounced playing Scrabulific with Faulkner and Joyce. Poor Dracula can't quite get the hang of his Vampire application and you had better keep your password hidden from Puck. So it goes (yep, Slaughterhouse-Five gets in on the action).
I had a good laugh. Off to go throw a sheep at Mr. Darcy.
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