Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don't Float: Classic Lit Signs on to Facebook

by Sarah Schmelling | Humor |
ISBN: 0452295734 Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingGoryDetailswing of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 8/25/2010
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4 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by wingGoryDetailswing from Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Wednesday, August 25, 2010
I was delightfully surprised by this book when I first found it, so when I came across this copy on the bargain rack at Borders I had to nab it for yet another release copy. It's an exercise in what might happen if famous literary figures were to show up on networking sites - and hilarity ensues!

It may seem a bit odd that I chose the book at all; I'm not on Facebook, nor on any other major networking sites - I don't even twit. Er, tweet. Whatever. (I did post on usenet groups back in the day, and now there are the BookCrossing forums and LiveJournal, but the message-board structure, etiquette, and expectations are all very different from those of the social sites.) But while I may need to do a little research to figure out some of the jokes (on the cover, Hester Prynne "received a piece of flair", whatever that means), much of the rest of it seems pretty entertaining even without the full context (Edgar Allan Poe "will not stop looking at you that way").

Other samples: from Juliet Capulet's page, "Relationship status: it's complicated." There's a "travel tipster" review of Wuthering Heights ("only stayed because of blizzard and dog attack"). And "Edgar Allan Poe received a ROFL Catz: 'iz in ur wall (wit ur ded wife)'." Hee!

Ooh, and there are quizzes, like "Which dystopia are you in?" The choices there include Brave New World, 1984 - and "Social Media", about which it says:
"You've stopped communicating with actual people to spend more time updating your status, tending your virtual farm, pretending you're in the mafia, and writing comments on the pages of people you haven't seen in person since kindergarten, if ever. What's that? Your boyfriend wants to talk to you? Just tell him you will as soon as you take these quizzes on what your birthday means about you, what kind of shoe you are, and what kind of dog breed you'd be. Go ahead, we're always here for you. Always, always here."
A bit shuddersome, that one! [And it reminds me of this entertaining Social Media Venn Diagram t-shirt from the lovely - if gloomy - folks at Despair.com!]

I'm even enjoying the segments on books/characters I haven't read; Holden Caulfield's page, for example, has him whining as usual only to receive a series of snarky/helpful comments from Huck Finn, Jo March, Pip, and Scout Finch, among others. And Holden gets to participate in some other chats, such as this exchange on the news feed for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland:
"Alice does wish I didn't have to keep changing! I would cry, but I did that before and almost drowned myself in my poor tears. Along with several woodland creatures.

Peter Pan: You don't have to change, Alice. Never grow up!
Lewis Carroll: Here, here!
Hans Christian Andersen: So true!
Humbert Humbert: Yes, yes!
Holden Caulfield: This place is lousy with perverts."
Some of the items, such as Great Expectations, are actually pretty good summaries of the books' plots - surprisingly so in some cases, with details that tend to get dropped from film versions; teachers should be on the lookout for book reports based on these!
I have more things-I-want-to-quote than I can fit in a single JE, so I'll have to be selective (and leave something for the readers to discover for themselves!). I loved the Jane Austen segment, where she gets comments/questions from Emma Thompson, Karen Joy Fowler, Bridget Jones, Colin Firth, Elizabeth Bennett, and William Shakespeare. [Shakespeare opens the book, come to that; among other things he suggests that one measure of a "classic" is "how often you refer to me".]

There's a lot more wonderfulness here, but I'll end with the James Joyce profile - it is a major hoot ("Are you sure he didn't just hit 'Post' too soon?", which also - oddly enough - provides some insight into Joyce's unusual style.

Very, very entertaining book, this!

[See also the maidenswhodontfloat web site, here.]

Journal Entry 2 by wingGoryDetailswing at Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Thursday, September 30, 2010

Released 13 yrs ago (9/30/2010 UTC) at Nashua, New Hampshire USA

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

This book's on its way to BCer slb453 in Florida. Enjoy!

Journal Entry 3 by slb453 at Altamonte Springs, Florida USA on Monday, October 4, 2010
Received today! Thank you so much, GoryDetails, for sending this to me! I really appreciate your generosity!

I will be making this into a US/Canada BookRay when I finish reading it.

BookRay Participants:

1) megami-no-ushi - Canada, ships US/Canada
2) aunt-sophie - Canada, ships US/Canada - asked to be skipped
3) leoluvr - US, ships US
4) NMReader - US, ships US
5) 4thEstate - US, ships US/Canada
6) izzy5000 - US, ships US/Canada
7) iwillrejoice - US, ships US/Canada


If you would like to join this BookRay, please PM me!

I list my bookrings at The Bookring Directory!

UPDATE: MARCH 17, 2011

This copy has been lost and a replacement copy has been registered to continue on the bookray here: http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/9715000.

Journal Entry 4 by slb453 at Altamonte Springs, Florida USA on Monday, January 3, 2011
This book was a good reminder of all the classic literature that I've yet to read! And also a good plot refresher for all those classic books that I haven't read in years. I chuckled several times out loud. Thanks to GoryDetails for sending me this book.

I am now contacting the first in line for the BookRay for their address.

Journal Entry 5 by slb453 at Calgary, Alberta Canada on Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Released 13 yrs ago (1/5/2011 UTC) at Calgary, Alberta Canada

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Oops, forgot to make release notes on this! I mailed this out to megami-no-ushi in Canada about a week ago (I think it was January 5th).

Journal Entry 6 by megami-no-ushi at Calgary, Alberta Canada on Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Thanks for sending this - I'm really looking forward to reading it!!

Journal Entry 7 by megami-no-ushi at Calgary, Alberta Canada on Friday, February 18, 2011
This book has disappeared from my house. I'm completely bewildered as to where it could have gone. Ironically, I had enjoyed it so much that the last time I saw it I had been in the process of ordering another copy online for a facebook-addicted friend's birthday present (since it wasn't in stock in my city.) I'm going to search one last time on Saturday and if it doesn't turn up I will get a replacement to send on. appologies for taking so long with it.

Journal Entry 8 by megami-no-ushi at Bookring/Bookray, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- Canada on Saturday, March 12, 2011

Released 13 yrs ago (3/12/2011 UTC) at Bookring/Bookray, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- Canada

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

The replacement book is finally off on it's way to Leoluvr in Arizona!

I really enjoyed this book - while I hadn't read all of the books covered, I found all the interplay between various authors and characters to be hilarious. The best ones in my opinion were Juliet's page and the Alice in wonderland page. Thanks so much for including me and thanks again for everyone's patience.

To the finder:
Calgary has an active group of BookCrossers that meet to swap books and discuss book crossing every second Saturday of the month at 11am at the Joshua Tree Cafe on Edmonton Trail. We always love to meet new crossers, so please join us any time you like!

Journal Entry 9 by megami-no-ushi at Calgary, Alberta Canada on Thursday, March 17, 2011
I registered the replacement book with a new BCID and linked back to here. Not sure what to use as the status of a missing book so I chose travelling.

eta: I can't get this off a controlled release, so I might ask leoluvr to catch both.

Journal Entry 10 by wingGoryDetailswing at Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Thursday, March 17, 2011
Perhaps the site doesn't undo the controlled-release status when the JE is by the same person who made the release notes? Might be worth mentioning that in the Beta forum as a minor but annoying bug. [If that *is* the problem, this JE should fix it; if it doesn't, the bug's even more complicated!]

Thanks for creating the new BCID, and for replacing the book; I hope the replacement copy travels safely! And maybe this copy will turn up someday - even if it did get into your recycling, people do sometimes sift through that looking for items of interest. In the meantime I'll leave it as "traveling", since it's in between finders one way or another.

Journal Entry 11 by leoluvr at Tucson, Arizona USA on Monday, March 21, 2011
This copy was LOST and replaced by megami-no-ushi. Thank you!

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