"Are we Facebook friends yet? I’m the wactress (waitress/actress) turned lawyer who lives her life online. (Don’t we all these days?)"I feel like that gives a pretty good feel for the book. Its about a girl living her life in a social media filled world. When addressing the length of the book a reviewer on Amazon by the name of April Braswell said that "Please know and be relieved by the fact that it is a series of emails, complete with amusing email headers, enriched by a smattering of SMS text messages and tweets on twitter."
The other book I found was Goodnight Tweetheart. This one I feel is a little more self explanatory than the other book. Both the title and the nice little caption on the front "A Love Story in 140 Characters or Less" make it pretty obvious that this story has Twitter at its heart. The descripton on the back of the book ends with "Told almost entirely in tweets and DMs, Goodnight Tweetheart is a truly modern take on a classic tale of love and loss—a Griffin and Sabine for the Twitter generation." It is about a woman, an author, living in a modern world filled with social media who uses Twitter to get over her writers block. She also happens to find romance as well.
What I find most interesting about these books is not only the role social media and specifically Twitter plays in the plot but also more importantly the role they play in the writing of the book. I was absolutely amazed that there are books now that are written entirely in tweets. To me it just shows how much Twitter and social media have permeated out culture. Now these books are definitely not classics in the making. If there is a genre of books that fits with chick flicks these books would belong to that genre. Even though they are not classics the fact that years from now when Twitter, texts, and email are outdated someone will be able to pick up these books and see what a big part of our lives these technologies were is something I find very cool. I am apt to believe that this style of writing is just a fad. I seriously doubt this style of writing will take over but the fact that there is not one but two books written this way definitely says something. I guess the question is what exactly does it say?
-M
That is so interesting! With the creation of books like these or televisions shows like Sh*t My Dad Says, I find it completely fascinating how social media is such a defining characteristic of our generation. Ten years ago the phrase 'social media' wasn't on anyone's radar and now it's all anyone ever talks about. I think it's really neat to watch it unfold and take off as a social revolution.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I don't think this type of writing is something that is going to produce groundbreaking effects on culture, but it is very interesting that social media is so influential that it is showing up in literature.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of a book that came out a few years ago that I've been meaning to read which was written entirely through text messages. (reminding anyone else of "Texts From Last Night?) It's not social media per-say but it ties in with the idea of our lives being lived through new technologies that steer the way we communicate. Here's more info on the book if anyone is interested! http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2007-01-24-textmessagenovel_x.htm
ReplyDeleteUsing social media to write a story reminds me of the book TTYL, which was written out in text messages. I find books like these fascinating because it reflects how people are communicating with each other. I wonder if this style will become more popular in the future, and if other classic novels will be “re-written” in this format.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be very interesting to see classic rewritten in tweet/email/text format. Especially if they were done in a modern spoof twist type way. For example a classic like pride and Prejudice where Elizabeth texts Mr. Darcy. I think something like that could have the potential to be really amusing.
ReplyDeleteI personally would love for the Great Gatsby to be written in text format or a form of leet. In my opinion this is the evolution of written text and we are history in the making.
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