Tweeting for Godot

Edited excerpt from an article that appeared in MX, a free commuter newspaper distributed in Sydney, Melbourne & Brisbane.

Twitter-savvy bookworms are reducing classic literature to 140-character "tweets".

Samuel Beckett's bleak play Waiting for Godot has been shortened to "Vladimir and Estragon stand next to tree and wait for Godot. Their status is not updated."

Classics by Charles Dickens, JD Salinger and Jane Austen are among other novels boiled down to a sentence on the micro-blogging site, with modern books also being given a workover. Here's a selection:

Lady Chatterley's Lover – DH Lawrence
"Upper class woman gets it on with gamekeeper."

The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
"Professor of symbology tries to solve a murder by following clues around touristy locations in Europe. Very few paragraphs are longer than tweets."

Ulysses – James Joyce
"Man walks around Dublin. We follow every minute detail of his day. He's probably overtweeting."

Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
"Orphan given £££ by secret follower. He thinks its @misshavisham but it turns out to be @magwitch."

The Catcher In The Rye – JD Salinger
"Rich kid thinks everyone is fake except for his little sister. Has breakdown. @markchapman is now following @johnlennon."

Pride & Prejudice – Jane Austen
"Woman meets man called Darcy who seems horrible. He turns out to be nice really. They get together."

Briget Jones Diary – Helen Fielding
"Woman meets man called Darcy who seems horrible. He turns out to be nice really. They get together."