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Book and blog reviews for savvy entrepreneurs

For English Majors Who Love Social Media

A couple of years ago, my co-author Lindsey Pollak and I were struggling with how to write an engaging “how to online network” book. Then we pondered: What would Jane Austen do if she were a blogger? The result: The Savvy Gal’s Guide to Online Networking (or What Would Jane Austen Do?).

This is why when I heard about the book Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don’t Float: Classic Lit Signs on to Facebook by Sarah Schmelling, I just had to get my hands on it. Classic Lit + Social Media = Witty Fun!

Schmelling takes classic literature characters and transports them into the modern world by imaging what they would do if handed a computer and access to Facebook. She creates profiles, pages, news feeds, and has them interact with each other.

For the non-Facebook friendly, the title is a play off the fact that people who join Facebook usually join groups of like-minded folks. Poor Ophelia of Hamlet fame would have been relegated to joining the group of “Maidens who Don’t Float,” not to be confused with the group “Men Who Float But Are Still Not Impervious to Bullets” which can count Jay Gatsby among its members.

Some of the sections worked better than others (meaning LOL funny). What I found the most clever were generally:

Those sections involving literature that I knew really well (Pride & Prejudice, Great Expectations, Jane Eyre, Anna Karenina, Gatsby, Lolita, Little Women); and
Those that lent themselves to the genre (i.e. Romeo and Juliet, due to the fact that they are teenagers; Lord of the Flies re: having a reunion; Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald unfriending each other; and Mark Twain and Oscar Wilde trading quips).

If you love literature and are familiar with Facebook, this is a great way to revisit the classics in a whole new light and have a few laughs along the way! Who can resist a chapter titled: “Elizabeth threw a sheep at Mr. Darcy: The Love and Other Difficulties Network.” I couldn’t.

Top Shelf Bottom Line: Recommended for the Facebook enthusiasts. It’s a fun way to revisit familiar characters.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 17th, 2009 at 12:34 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.