Lint Upon Tweed

This morning I was asked to do something very strange.  Most weekends I get up and run errands and eventually end up at some coffee shop where I will write for several hours.

I announced my intention to head to Barnes & Noble this morning because they have been closed for three fucking days due to a weak ass snow/ice storm that came through here on Thursday and Friday.  It seems that all their competitors were able to open up!!  But I digress.

My wife asked me to pick up a book for her.  The book is for an upcoming book club meeting she has in a couple of weeks.  I have to tell you that I was appalled when I heard the title.  It sickens me that someone would write a novel like this.  I was even embarrassed to ask the clerk at B&N for the location of the book.

Are you ready for this?

The title of the book is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  There, I said it.  I think Jane Austen just made another turn in her grave!

How do you completely destroy a classic piece of literature like Pride and Prejudice?  How do you reduce, to shreds, linguistic brilliance?

My mouth was ajar.  I was in a daze.  And then I was reminded of Jasper Fforde, one of my favorite authors.  If you don’t know Jasper Fforde, he wrote The Big Over Easy and The Fourth Bear, both outrageous takes on the fairy tales Humpty Dumpty and Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

I had no response.  I guess the only thing I can say is touché.

If you get a chance, pick up copies of Fforde’s NurseryCrime series.  You won’t be disappointed!

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Tags: Add new tag, Barnes & Noble, Big Over Easy, Fairy tale, Fourth Bear, Humpty Dumpty, Jane Austen, Jasper Fforde, The Story of the Three Bears

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 31st, 2010 at 11:09 AM and is filed under Books. 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.