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posted by Jason Kottke  ·  gift link

Extremely abridged books

Abridged Classics

From cartoonist John Atkinson, the plots of some classic books distilled down to just a few words. Like The Grapes of Wrath:

Farming sucks. Road trip! Road trip sucks.

Atkinson followed this up with two additional cartoons: (more) abridged classics and (even more) abridged classics. (via @mkonnikova)

Update: From back near the web’s Big Bang comes Book-A-Minute, which contains ultra-condensed versions of classic books. Here’s the summary of War and Peace:

History controls everything we do, so there is no point in observing individual actions. Let’s examine the individual actions of over 500 characters at great length.

(via @philgyford)