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kottke.org posts about John Atkinson

Extremely abridged books

posted by Jason Kottke   Sep 07, 2016

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)