AbeBooks (UK), an online bookseller, brings us the fabulous Weird Books Room, which features all things odd in the literary world. You may be familiar with the equally wonderful Rare Books Room, but the Weird Books Room is decidedly different. Showcasing books like Summer with the Leprechauns: A True Story, Spaghetti Art Ware: Poodles and Other Collectible Ceramics, and Ductigami: The Art of the Tape, the list is full of little unknown treasures, however strange they may be.

But the whole idea of categorizing a group of books as 'weird' raises a number of issues. What exactly makes a book 'weird'? Are the compilers of the Weird Book Room and those who suggest books judging them by their covers? Has the publishing industry's preference for catchy titles created a cottage industry for 'weird' books?

Despite making a genius marketing move by repackaging unknown or unpopular books, AbeBooks has given us a great platform for discussing the whole idea of 'weirdness' in literature. And you can't put the words 'odd' and 'book' in a sentence without talking about the granddaddy of literary oddities, Tristram Shandy.

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman is an 18th century fake memoir full of digressions and tangents that stretch it to nine volumes published over ten years. One of the earliest comic novels, it's so chock-full of the strange that it becomes difficult to read. Despite its weirdness, the book has won a place in the literary canon where it's remembered as weird and wonderful, silly and scholarly. As such it's not something that would ever wind up in the Weird Books Room. Or is it?

Apologies for the extended absence last week. As some of you know I was having significant computer issues and was unable to get to a substitute machine. However, the good news is that during the downtime I was able to complete the first podcast, and I should have it posted late this week if all goes well.

I've written about Twitter quite a lot on this blog. The microblogging site has quickly become the media darling of the tech set over the last year, and many creative people have initiated a number of interesting poetic projects within the Twitterverse.  In the interest of diversifying content, we haven't covered every single Twitter-and-poetry-related story that has come along. But there's one that's been receiving a lot of attention lately, and I simply can't pass it up.

I'm talking about Twitterature, a new collection published by Penguin Books comprised of the tweets of Alexander Aciman and Emmett Rensin. In short, what they've done is take classic literature and summarize it in 20 tweets of 140 characters each. This Yahoo! article from back in October gives a more detailed summary.

The tweets these guys have come up with are both humorous and, occasionally, insightful.
For all literary nuts, these tweets and the book that collects them will be a great source of fun. The technique reminds me a bit of Book-A-Minute Classics, which many of you may also remember. However, what I really like about Twitterature is its tendency to tweet from the perspective of the characters themselves. Imagining what Oedipus, Hamlet, Elizabeth Bennet, or Stephen Dedalus might have actually tweeted had they had their own accounts is both hilarious and daring. If you pay attention, you can tell that some serious thought and writing has gone into the creation of these tweets. Aciman and Rensin really know their stuff, and that's what makes their work so interesting.

The book, which has as its full title Twitterature: The World's Greatest Books in Twenty Tweets or Less, has already been released in the UK, and will be released in the US on December 29th. Those of you who are lucky enough to have the book already, feel free to let us know what you think in the comments.