Hemingway, Steinbeck, and Shakespeare on Twitter

Times are hard. Sister breast feeding homeless guy. I am so outta here.

If you had to guess which classic novel that describes, Twitter-style, what would you bet on? (*Scroll to the bottom of the page for answer.)

Let's invade France and marry their women! And you thought Cliffs Notes were fast...

Some of us procrastinators here at CNET News (I'm talking to you, Jim Kerstetter) are having great fun with NPR host Peter Sagal's idea of coming up with Twitter versions of classic novels, like the summation above, which Sagal wrote.

Sagal, head funnyman on the weekly news quiz Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me! went on his Twitter page and challenged others to come up with their own literary summations in 140 characters or less.

None are quite as good as Sagal's--or as Jim's. Kerstetter managed to come up with, like a dozen, in two minutes. He even threw in a few plays and a short story:

• I became famous to impress a chick and some old crook helped me. (Great Expectations)

• My no-good daughters are making me crazy! (King Lear)

• Lemme tell ya about the big one that got away. (The Old Man and The Sea)

• Let's invade France and marry their women! (Henry V )

• Cold-blooded murderers are people, too! (In Cold Blood)

• I wish I brought a Band-Aid. (The Snows of Kilimanjaro)

OK readers, got anything for us?

*Answer: The Grapes of Wrath.

[chetlen]

How about...

That snooty broad was so not worth this damn war.

(The Iliad)

[MiniKirk]

OK, how about this: "Oh God...if I can't be with him, then I'll just DIE!" (Romeo and Juliet) or "I'm just sick of all these fake people" (Catcher in the Rye) or even "I think I've done far too many drugs" (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, for a little more contemporary in literature)

[oypingppei]

Let's see how well you do without my help!

(Atlas Shrugged)