Smells like Spring is in the air… through the window of your home since that hopefully you must be social-distancing! Yes, if you have read my bookish tweets piece from last week, we’ve officially gone in full swing with the whole staying-at-home-and-away-from-others thing! (And yes, I did just rhyme with that, both by accident and not so much…)
Anyway, while the circumstances that are keeping us all homebound and isolated aren’t all that great, one of the few great things to come out is the greater chance to getting the books on your shelves read! If you happen to waiting on some reads and are aware about Amazon’s policy on the “deprioritization” of items being shipped out, what’s wrong with a few rereads while you wait a week, for Amazon or any other booksellers that will slowly but surely deliver?
Regardless, by the end of the day, #BooksConnectUs, so don’t ever forget that! After all, that’s what Bookstr is all about. Even when we’re all stuck at home, we’re still putting out great, creative bookish content! With that being said, enjoy these tweets, mostly from SparkNotes as per usual, but almost all of which having to do with a common theme…
Quarantine Can Save – And Kill
Yeah, going off of the title of this first tweet, isn’t that theme obvious? What may not have obvious is that our dear William Shakespeare actually featured a quarantine in one of his plays. (I know: I was just as shocked when I found this out, but out of retrospect, it was a bit obvious.)
Don’t believe me? Take a look for yourself…
PROS OF QUARANTINE
– you reduce the risk of spreading the virus to those who are more vulnerable to infectionCONS OF QUARANTINE
– you're unable to inform romeo that juliet faked her death, but surely he'll wait like 5 minutes before doing anything drastic right?— SparkNotes (@SparkNotes) March 16, 2020
Unfortunately for Romeo, quarantine only ended up ending his life, rather than saving it…
For The Sake Of The Show – Or, Story
When it all comes down to it, the story is mainly all about the characters, right? We love how complex and relatable they can be to us, how inspiring, how much they can make us laugh… and then there are these kinds of characters…
Ladies, if he has:
– no character development
– a real knack for propelling the story forward
– personality traits that contrast those of your primary love interestHe's not your man, he's a plot device.
— SparkNotes (@SparkNotes) March 17, 2020
Watch out for this type: characters with no defining qualities or true agency can be a real placeholder and can stagnate the relationship if you’re not too careful… (Hint: ditch the sexy lamp for someone real!)
A Hundred Years Or A Hundred Days?
Did you know that according to Dictionary.com, today’s “Word of the Day” is stir-crazy, a term meant to describe someone who is “restless or frantic because of confinement and/or routine”?
And this is just the day after the first day of Spring! If all of this confinement really does get to us, maybe we would look like this sooner or later…
https://twitter.com/SparkNotes/status/1239985374312771585
Is it really solitude if you’re not at all content with being alone? I thought not…
Also, before we move forward with these mainly confinement-based tweets, a sweet little treat of a tweet for you all, just to give you a break from all the stress…
Time for a break? We offer you a coffee date with a penguin. pic.twitter.com/iJmkxLgJcV
— Penguin Random House 🐧🏠📚 (@penguinrandom) March 20, 2020
Filled up on all the coffee? Great, let’s shake our penguin tail feathers and move it all along!
Go Away On Holiday With Friends – And Stay There
Nothing’s better than being away with friends by your side and telling each other stories…
Due to personal reasons I will be retiring to a secluded villa in the countryside with nine of my friends where we'll take turns telling stories that range from bawdy to tragic
— SparkNotes (@SparkNotes) March 18, 2020
Not what I pictured when I thought of stories, but as long as they’re all together and staying in one place, far removed from the Black Death, then let them be!
The Element Of Surprise…
If you really think about it, aren’t just gathering up all our strength away from the enemy just so we can come out stronger than ever before? And by reading a bunch, we’re getting smarter too!
I mean, I think that’s the kind of thing the Greeks had in mind in defeating the Trojans…
The Greek warriors planning to breach the walls of Troy pic.twitter.com/Ao52aLxzW4
— SparkNotes (@SparkNotes) March 18, 2020
Watch out, Coronavirus: after gaining the most energy we can, we’ll all spring up on you when you won’t even see it coming – as soon as you die out first, that is.
He’s Got Game – and One Title Too Many
Job interviewers want to know just how many previous positions you’d upheld before coming in to get interviewed this time around, but maybe cut out any that need not be mentioned…
https://twitter.com/SparkNotes/status/1240708014488748032
After all, they don’t need to know everything, just what’s relevant to you. Hey, fair is foul and foul is fair, am I right?
Rip It, Girl!
Okay, this tweet is a personal favorite in my heart because it’s the first one that has ever used my favorite classic short story! If you haven’t read it as of yet, please do. I think you’ll find it all the fitting for these times in which we’re living right now…
Things you can do while social distancing:
– Self-reflect
– Keep a journal
– Study the wallpaper
– Creep around
– Inch ever closer to madness due to the oppressive nature of 19th-century gender roles— SparkNotes (@SparkNotes) March 20, 2020
…only this would apply to everyone being oppressed by the virus nowadays, and not just the 19th century women by these norms. Learn from this story: rip through the paper that binds (metaphor or not), wash your hands, and don’t go stir-crazy!
And now, some bonus tweets to cap off this hopefully-not-too-confining article of tweets…
Bonus Tweet #1: Famous Last Lines Rewritten
Imagine if all of your favorite classic stories ended with lines that are all too fitting with what’s going on right now. Actually, you don’t have to imagine: read them for yourself!
“So we beat on, fists against the window, borne back ceaselessly into the house.” @lithub rewrites the LAST lines of 10 classic novels for the era of social distancing. https://t.co/VcqTHaPB0R
— Penguin Classics (@PenguinClassics) March 20, 2020
Bonus Tweet #2: Books Vs. Birds
In case you can’t get enough of Penguin Publishing’s penguin content…
Books are timeless. Books are lifelines. Books are home. But some days call for a different kind of Penguin content, and today that content is Penguins walking down stairs. https://t.co/sbffIkgWLP
— Penguin Classics (@PenguinClassics) March 18, 2020
Bonus Tweet #3: Clear Your Schedule… For Books!
And in case you haven’t reprioritized your schedule yet…
https://twitter.com/ReadItForward/status/1241048538848661504
Featured Image Made Via Photoshop
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