Reading a Novel, 140 Characters at a Time

With a main character named Esmerelda Van Twinkle, you’d think Matt Stewart wouldn’t have much trouble attracting attention to his new novel, “The French Revolution.”

But rather than, say, holding a release party or kicking off a bookstore tour, he’s releasing snippets of the book, bit by bit and in chronological order, on Twitter. The 140-character limit and abbreviated language used on Twitter may seem contrary to the objectives of literary fiction, but as he writes on his Web site, “July 14 is Bastille Day — the day that kicked off the real French Revolution. It’s the perfect time to do something crazy.”

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Along with original content and posts from across the Dow Jones network, this section of AllThingsD includes Must-Reads From Other Web Sites — pieces we’ve read, discussions we’ve followed, stuff we like. Six posts from external sites are included here each weekday, but we only run the headlines. We link to the original sites for the rest. These posts are explicitly labeled, so it’s clear that the content comes from other Web sites, and for clarity’s sake, all outside posts run against a pink background.

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