A "Text" Book Like No Other

by Michele Cheplic | More from this Blogger

30 Jan 2007 12:38 PM

I'm not an author, nor do I aspire to be one, but I have friends who long to have their hard work published and to them I preface this blog by saying: Hang in there. This blog is not meant to torture you. Instead, I hope it shows what can happen when you mix a bit of creativity with a passion for making money.

A novel chock-full of misspelled words has just been published in Finland. The book's narrative consists entirely of cell phone text messages. According to the publisher, "The Last Messages" tells the story of a fictitious information-technology executive in Finland who resigns from his job and travels throughout Europe and India, keeping in touch with his friends and relatives only through text messages.

The author, Hannu Luntiala, complied his messages, and the replies he received -- roughly 1,000 altogether -- in chronological order to create the 332-page novel. The book is full of grammatical errors and abbreviations commonly used in regular text messaging traffic.

When he's not authoring "text" books Luntiala runs a company that keeps data bases on people living in England. He recently told Finnish news reporters: "I believe that, at the end of the day, a text message may reveal much more about a person than you would initially think."

If you are kicking yourself for not being the first to market the idea of a book full of personal text messages-stop. Apparently, the Finns are quite savvy when it comes to electronic handheld gadgets, and have embraced text messages as a tool to communicate even in most private matters. You may remember seeing news coverage of Finland's Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen's recent text-capade. He made tabloid front pages after reportedly having broken up with his girlfriend via a text message.

A spokesperson at Finnish publishing house that accepted the book says feedback has been so positive the company is considering translating the book into other languages.

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Learn more about Michele Cheplic

Michele Cheplic was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, but now lives in Wisconsin. Michele graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Journalism.

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