Jenn's Reviews > The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories: Volume 1
My rating:
The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories: Volume 1
by Joseph Gordon-Levitt
by Joseph Gordon-Levitt
This is a fairly twee and in many ways adorable book produced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt's hitRECord open-collaborative creative arts company. The book's cover boasts that it features "67 contributors from the 8,569 contributions on the Tiny Stories collaboration on hitRECord.org." Contributions are both very, very tiny stories (never more than two sentences) and black-and-white hand drawings. The concept itself is to take online submissions, under online user names like wirrow (the main architect) and Metaphorest and RegularJoe (the handle for Gordon-Levitt himself) and publish them. The book sells for about $15 and promises that all profits will be split 50/50 between hitRECord and the collaborators themselves.
The concept is more intriguing than the book, really, which is not to say it doesn't have its pleasures. The drawings and caption-like stories give the book a childish feel, even if a few of the lines -- "Thunder always let lightning come first!" -- sneak in like the dirty jokes someone overheard from his father (in 1950). The overall theme of Tiny Book is one of being -- and trying to be -- delightful, and the book wouldn't feel out of place on a shelf of slightly older children's stories. ("The mumble bee had a fuzzy buzz. Whenever he tried to say 'honey,' it came out all funny.")
This slim volume has the feeling of a summer camp collaboration -- full of partially hidden wit (and probably some in-jokes), nostalgia, and earnest observations made brilliant by the love of fellow collaborators. Basically, it's a little hard for outsiders to fully appreciate, but I'd guess that the 67 contributors (and their thousands of other friends) probably get two or three levels of enjoyment out of seeing their work in print. A new edition -- an annual edition -- is supposed to be printed again next year.
It's not likely a book that would have seen the market without the support of a well-known artist, a fact I'd feel a bit more callous about mentioning if RegularJoe didn't manage to show up as at least a co-contributor in 12 of the 70 some contributions throughout the book. As vanity projects go, though, this is a particularly cute one, and the concept of encouraging further collaboration and creativity online is admirable. Two tiny thumbs up.
Disclaimer: I received this book for free to review it.
The concept is more intriguing than the book, really, which is not to say it doesn't have its pleasures. The drawings and caption-like stories give the book a childish feel, even if a few of the lines -- "Thunder always let lightning come first!" -- sneak in like the dirty jokes someone overheard from his father (in 1950). The overall theme of Tiny Book is one of being -- and trying to be -- delightful, and the book wouldn't feel out of place on a shelf of slightly older children's stories. ("The mumble bee had a fuzzy buzz. Whenever he tried to say 'honey,' it came out all funny.")
This slim volume has the feeling of a summer camp collaboration -- full of partially hidden wit (and probably some in-jokes), nostalgia, and earnest observations made brilliant by the love of fellow collaborators. Basically, it's a little hard for outsiders to fully appreciate, but I'd guess that the 67 contributors (and their thousands of other friends) probably get two or three levels of enjoyment out of seeing their work in print. A new edition -- an annual edition -- is supposed to be printed again next year.
It's not likely a book that would have seen the market without the support of a well-known artist, a fact I'd feel a bit more callous about mentioning if RegularJoe didn't manage to show up as at least a co-contributor in 12 of the 70 some contributions throughout the book. As vanity projects go, though, this is a particularly cute one, and the concept of encouraging further collaboration and creativity online is admirable. Two tiny thumbs up.
Disclaimer: I received this book for free to review it.
Sign into Goodreads to see if any of your friends have read The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories.
sign in »
