Short Stories | Book Chatter

The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories – Volume #2
By Joseph Gorgon-Levitt
(It Books, November 2012, 128pp.)

The Short of It:

A marvelous little package of creativity.

The Rest of It:

This is another, amazing collection of stories and illustrations in the Tiny Book series. I reviewed Volume 1 last year and was so taken with the project in general, that I didn’t hesitate even for a moment when Volume 2 was offered to me earlier this year. HitRECord, founded by Joseph Gordon-Levitt invites writers and illustrators to contribute to these volumes via the HitRECord website.

These works are short, super short. We’re talking one to two pages long with only a few lines of text. The novelty is that it’s tiny, can be held in a pocket and whipped out whenever you have a moment. My daughter walked off with Volume 1, but I’ve had Volume 2 on my desk for a couple of weeks now and I can’t tell you how many have stopped by to check it out.

Here are just a couple of my favorite stories/illustrations. The first contributed by Metaphorist and TheSerpentTheCharmer, and the second by mprather75 and aamanddacc.

What I like about this series is that it makes art and stories accessible to all people, even non-readers. There is not one person I’ve shown this book to that did not find it interesting in some way. And the book itself is just lovely! I can’t wait to have the entire series sitting on my shelf.

Do check out the website if you are interested because there are a lot of videos to watch too.

Source: Sent to me by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

The Elephant Vanishes (stories)
By Haruki Murakami
(Vintage, Paperback, 9780679750536, June 1994, 336pp.)

The Short of It:

Endlessly amusing.

The Rest of It:

I think this is the third short story collection that I’ve read by Murakami and it might be one of his tamest. These stories are a bit longer than the ones I’ve read in the past. Some of them almost had a novella feel to them, but what they all share is that these are normal folks doing or experiencing very strange things.

In one story, a women goes about her life without sleeping and she is perfectly fine with it. In another, TV People come and go delivering large TV screens to a man’s home and office, without anyone noticing them except him. My favorite one had to do with a man who has decided to mow his last lawn. I should also mention that one of the stories in this collection was the basis for The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, one of his more popular novels.

This is a great collection to read if you want to escape from the day-to-day. I read it very slowly, right before bed over the course of several months and it never failed to lull me into a deep sense of relaxation. Something about Murakami’s writing leaves me utterly calm and at peace with the world. He has a way of taking “normal” and twisting it just enough to make it interesting. Some of his stuff can be overly sexual in nature but this collection was not. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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