BookDragon Blog

Short shorts (of the literary variety, ahem!) are not particularly new. Hemingway (no, I’m not a fan) probably gave the genre its biggest boost with his exemplary six-word version: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

Given our overloaded 21st-century mental circuits, short shorts seem to be just about right for our shrinking attention spans. The first of a planned three-volume series, Tiny is perfectly sized to slip into any pocket and pull out anytime, anywhere. Open to any page (no bookmarks required) for a quick literary snippet – visually enhanced, no less – to get a full storytime experience in just a few seconds. “‘The universe is not made of atoms; it’s made of tiny stories,'” the title page invites.

“The doctor’s wife ate two apples a day, just to be safe. But her husband kept coming home.”

“One day before breakfast, an orange rolled off the counter and escaped its fate, bounding happily through the kitchen door. Filled with hope, the egg followed.”

“One wanted to share a life together. The other wanted to share two.”

Yes, you could read this tiny book straight through in about five minutes … but why? Go head, take some savoring time in between that commute, this meeting, that pick-up, that deadline … The collection is ready-culled for you, featuring 67 collaborators, chosen from 8,569 contributions (!) submitted to hitRECord, an “open-collaborative production company” founded by actor/artist Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Sure, some will make you shrug and turn the page, others will make you giggle, guffaw, or smirk, and still others might make you stop and linger over a few deep breaths.

Not that you asked, but here’s my (obvious) favorite: “His hands were weak and shaking from carrying far too many books from the bookshop. It was the best feeling.”

Readers: Young Adult, Adult

Published: 2011