Review Copy: Taking Things Seriously
A book like Taking Things Seriously could have gone badly pretty quickly. Invite a bunch of people you know to submit a story about an object that inspires you. Ask enough people and soon enough you have a book. If you’re into name dropping it gets to a point where you don’t follow the stories as much as seeing who was and wasn’t invited. The thing with this book is that it really doesn’t feel like that. The objects and stories come off geniuenly, not as a contrived “look at how clever I am” etc. story example.
The write ups are longer then a sound byte but less then a huge commitment of time to read. The intro explaining how submissions were accepted helped frame the context for deciding what got in and what unfortunately did not. Some pieces of inspiration are quite funny while others are moving for more somber reasons. If anything, it will make you look around your own surroundings and make you ask yourself what inspires you?
That is a very clean and inviting layout. I was pleasantly surprised to find the page number in the gutter, I think that works quite well.
Thanks for the kind words about “Taking Things Seriously” — much appreciated. And I’m relieved to hear that you like the page number in the gutter. Carol Hayes, my co-editor and the book’s designer, is extremely talented and experienced, but I was worried about that idea.
I have to be honest – I really did think the page number placement was an error. I’d never seen it on the inside before and thought maybe there was a page mix up on the press. I’m glad that you were able to clear that up. Now that I’ve seen this I might have to try my own version of displaying the numbers on an inside gutter.