Small Demons Storyverse - Your Virtual Bookshelf

I’m a huge fan of everything nice: arts, crafts, trinkets, the great outdoors, you name it. And I love to read. Also, I like to keep all my books at one place and keep them within the reach of my hand. When I stumbled upon Small Demons I was excited by the fact that I can have my own virtual book, photo and music collections, all in one place. So, what is Small Demons all about?

Welcome to the Storyverse!

At first glance, I thought Small Demons was just another online catalog featuring well-known authors, people and brands. But, to my surprise, I discovered that this Los Angeles based company makes an adventure out of reading, browsing and connecting. I decided to give it a try. At that moment, I was particularly interested in finding English version of Dante’s The Divine Comedy. So, I searched for it. The book appeared and I clicked its cover. That’s when my journey began.

When you click on a particular item from the gallery, new page appears with an image and brief description of the selected item. In my case it was the above mentioned The Divine Comedy. With just one click I had the access to all the info I needed—and much more. Apart from the brief description of the work, there was a button for the collection creation, which is the first step to building your very own virtual bookshelf.

This is how the site actually works: whatever you see can be “gathered”, organized into collections that you can edit, rearrange and expand. After playing a little bit with this nifty little option, I went back to check out another interesting thing that caught my attention.

At the bottom of the page was a list of citations mentioning Dante’s book. Click after click, I found myself immersed into discovering authors and books. But it didn’t stop there. A book led to an author, an author to an artist, an artist to a city, and from there the “view” expanded.

You find yourself connecting the pieces of a larger story: images of places, cities and countries, art works, movies and cultural events, all in relation with your starting point, all leading to some new and exciting destinations. All ready to be collected.

Small Demons is not a library and I believe that’s one of its perks. Nevertheless, it gives you all the necessary information on where to find desired books, music or movies. It’s quite simple to use, it’s addictive, yet elegant, organized, and fresh. Frankly, I think it’s a true candy.

Contribute

Another brilliant thing about this service is the user contribution. Their staff listens to the members and encourages them to join the editorial fun. From submitting quality photos of places and things to adding new references, members are invited to participate in what seems to be an ongoing  project. Still, the site is not just another social network intended for sharing personal stories or photos.

…

If websites could be materialized, this one would surely resemble a gift shop. With books on shelves, records in racks and beautiful images of exotic places, carefully placed around to tease even the most resistant ones. A place that ennobles.  This is how I see the Storyverse.

About these ads