Starting Wednesday, Instagram Stories won’t just be a clever name as the New York Public Library launches “Insta Novels” on the NYPL Instagram account.
“Insta Novels” is a partnership between the NYPL and independent advertising and creative agency Mother in an effort to make some of classic literature’s most beloved stories more accessible to New Yorkers and Instagram users.
The initiative launched with a new, digitized version of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” that was illustrated by Magoz (@magoz).
“Instagram unknowingly created the perfect bookshelf for this new kind of online novel,” said Corinna Falusi, Mother partner and chief creative officer. “From the way you turn the pages, to where you rest your thumb while reading, the experience is already unmistakably like reading a paperback novel. We have to promote the value of reading, especially with today’s threats to the American system of education.”
“Insta Novels” is “directly in line with the library’s mission to make the world’s knowledge accessible to all,” said Carrie Welch, NYPL’s chief of external relations. “It’s appropriate that one of the works we’re using is ‘The Metamorphosis’ because in collaboration with Mother, we are completely transforming the way people look at this popular social media platform and reimagining the way people access the classics.”
Two other novels are on deck to be released via NYPL’s Instagram Stories in the coming months: Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” featuring illustrations by Buck (@buck_design), and Franz Kafka’s novella, “The Metamorphosis,” with art by Cesar Pelizer (@cesarpelizer).
How to read NYPL “Insta Novels”
To access “Insta Novels,” readers can check out Stories section of the NYPL Instagram account, @nypl, which will include stills and videos that mirror the layouts of the original works.
The background is an easy-to-read warmer white, while the Georgia font pays homage to the history of the written word in both print and digital.
To hold the page to read, users can rest their thumbs on the screen and lift to turn the page. If they let the “Insta Novel” run on its own, it doubles as a flipbook.
The NYPL novels will be saved in Instagram’s “Highlights,” making that section a digital bookshelf for users.
