Do you have a minute ... or two?

 

 

Each of the following stories takes only 2 minutes to read.

So if you have some minutes to spare, you can see if they're your cup of tea or if you think they're rather a mixed bag (pun intended). 

The Cultivating Thought author series, issued by Chipotle Mexican Grill, is the brainchild of author Jonathan Safran Foer, who also served as its curator.

It presents the thoughts of authors and comedians on Chipotle cups and bags, each illustrated by a different artist.

Twelve authors appear on the cups, eight on the bags.

 

The entire collection can be found on the website of the Beinecke Library (Yale University).

The direct links to the stories are listed below.

Once you click on them, on the left you can choose 'front' to see the illustration (or a short text, in case of the bags) and 'back' to read the (full) text.

 

Which of the following micro-stories do you prefer?

On Goodreads there are only 3 of the 20 stories listed here.

But I've read all of them and put my personal favourites in bold.
Although in this article I didn't rate or comment on the drawings, I'll definitely go back to look up some of the talented illustrators too.

 

CUPS

 

• Recipe for the perfect fountain drink by Bill Hader (illustrator: Dakyung Lee)
• Two-minute apocalypse by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (illustrator: Rachel Herzig)
• Two-minute barn-raising by Malcolm Gladwell (illustrator: Noah MacMillan)
• Two-minute break-up by Jeffrey Eugenides (illustrator: Tom Froese)
• Two-minute cheer for the home team by Barbara Kingsolver (illustrator: Laura Barnard)
• Two-minute explanation of Einstein's theory of relativity by Walter Isaacson (illustrator: Tadaomi Shibuya)
• Two-minute index by Sarah Silverman (illustrator: Brosmind)
• Two-minute mansion by Augusten Burroughs (illustrator: Dennis Eriksson)
• Two-minute minute by Michael Lewis (illustrator: Antony Hare)
• Two-minute personality test by Jonathan Safran Foer (illustrator: Julian Callos)
• Two-minute seduction by Toni Morrison (illustrator: Johanna Basford)
• Two minutes to run by Neil Gaiman (illustrator: Stuart Patience)

 

BAGS

 

For your information: there's a small text on the front and a more elaborate text on the back of the bags

 

• Two minutes about ghosts by Amy Tan (illustrator: Jesper Waldersten)
• Two minutes about my toothbrush by Aziz Ansari (illustrator: Deth P. Sun)
• Two-minute alchemy by Paulo Coelho (illustrator: Helen Lang)
• Two-minute case against limits by Sheri Fink (illustrator: Pat Perry)
• Two-minute case for optimism by Steven Pinker (illustrator: Mattias Adolfsson)
• Two-minute note to the future by George Saunders (illustrator: Kristyna Baczynski)
• Two minutes of rambling wisdom by Judd Apatow (illustrator: Kate Bingaman-Burt)
• Two-minute Spanglish con Miami by Julia Alvarez (illustrator: Llew Mejia)