Customer Reviews

I LEGO N.Y.

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Mr. Niemann makes me laugh every single time. He definitely makes me see mundane things in an entirely new light. I'm not sure actually buying this book is necessary because he has a blog on the NYTimes website called "Abstract City," and this entire lego-themed book was one of his early posts. Check it out first, and I guarantee you'll fall in love with his style. But this is a good way to help support his work, too.

A friend sent my wife a copy of this amusing little love letter as a get well gift. Christoph Niemann has put together a number of very amusing little vignettes of the City made out of a few Lego pieces. Charming, clever and evocative.

Some of these appeared on his New York Times blog; he writes ""I LEGO N.Y." A playful homage to New York. Now available as a nice chunky board book. With all the images from the original blog + a handful of new ones."

It's well worth visiting his website to explore his wonderful take on a wide variety of subjects -- Google on his full name and the site should appear on top of the pile.

Robert C. Ross 2010

I happened to see this book at Toys'R'Us and picked it up right away, not wanting to wait until it gets delivered (even though I do have Amazon Prime...) Christoph Niemann is an amazing illustrator, I follow his work in The New York Times religiously (my personal favorite being The Boys and the Subway: [...]) and even though this book was in a kids store and is supposed to be a book for kids, I had to disappoint my daughter and tell her Mommy was buying this for herself. Looking at it on the train ride home, I couldn't help but chuckle. These illustrations are smart and fun and delightful and anybody who loves New York City should absolutely own a copy of this book. Can't wait for the Subway one that's coming out this spring...

I "read" this book in a bookstore and laughed aloud several times. I'm now here to buy it. I'm not sure my baby will appreciate the humor, but I'll enjoy reading it to her.

This is a genius book for any parent or child living in NY, or parent or child who loves the Big Apple.

I first spotted this book at the Whitney Museum bookstore and have since bought 5 more.

This is now my go-to present for parents of young kids.

What and valentine to the city and an absolute lough-out-loud delight of a book!

I bought this book for my 11 year old son who loves legos, as well as arts, architecture and culture. As he had never being in New York (we live in South America) but know some about it, was a great way to find more information about new york and american culture concept.
For me, as an architect, is one of this pieces you find, and enjoy each time you open it, a coffee table must, to impress and share with your friends and family.

Wonderful out-of-the-box way of looking at NY Lego-animation! My children started building our country (Holland) the same way, it's almost like poetry: narrowing down the amount of bricks like words, to show instead of tell a story. http://www.kateschlingemann.nl

I bought this for my 3yr old Brooklyn neice but decided to give it to her dad when I read it. Most of the humor would just be over her head. But for adults who grew up surrounded by Legos, it's amusing.

Thanks to some incredible work by both fans and professionals, LEGO bricks have started coming into their own as an art medium to be taken seriously.

However, Christoph Niemann's book seems to want to set this progress back. "I LEGO NY" is amusing in theory but not in practice, with creations that look like they took a total of 30 seconds to build (for the entire book). It's the ultimate example of "my kid could have done this" art, right down to the "cute" arrowed captions that label each "model" in the book -- the artistic equivalent of explaining a joke to the point where it's no longer funny.

An orange 2x4 brick is neither the Staten Island ferry nor an inspiring LEGO model; in fact, it's not a LEGO model at all. It's this type of lazy building (or lack thereof) that makes the entire book feel like one big cash-in on a forgettable blog post.

Bottom line: you could do a lot better almost anywhere else. There are hundreds of talented LEGO builders out there, with work that's much more deserving of attention and support. Sean Kenney is a prime example; his books (like Cool Robots and Cool City) are great for boys and girls, kids and adults alike. Best of all, they seek to provide great inspiration as opposed to mild distraction.

I saw this book at a local library in the childrens area, i started flipping through it and towards the end of the book there is a page that says beer, scotch, and a couple other ref's to alcohol. I would not buy this book for any child!