Facts, data and numbers will never have a story’s power to influence simply because a story speaks to the mind, heart and imagination.
Harold Goddard wrote in The Meaning of Shakespeare, “The destiny of the world is determined less by the battles that are lost and won than by the stories it loves and believes in.” How we respond to the stories we read very much influences how we respond to the stories in our own lives. Conversational Reading-read a book, ask a questions and start a conversation- encourages reading for meaning and engaging with the story on a personal level. Conversational Reading ignites a reader’s curiosity and brings into focus the ubiquitous page turner … and then what happened?
The best of readers seek to realize the meaning of the stories in our own lives and in the lives we meet through story. As E.L Doctorow remarked in defense of “the March,” his fictional tale of the Civil War, ‘ Which would you rather tread to get a sense of the Napoleonic Wars-a history textbook, or ” ‘War and peace’?” Through story we apprehend the world and in so doing, gain an understanding of ourselves. Maybe this is the best definition of a life well lived, a commitment to seek his or her own inner truth. The inner story, though the same for all, is always unique in each human being, never before lived and never to be repeated.
