On the back cover of the advance reading copy of Wandering Stars, it says, “I didn’t think stories were made to comfort. I believed what my father told me. Stories do more than comfort. They take you away and bring you back better made.” What do stories offer you? What do you feel is your responsibility as a reader?
Stories definitely offer me comfort and escape, but when I'm reading a really great story, I'm, also learning something, whether about myself or others or the world we're living in. I love the power and potential of that, being able to enjoy the story itself and all of the great things I will carry forward from reading that story. I also love when stories make me uncomfortable, and have to take a hard look at things I woudl probably prefer to ignore.
Some of the best stories I've read recently have not comforted me, but have brought me back better made. I'm thinking of Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend as an example. My responsibility as a reader is to stay with the story, not to flinch or look away. I survive along with the protagonist, and I am changed.
That's such a profound quote. For me, I think stories both affirm my own experience and simultaneously disrupt it. There is both solidarity and this stretch to see lives beyond my own. I feel like as a reader, I have a responsibility to do more than just look for myself in the text. If I glean some solidarity, great. But I have this call to notice what is different from myself in order to be expanded. This book has done that beautifully.
Stories offer me solace but also insight into how I am feeling and what is important to me. Stories that you read feel more "private" than stories you see. It is a conversation between myself, as the reader, with the author, as the person trying to evoke some thoughts or emotions and connect with me. If I want to escape I watch TV, streaming or YouTube. Sometimes I avoid reading because I don't want to really want to think about my life. I do always go back to reading as the way to feel those feelings that need to be dealt with and examined to help me be understand what needs to be understood.
I really do think stories are meant to change you. I have a running list of quotes from articles and books in my notes that I can’t help but bring up in discussions with people or while I’m texting my friends advice. I get giddy when I get to tell someone a piece of advice I found, extremely particular to their situation, put into words by someone way wiser than me. It’s like “hey, you’re not alone! others have experienced this and came out the other side! they’re rooting for you and so am I!”
Stories are meant pause time to appreciate the words, but also to take bits and pieces along with you (and share them with others). Allow the stories turn into lessons to be shared, reworded, and repurposed. Take them with you!!!
Stories usually offer me an encounter with myself. It's as if I'm suddenly a character in the story, with three roles, being a character, narrator and reader at the same time
Stories have given me hope. I grew up in a chaotic and abusive home environment, but I read a lot of books. I mastered the art of getting lost in my imagination, indulging in daydreams, and finding a way to escape through a good story. There are stories that I've cried over, stories that I think of often, and others I struggled to finish.
Reading has definitely saved my life countless times. The stories contained in those pages have offered solace, wonder, have fed and fed my curiosity, have made me grow up, kept me evolving, kept me in check, kept me moving forward and also made me look back. Stories offer me, especially the good ones, the possibility to navigate safely inside myself, my thoughts and emotions. Reading is such a part of myself, i cannot imagine who i would be without it…
As a person who has a scattered mind, being pulled into a good story helps my mind focus and grounds me. It is comforting. There have been times when I felt like a good book kept me alive for one more day.
Although I am only rarely successful, one of the things I try to do as a reader is to put aside any preconceptions or biases before beginning. I want to be open to being surprised by an author.
I love this. I’ve read stories that haven’t always comforted me, even if they affect me in other ways I’ve needed. I think one role as the reader is to try to listen carefully and be alert, pay mind to the details. Listen so the door to our minds/hearts doesn’t stay closed or just ajar. Listen to the story being told by whoever or whatever unlocks it. Listen attentively even if it’s only to the sound of our own voice in our head as our eyes move over a sequence of letters purposefully crafted. That voice of the story can kick a doorstopper so a door swings free. Or it can place it carefully and securely so a door remains open.
I am a voracious reader. When I begin reading the author's words, I want to become swept away with the storyline, the author's writing and most importantly I want to feel empathy with the protagonist. With excitement in tow, I want to share the book with other book enthusiasts.
More than just a story, as a reader I find myself looking through a window into the writer's soul. What made them pick this topic, these characters, this setting? What does their story tell me about them? Are they teaching me something, or simply teasing my mind? Is their story a reflection of themselves?
Hi, I'm new here and not sure where fits to ask: I'm appreciating the opportunity and encouragement to read and discuss books together, wonder when date is planned for the next title discussed after Wandering Stars? How do people confirm participating in monthly book club talks? Thank you, seeley quest
By reading I now have a way to enter into a million different expressions from a million different locations other than my own. There are clues to the past or the future..the personal experiences that are still missing a little piece or a large journey inward to that big picture that colors our worlds with a vibrancy and excitement that would not been noticed otherwise. How boring life would be with only my point of view! It's a relationship that is very rewarding and fulfilling to me. And that's a safe bet.
I’m just finishing up Wandering Stars. What was written on the back cover. Just says it all. It had a great impact on me. It took a toll on my heart. I never actually thought about the trauma us, American citizens did to the indigenous people, their culture. So I feel I came out different after reading. I think I have a better understanding of the trauma. I’m angry, sad, ashamed and feel fooled by our government. But, also feel like a better understanding and outlook with the truth with the stories being told.
Oh I love this. Definitely a comforting form of dissociation. But also maybe a state of dissociation where you experience true empathy, immersing yourself in someone else’s world without any real world connection or agenda or purpose other than to see what they’re seeing.
Reading feeds my creativity, too - it makes me want to make things!
I read to learn about something: people, places, cultures...I did not know before or I need to understand better whether it's fiction or nonfiction. There are many other ways I get entertained; reading is not usually one of them. As a reader I feel responsible to understand what the author is showing me and to stay on the journey with the characters and experience along with them whatever they're going through, good, bad, happy, sad...I ride with them.
Stories definitely offer me comfort and escape, but when I'm reading a really great story, I'm, also learning something, whether about myself or others or the world we're living in. I love the power and potential of that, being able to enjoy the story itself and all of the great things I will carry forward from reading that story. I also love when stories make me uncomfortable, and have to take a hard look at things I woudl probably prefer to ignore.
Some of the best stories I've read recently have not comforted me, but have brought me back better made. I'm thinking of Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend as an example. My responsibility as a reader is to stay with the story, not to flinch or look away. I survive along with the protagonist, and I am changed.
That's such a profound quote. For me, I think stories both affirm my own experience and simultaneously disrupt it. There is both solidarity and this stretch to see lives beyond my own. I feel like as a reader, I have a responsibility to do more than just look for myself in the text. If I glean some solidarity, great. But I have this call to notice what is different from myself in order to be expanded. This book has done that beautifully.
Stories offer me solace but also insight into how I am feeling and what is important to me. Stories that you read feel more "private" than stories you see. It is a conversation between myself, as the reader, with the author, as the person trying to evoke some thoughts or emotions and connect with me. If I want to escape I watch TV, streaming or YouTube. Sometimes I avoid reading because I don't want to really want to think about my life. I do always go back to reading as the way to feel those feelings that need to be dealt with and examined to help me be understand what needs to be understood.
I really do think stories are meant to change you. I have a running list of quotes from articles and books in my notes that I can’t help but bring up in discussions with people or while I’m texting my friends advice. I get giddy when I get to tell someone a piece of advice I found, extremely particular to their situation, put into words by someone way wiser than me. It’s like “hey, you’re not alone! others have experienced this and came out the other side! they’re rooting for you and so am I!”
Stories are meant pause time to appreciate the words, but also to take bits and pieces along with you (and share them with others). Allow the stories turn into lessons to be shared, reworded, and repurposed. Take them with you!!!
Stories usually offer me an encounter with myself. It's as if I'm suddenly a character in the story, with three roles, being a character, narrator and reader at the same time
Stories have given me hope. I grew up in a chaotic and abusive home environment, but I read a lot of books. I mastered the art of getting lost in my imagination, indulging in daydreams, and finding a way to escape through a good story. There are stories that I've cried over, stories that I think of often, and others I struggled to finish.
Reading has definitely saved my life countless times. The stories contained in those pages have offered solace, wonder, have fed and fed my curiosity, have made me grow up, kept me evolving, kept me in check, kept me moving forward and also made me look back. Stories offer me, especially the good ones, the possibility to navigate safely inside myself, my thoughts and emotions. Reading is such a part of myself, i cannot imagine who i would be without it…
As a person who has a scattered mind, being pulled into a good story helps my mind focus and grounds me. It is comforting. There have been times when I felt like a good book kept me alive for one more day.
Although I am only rarely successful, one of the things I try to do as a reader is to put aside any preconceptions or biases before beginning. I want to be open to being surprised by an author.
I love this. I’ve read stories that haven’t always comforted me, even if they affect me in other ways I’ve needed. I think one role as the reader is to try to listen carefully and be alert, pay mind to the details. Listen so the door to our minds/hearts doesn’t stay closed or just ajar. Listen to the story being told by whoever or whatever unlocks it. Listen attentively even if it’s only to the sound of our own voice in our head as our eyes move over a sequence of letters purposefully crafted. That voice of the story can kick a doorstopper so a door swings free. Or it can place it carefully and securely so a door remains open.
I am a voracious reader. When I begin reading the author's words, I want to become swept away with the storyline, the author's writing and most importantly I want to feel empathy with the protagonist. With excitement in tow, I want to share the book with other book enthusiasts.
More than just a story, as a reader I find myself looking through a window into the writer's soul. What made them pick this topic, these characters, this setting? What does their story tell me about them? Are they teaching me something, or simply teasing my mind? Is their story a reflection of themselves?
Hi, I'm new here and not sure where fits to ask: I'm appreciating the opportunity and encouragement to read and discuss books together, wonder when date is planned for the next title discussed after Wandering Stars? How do people confirm participating in monthly book club talks? Thank you, seeley quest
By reading I now have a way to enter into a million different expressions from a million different locations other than my own. There are clues to the past or the future..the personal experiences that are still missing a little piece or a large journey inward to that big picture that colors our worlds with a vibrancy and excitement that would not been noticed otherwise. How boring life would be with only my point of view! It's a relationship that is very rewarding and fulfilling to me. And that's a safe bet.
I’m just finishing up Wandering Stars. What was written on the back cover. Just says it all. It had a great impact on me. It took a toll on my heart. I never actually thought about the trauma us, American citizens did to the indigenous people, their culture. So I feel I came out different after reading. I think I have a better understanding of the trauma. I’m angry, sad, ashamed and feel fooled by our government. But, also feel like a better understanding and outlook with the truth with the stories being told.
Oh I love this. Definitely a comforting form of dissociation. But also maybe a state of dissociation where you experience true empathy, immersing yourself in someone else’s world without any real world connection or agenda or purpose other than to see what they’re seeing.
Reading feeds my creativity, too - it makes me want to make things!
I read to learn about something: people, places, cultures...I did not know before or I need to understand better whether it's fiction or nonfiction. There are many other ways I get entertained; reading is not usually one of them. As a reader I feel responsible to understand what the author is showing me and to stay on the journey with the characters and experience along with them whatever they're going through, good, bad, happy, sad...I ride with them.
it was there but Audio which I rarely do— but now might be the time