read a book, share a story

I had a conversation with my sister the other day about books. Well, it was actually about her coming to visit in a few months and her comment went something like this –

“I might stay for something like 10 days, but you don’t have to worry if you get sick of me, you can just go do your own thing. I have learned to be able to entertain myself. I can read books”.

Now, this may sound completely normal to you, but my sister is an extremely, extreme extravert. She is very intelligent – and it wasn’t until this point that I realized that she really never liked to read books. (one of those things that I inherently know, but it was never really that important to think about). Then she went on to tell me about a book she has been reading (a million little pieces). She has now read it at least 3 times and she wants to read it again. “It is so good” she says. And now she insists that I read it, so she can talk to me about it.

My husband Tim has also been doing more reading lately. He reads a lot of stuff by and about Lance Armstong – but his latest favorite has been a book about the spiritual journey of U2. “We should all read this and then listen to the music and discuss” he says to me and our housemates.

As for me – I love to read – but I have been wondering lately about the necessity of all of us needing to read the same things. What happened to story telling? Why can’t someone just tell me about a book and then we can talk about what that means for what we think and how we see the world? Why do I have to read everything? I guess there is something to this shared experience stuff.

When Tim and I first got married we went through this devotional book together. Neither of us liked it, but we thought that we needed to be attentive to our spiritual life. When we finished that first book, we picked up another – but this one was not a devotional book (per se) instead it was “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson. I read to Tim every night until we finished that book – and then we read another. There was something about that time we had together that was meaningful and interesting and very spiritual for us. We share now that story as part of our lives together. And what it did for us was raise our awareness of those things we thank are important, and opened up places for us to discuss our beliefs, concerns, dreams and even our faith.

I guess shared stories come in a variety of forms in the different stages of our lives together. It has been a good reminder for me about various ways to live these stories of our lives and learn more about one another. It is another way to open doors to our souls.

Read a book! Share a story