The Storytelling Animal
by Jonathan Gottschall
Gottschall on why humans are addicted to story: dreams, children's play, novels, religion, memory and the self as narrative. It is a literary scholar's tour of the science, entertaining and thoughtful, and it argues that story shapes us more than we shape it. Less a how-to than a why.
Read it if…
you want to understand the human hunger for story at the deepest level.
Skip it if…
you want writing instruction; this is explanation.
Three things you will actually use
- We are built for story; it is not optional.
- Stories simulate problems; that is their use.
- The self is a story; edit it carefully.
Do this first
Write the story you tell about your own life in three sentences, then ask whether it is true.
Our verdict
Entertaining and thoughtful.
Compare with other Motivation books
The Elements of Style
William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White · Motivation
Slim, durable, essential.
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