I've been thinking a lot about storytelling lately. There are many ways us humans can tell a story, the most commons ones being (or at least, those I meet the most) the written word, oral stories, cinematic stories, stories that are performed on stage and stories that are told through song.
I quite like watching movies, and maybe especially TV-series, but after giving it a bit of thought, I've realised that I very much prefer reading (which is not a shock, seeing as I blog about books). I think a lot of people perhaps enjoy storytelling in several ways equally, but personally, the written word the sort of format that I don't think can be beaten.
What I love the most about written stories and the printed word is that you get to use your own imagination. I've loved this since I was a child, and in reading I've found one of those places where I could express my imagination by conjuring up mental images and characters that a book told me of. I get to go along for a ride that I'm very much a part of, and not just watching from the outside. It feels sort of personal almost, it feels like the characters somehow belong to me, because they're in my mind and no one can touch them.
I also love the fact that I can choose when it fits me to do this, and I can stop halfway through if I want. It can last for a really long time or a very short time. I can spend as much time as I want imagining things or not. And I feel like those places that I visits while reading a book stays with me longer than the places I visit while watching a movie. I feel like I get to keep them in I way I don't in any other format, not just in the way of a physical book, but in my own brain. They make a different kind of impact.
What do you think? Do you prefer one way of digesting a story over the other, or doesn't it really matter? I'd love to know!
I quite like watching movies, and maybe especially TV-series, but after giving it a bit of thought, I've realised that I very much prefer reading (which is not a shock, seeing as I blog about books). I think a lot of people perhaps enjoy storytelling in several ways equally, but personally, the written word the sort of format that I don't think can be beaten.
I also love the fact that I can choose when it fits me to do this, and I can stop halfway through if I want. It can last for a really long time or a very short time. I can spend as much time as I want imagining things or not. And I feel like those places that I visits while reading a book stays with me longer than the places I visit while watching a movie. I feel like I get to keep them in I way I don't in any other format, not just in the way of a physical book, but in my own brain. They make a different kind of impact.
What do you think? Do you prefer one way of digesting a story over the other, or doesn't it really matter? I'd love to know!
