bookphonebox II + the why of storytelling

In November, i discovered this "bookphonebox" in a town near here: a telephone box that some people turned into an open free book exchange by installing shelves. it’s not guarded or anything – you can just go in, look at the books that are there, bring some books from your own shelves to share, and take some books in exchange. surprisingly, it works. (well, i guess someone probably stops by every other day to check. but still.)


This week i visited it again, and they had Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood” there, and a book from German writer Monika Maron – both books i once wanted to read, and there they are. Capote even in original English. what’s the chance for that, i wondered.

Capote: i never read In Cold Blood, but i read his bio (and blogged about it in German: Capote..) - what struck me is his note on writing the book: that it was the most interesting experience of his life, that it changed his life and his attitude of almost everything  - that it is a grand work, and even when he failed writing it, he would have achieved something. 

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The Why of Storytelling

And then, this morning, a link in twitter, forwarded by Chris Galvin from the 30in30project: The Why of Storytelling, with this thoughtful quote: 

"Stories bring us the cultures we never had a chance to be a part of, and they give us an opportunity to live the lives we never had. Stories are the least we can make for the next generations; stories are the most we can give the world.”"

Which made me remember the Joan Didion quote: 

"We tell ourselves stories in order to live."

Looking for the full quote, i arrived at a place that seems to be a collection of quotes on writing and on stories, from authors, named: ninety meetings in ninety days, from rkvfry magazine, an interesting project itself  Here's the Didion page with quote: Joan Didion 

And another quote from here, from the time when i read one of her collections:

“I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.”