The first thing that attracted me to this book was its cover. I soon found that the stories inside were just as, if not more, lovely.
The book is just that: a collection of lovely stories transcribed from a live story-telling forum known as The Moth. I'd never heard of it before reading this book, but The Moth is a pretty big deal and has a podcast and all that. This book was a good representation of well known people and everyday people simply telling personal stories about meaningful experiences. One of my favorite things about my own experience reading these stories was seeing the breadth of what was meaningful for so many people. A story about being a child soldier in Africa carried as much weight as a story about giving David Bowie a haircut. Nothing seemed beneath respect because you knew each story meant enough to someone for them to stand up in front of a crowd and share. Nothing seemed overly begging you to be awed because you knew each storyteller had been equally humbled by the act of honestly addressing a live audience. All in all, a very touching reading experience.
This was a fun deviation from reading novels. The format made it very easy to pick up and read a few stories here and there. I can't fathom why anyone would want to, but you could also very easily read stories out of order. It's an approachable book and one that tugs at the common thread that links all of us humans. I can only imagine the impact of hearing the stories live!
Obligatory disclosure: I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review. More info can be found here.
Never heard of The Moth. I'll check it out.
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