Book cake #1 One of the best books ever written, now with more sugar!
For my birthday last week I ran a little mini-competition where I promised to give away a free copy of Zeb and the Great Ruckus to the most creative answer to the above question. I received a brilliant array of responses, ranging from the ridiculous to the philosophical and everything in between. I thought I’d share a few of my favourites here for you to enjoy. Thanks to everyone who participated, and everyone else out there feel free to comment and add your own!
“Stories are important because life and reality need to fade into the background at times.”
“Stories are important because they’re made of hopes and dreams.
The remnants of your darkest thoughts and creatures now unseen.
Telling tales keep us connected to the world of never was.
A place where impossible is expected and things can happen just because.
So write your shinning words aloud and build those bridges strong.
It’s the stories that will save us and to forget that would be wrong.”
“Stories are important because they free the mind from artificial constraints like time, gravity and parents.”
Book cake #2 (I WANT TO READ IT AND EAT IT!)
“Stories are important because they build us into the people we are, good ones make us the people we can be and great ones allow us to hope for far more.”
“Stories are important because they’re the difference between a fact, like ‘I won a free book’, and an epic tale to excite young and old about how I thwarted other people by wielding weapons of irony and cheek to triumphantly win a free book. (It’s going to make a great story. Only $14.99 plus postage and handling! Also it’s a 3D pop out book and it’s the same backwards as forwards).”
*editor’s note: I WANT TO READ THAT BOOK!
Book cake #3 I’m starting to wish all books were this incredible/edible.
“Stories are important because they give you freedom. I grew up incredibly poor in a shed, we could only eat the food that we could grow or source, I bathed in a bucket and my clothes were always secondhand and a little shabby. We couldn’t afford much but the library was free and those stories helped me to see a world outside my own and to find the poetry in my own stories. Not to sound cliche but its the stories I read, hiding underneath my blankets, wrapped in the world of places like Narnia that taught me that there is an amazing world that isn’t dependant on how much money you have, but rather how rich your imagination can be.”
But my personal favourite was from Mr. Brady ‘Subtlety’ Clarke:
“Stories are important because when thirty bearded dudes decided the hierarchy of Important Things in the steamy autumn of 1066, the skinniest one (with the mole on his nose) yelled and screamed and spat that stories are more important than trying to conquer a goddamn island, Bill. And that’s why we have stories AND a Norman Britain.”
For further reading, there’s a great article on why stories are important over at the Journal Pulp, a list of the most beautiful bookstores in the world and, while you’re at it, a goodreads list of must read books. Happy reading!