Customer Reviews

Tell Me a Story: The Life-Shaping Power of Our Stories

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This book is so good I kept putting off writing a review on it, afraid my words would not do it justice.

Daniel Taylor explores the ways that STORY has power in our lives. We have our master stories which shape the way we view our world. We have our cultural and community stories. They all are interwoven in the core of our beings.

Somehow, reading this book, I got an image of Daniel Taylor as a gentle little English professor (Me being over 200 pounds, it's not hard for me to picture people diminutively.) I met Dan last month, at my StoryCon meeting and he is a biggg guy. But gentle, very gentle, and soft spoken. Yet his stories and his understanding of story are so powerful. This book should be required reading for anyone who works with story, any psychologist or minister.

I mark up books with wise words. This one must have [drained] the ink out of two or three pens with all the quotable, wise words I triple starred.

Short, insightful, highly readable, and mind-opening, this book sheds light, not heat, on such topics as diversity, individualism, and values. He helped me see the importance of taking personal responsibility for my actions, and the role story can play in helping me live up to my ideals. The idea of seeing myself as a character in a story gives me the perspective to do what I already know is right. Why is this marvelous book out of print?

This is truly a wonderful book, one to be read and savoured for the way that it shows us how important story is to our lives. I especially liked his section on character versus personality. Stories have the power to touch us in a way that nothing else can, and the only way that this book could have been any better was if it were a story.

This is an excellent book, both for writers and for readers who are interested in analyzing stories. It is also an excellent book for those who want to reclaim their lives from the meaninglessness and fragmentation of our day and age.

Taylor provides a thoughtful rationale for the role of narrative in giving voice to those who are all-too-often voiceless, and meaning to those who see their lives as being a series of fragmented events.

He also explores epistemological questions as he examines the specific type of knowing that narrative knowledge provides; which stands in contrast against, but also complements, fact and statistic-driven knowledge.

His chapter on plotting examines how people search for patterns and order in their lives, and his chapter on characterization moves beyond merely creating a personality or an image, to the use of fully complex, multi-dimensional characters in order to build character in readers of the story.

Taylor includes an excellent chapter on the relationship between story (narrative) and the formulation of different worldviews. This is a particularly important chapter to read, given the tendency of most people to take their worldview for granted.

Throughout the book Taylor illustrates his points with, well, stories of course. There are quite a few well selected references from literature (mostly a few paragraphs at a time -- to illustrate a particular point) as well as stories from his own personal experiences or those of people he knew.

It is an engaging book but it is not lite reading. On the other hand, it is not overly "academic" either. Graduate students who are interested in doing narrative research and who care about principle and moral integrity in their work would do well to begin with this book. Others will benefit from a refreshing point-of-view that it can give them on life, and on how to become actively engaged in making choices in one's life, as opposed to being a mere spectator.

This is one of the most enlightening books I have ever read. I've always know that narrative was an essential part of human life, but had never had the process of story so succinctly and eloquently spelled out. Taylor is obviously from an academic setting, but he parses the elements of story and elevates the role of narrative in way that is very clear and personable. I could see the book used in a variety of settings: church, school, university, book club, etc.

Daniel Taylor's book is a wise and authentic book about creativity as it applies to the spiritual self. Any aspiring writer and, actually, anyone who has felt the urge to create (that would be everyone!) should buy this book and read it. It is a permanent addition to my writing book collection.

this book was one of the most meaningful books i've ever read.not only was the read enjoyable,but the content was at a life changing level for me.i learned from this book what recognizing your own story did for you.the importance of story in not only books and movies,but in every art form.even the 12-step community and in the world of psychology,understanding your story and sharing your story are vital.the importance of each of our individual stories and how we must understand them to grow and mature.it is a book our chidren and our culture really need today.i continue refer to and give copies away today.