The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human Audiobook

" Interesting ideas, but not really riveting reading, and the chapter on how we invent religions to feed our dependence on story left a little to be desired. :-) "

" This was an interesting overview but I agree with other reviewers that it didn't seem to offer much new. In addition, there were times when the analysis seemed superficial. For example, on page 96, he talks about "...split-brain patients were a boon to neuroscience. Thanks largely to these patients, scientists were able to isolate and study the workings of the two hemispheres of the brain. They discovered that the left brain is specialized..." He suggests that 1962 was a breakthrough year in the study of brain function localization. In actuality, doctors and neuroscientists were studying localization as early as the late 1800s by looking of victims of both strokes and traumatic head injury. "

" I wanted this pleasing, easy read to delve deeper, but I did enjoy reading it. "

" Anyone who writes should read this book, a thoroughly engaging introduction to the way our minds process and organize information into narrative. "

" Litterature went scientific, esp. Darwinian. Stresses the centrality of fiction and narrative in homo sapiens' lives. Easy reading, premium content. Ultimately revolutionary. I cannot ask for more. "

" I've read a lot of this elsewhere. The first couple chapters had some interesting nuggets, but I didn't find the book all that engaging. "

" A good introductory examination of the role of stories in our lives, but it isn't very scientific or substantial. The end notes and credits make up more than 40 percent of the book! "

" I was intrigued by the subject, but just couldn't get all the way through it. Possibly a reflection on me rather than the book itself. I might revisit it another time. "

" Meh. Really interesting concept, but there wasn't much meat on the bone. "

" I wish that I had a book like this in my English classes growing up. A book that made me examine myself as a reader/storytelling animal(something that was long overdue), so that I could better examine what I read. "

" This book validates a lot of my feelings about the importance of narrative in our lives. We tell stories because that is what it means to be human. "