The Stories of Your Life: The Eight Stories That Explain the World Around Us

by Ben Ambridge

Our capacity to tell stories is one of the ways in which our species is unique, but most of us don't appreciate their true power. The Story of Your Life will uncover scientific findings from the fields of linguistics, psychology and neuroscience which demonstrate that we are hardwired to understand the world in terms not of facts and figures, but of narratives.

Consequently, as demonstrated by the rise of populism around the world, global history is written not by those who are the smartest, or who have the deepest command of the issues, but by those who tell the most compelling stories. And whether you're applying for a job or promotion, fighting for a political cause, buying or selling something, or simply trying to find your way through the world, the best way to do so is to understand the issue at hand in terms of one of the familiar and memorable narrative structures that have framed human thinking for hundreds or even thousands of years.

Because these stories have been instilled into us from birth, they resonate with us, even if we don't understand why. But, for this very reason, we must also be on our guard. Stories have a dark side, in the compelling but false narratives that are continually spun at as by politicians, preachers and pedlars; and it is only by truly understanding these narratives and the power that they have over us that we can begin to counter them.

Audible Audio

Published December 10, 2024

Reviews

[El Zet · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a bit of an odd one. On one hand, it’s super entertaining, but on the other, it feels overly curated to include only examples that conveniently back up the thesis. And even those examples can be pretty shaky—like in the chapter about the Quest. One person joins a walk as a personal challenge, another has a psychotic episode and interprets it as a call to action. Someone who just wants to visit X number of countries for the sake of it isn’t comparable to a character (real or fictional) who has to travel because their goal can only be achieved somewhere specific.

The second example illustrates my main issue with the book: it completely sidesteps the idea that we spot patterns and assign meaning because the same masterplot gets repeated endlessly in every piece of media we consume and we see it as a reflection of reality. That’s not just an interesting quirk of storytelling—it’s a phenomenon that fuels addiction, destructive habits, and manipulation, because the good needs to triumph, the underdog is supposed to have their comeuppance, and things will be fair.

I didn’t expect it to cover every angle or get super deep—it’s meant to be more entertaining—but it felt too shallow and the chapters too disconnected for me to really enjoy it.

[Alison · Rating 2 out of 5]

If I wasn't an English teacher, author or librarian, I might actually find this book more interesting, the problem was, it was everything I already knew about stories, plots and how many authors created their storylines. The audio too was a little dry in the reading. I think if you are learning about how stories are created then this book would be good, just for those in the know, nothing new or insights here.

[Μίλτος Τρ. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Απρόσμενα ευχάριστο και πολύ κατατοπιστικό βιβλίο για την ανάγκη του ανθρώπου να ζει συγκεκριμένα αφηγήματα και τους ψυχολογικούς λόγους που τα χρειάζεται.