Fallen In Love With A Story? Here’s How To Engage With It More Deeply

Photo by Ylanite Koppens: https://www.pexels.com/photo/eyeglasses-on-a-book-1906437/

It’s a strange feeling to get lost in a sharp, engaging narrative. You can sometimes feel yourself looking at the world through the lens and lessons of the story, which is hard to explain until you know how that feels. This is why having a great book on the go, being inspired by a film, or even reading into history can be so fantastic. It’s no wonder people go on holiday with a paperback in their luggage, because when they’re resting on the beach, perhaps with a cheeky mimosa on the side, they like the idea of getting lost in a story.

If you’ve recently had this feeling, but felt a little sad now you’ve finished the book, don’t worry, there are still ways to engage with that feeling. With a few fun tips below, we hope you can feel even more restored by that tale you’ve come to appreciate:

Visit The Setting

You could take your appreciation for a book and really dig into what evoked it, by visiting the place where it all happened. It’s nice to read about a bustling city street or a quiet forest, but standing right there yourself makes the whole story feel so much more real. 

If it has relations to a real place, you can wander through the same kind of alleys the characters walked down or see the landscape that shaped the world. Of course, you don’t have to be so direct, if you read a great book set in Venice, that might inspire you to go and have some fun. Such a trip can bring a narrative to life, perhaps for a second reread even, and you get to experience the atmosphere that the author was trying to create.

Check Out The Adaptations

When you finish a book that you loved, it’s a good idea to see if there are any adaptations of it. Watching the film or a television series based on the story can be a cool way to revisit the narrative and see how a director interpreted it. It’s fun to compare the visual choices they made to the pictures you had in your own head while reading, even if they don’t match entirely. 

You may even see new details you might have missed before. It’s not just digital media though, perhaps you could go to broadway.com to find seamless tickets for a show version of it, which are often the most daring adaptions too. There’s a lot of classic literature on stage that still draws audiences, after all.

Learn About Its Author & Inspirations

Sometimes you love a book so much you just have to learn about its author. Exploring the author’s own interests and the things that inspired them can give you a whole new understanding of the story. You might find out they based a character on someone they knew or that a specific historical event influenced the plot, which you can learn from there.

Now, you don’t have to follow them of course, but it is nice to head there. Tolkein was inspired by the Yorkshire Dales for his idea of the Shire for instance, so that could be worth a visit.

With this advice, we hope you can feel even more sustained by a story long after you finish it.