Stories: So Many Ways to Find Them

Last night, there was a tennis party going on downstairs, an annual gathering of my husband's tennis buddies, so I, after saying hello, usually find something decadent to do like reading or watching a movie. In this case, I muddled around on the computer and Facebook, then watched the first episode of North and South (starring Richard Armitage) on Amazon via streaming video. (Yes, I know. I'm a bit behind the times. I think that's from 2004. I thought I should probably get to it before it was an entire decade old. Plus, it was free to watch via my Amazon Prime membership).

At any rate, all of this got me to thinking about how many ways there are to get stories these days. There are books, of course (thank you, thank you. Where would we be without all those lovely books)? But even books can now be print or digital. Then there's television, movies at the theater, television series and movies via DVDs (which can be bought or rented via stores or mailing services, even rented at those convenient overnight boxes). And then there's live streaming of shorter programs and movies online via...so many avenues. Even video sharing services such as Vimeo and YouTube (and there are others) offer shorter stories (and lately, some longer ones via subscriptions). I love that, even though it can be confusing and overwhelming at times.

I was looking at a list of movies that had been released last year, and a quick count told me that we had seen about 16 of them, most on DVD but a few at the theater. That's probably not a lot for most people, but it is for us, a reflection of the fact that we're now empty nesters. Or maybe it was just a fun year for movies. Here's a very nice video compilation someone did of movies in 2013.

Oh, and North and South? After watching the first episode, which I really enjoyed, I went looking for the book and found that the ebook was free on Amazon. That was a nice surprise.

I hope some nice stories come your way today.

Best Wishes,

Myrna