Chapter Forty Two: Reading Notes - The Jataka Tales, Part A

 For our reading assignment this week, I decided to read the Jataka Tales again. However, these stories were different than the last reading assignment. There were stories I recognized reading before, which made the assignment feel much easier. 

I guess I’ll start with how much I love the fact that these stories all serve a purpose. They teach us something, whether it’s not to be greedy, or to outwit someone else. They have lasted for such a long time probably for that very reason. They’re like Greek mythology in a sense. 

The second reason I love these stories is because they allow to get creative. If I were a child who had never heard a story of a talking turtle, I would have never imagined a talking turtle. Now that I write that down, it doesn’t make much sense, but it did in my mind. 

Finally, I love how to the point these stories are. As much as I love to read, sometimes a short story is really what I need. It’s also comforting to know that not all stories have to be novels. You can tell an intriguing story in ten words as much as you can in 500 pages. 

The stories I read are the Jataka Tales written by Ellen C. Babbitt

(This photo is titled Illustrations by Ellsworth Young uploaded to Flickr by Laura K Gibbs)