I kid you not; my love of storytelling began with the Reader’s Digest, which I read as a child. I loved the stories and short anecdotes within its pages. Some stories that I read in RD, I have never forgotten, such as “Ordeal in the Desert,” about a family whose car breaks down in the desert, and they have to eat crayons, paste, and cactus to survive. And the story of a dressmaker in love with a woman for whom he sews a wedding dress. He stitches a love note into the lining, and years later, as she’s doing something with the dress, she finds it. I think her first husband had died, so she and the dressmaker found each other again.
While many think of RD as hokey, corny, old-fashioned, and conservative, the magazine’s stories remain compelling. I don’t have much time for the print version these days, but it’s comforting to know the Reader’s Digest Web site still offers a Stories section.