Story and how it has an effect on me.

I was sleeping the other night when I woke myself up by shouting something. I can't remember what it was and it seemed loud at the time but my wife says she didn't stir at all. I also can't remember the obviously very vivid dream I was having. I wish now that I would have sat up right then and written down what I had been dreaming because I hardly ever dream. Well at least I don't remember many and the ones I do are very short. I don't have to wonder why I was dreaming because I know the cause. The day before I had started reading the Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins. When I read a book that really captures me with the story I casually take it in considering slowly what might happen the next time I happen to sit down and read again. This doesn't happen. I consume the story like I need it for my next breath. Then it happens. I go to bed, not having been able to finish in one day, and dream vividly. I dream crazy dreams from whatever my brain has consumed. Harry Potter did this especially when I got further on in the series. In fact at one point I had such horrible tunnel vision, meaning I wasn't finding that "stopping place", that my wife had to pull me out so I wouldn't ignore other people. Movies have a slight effect of this sort on me. I walk out of a spy movie sizing people up wondering if I could handle them if we needed to fight our way out of the theater. Super hero movies always give me this inkling that if maybe I concentrated hard enough I might be able to flush the theater toilet with my mind and not touch that handle. I give up and use my foot like everyone else. I sometimes watch whole seasons of different TV series in lengthy sessions. This I have found to effect not only my dreams but sometimes my behavior. I stopped watching the show Dexter, even though it is amazing, because my inner monologue was getting stronger. What do I mean by this? You know those things that you normally say out loud to coworkers like little jokes or chit chat? After watching a few to many episodes of Dexter, with his never ending Spiderman/Wonder Years inner voice, I started saying those little comments... To myself. I told my wife this and luckily she didn't have me committed but suggested that I stop watching the show.  

I'm amazed at how a good, and by good I mean captivating, story can change my mood, cause me to dream, and even cause me to enter into the stories world. Well then it's back to The Hunger Games. I think I'll eat some cake while I read so I don't starve.