sound of the anything

What would you do if someone came to you with a crazy, fantastic story of something that had happened to them? Something far-fetched, that may go against your idea of reality, but they are absolutely serious and sincere? Would you believe them? I just recently (a couple nights ago) started reading a book called "The Book of Lost Things" (thank you for the recommendation, Allison) by John Connolly. It is wonderful. I am enjoying how the author embraces the love of books he has and gives it life. So far (I am only maybe a fourth of the way in) the gist of the story is this. There is a 12-year-old boy in England in 1939. His mother has very recently died, and the thing the boy shared the most and remembers the most about her are books and stories. He got his love of them from her. His father moves on eventually, taking a new wife and they have a new child, and the boy feels very isolated. He also is experiencing blackouts that have no explanation. But instead of actually blacking out, he wakes up with the memory of something a crazy, crooked old man, or a castle, or a forest glade. Glimpses of another world. Eventually, the boy in this book experiences something a shift to another world, a world that really should only exist in books. The reason he decides to go forward, into this world, and not straight back home is because he knows his father would never believe him without physical proof. So he goes off into what I'm sure are life-endangering adventures, all because the person that matters the most to him back home wouldn't believe him. So back to my original questions. Would you really believe someone who told you something that questioned your perception of reality? I know that for me this is probably just something that I would LIKE to happen, because I'm not actually a fan of reality. I FAR prefer alternate realities, in which many things can happen that will never happen in my life, which is a very large reason I love books so much. But I have met people in my life who have told me of experiences they have had, and though I haven't had them myself (which I am glad of, because I would likely be an absolute mess. Well, more of a mess than I already am) I truly do believe they happened. Because I trust the people telling me. There are scary and wonderful things out there, happening in OUR world, that most of us completely reject or won't allow ourselves to see or believe in. Maybe we should try harder. It's scary, yes, but we can't use our reality as a security blanket. We should be experiencing ALL the world has to offer. I know this is something that I need to work on, rather than gleaning it all from my books. Books have been a blessing and a curse for me. I love them because everything is straightforward. You know exactly what the people in them are thinking and feeling, and that makes it harder for me to relate to people in real life. I often have no idea what is going on with them, and it drives me crazy. So I just go back to books. But I truly do learn so much from them, because the person who wrote them is imparting something they know and believe and love to the reader, in turn teaching and bettering that person. There are definitely pros and cons to books, but they truly do teach you to perceive the world in a completely different manner.