The other day I was chatting with a friend about a topic that everyone cares about – sleep.Nowadays, many people can’t sleep well at night, or even at all.Some people are too tired from work, others have something on their mind, and still others simply “lie down and wake up”.
People are beginning to think of ways to improve their sleep, such as drinking hot milk, listening to white noise, soaking their feet, doing yoga …… Among them, there is one method that has been mentioned the most: listening to a relaxing story or radio before going to bed.
Turning off the light, lying on the bed, with a gentle voice telling a story in your ears, just like when you were a child and your mom or dad told us a bedtime story, that feeling is really comfortable.
This makes me think of a question: Is it possible that adults actually need bedtime stories too?After all, even though we have grown up, there are still times when we are tired, anxious and lonely inside.
Today I want to share with you bedtime reading for adults – Great Bedtime Stories for Adults.The words in this book are lighthearted and imaginative, making it both fun and heartwarming to read.It’s especially good for flipping through before bed to help relax.
I’ll share three of my favorite short stories below, and I hope you’ll enjoy them too.
1. Time Bookstore: Finding Memories of the Past
In an unassuming street corner, there is a small bookstore called “Time Bookstore”.The store looks ordinary, but it has a very special feature: it only accepts old books that are more than ten years old, and these books are not for sale or borrowing, but for “exchanging memories”.
The owner of the store is a grandmother with gray hair.She told customers to write down what they remembered about the story, put it in the cardboard box by the counter, and they could get the book the next day.You could sit in the store and read it slowly, or you could leave with your memories.
One day, a woman writer came into the store looking for a favorite fairy tale book from her childhood.The grandmother really found the book, and the woman writer wept as she read it, as if she had returned to her childhood.
Later, a very old grandfather also came.He wanted to find the story that his wife loved to tell decades ago.The grandmother helped him find it, and after reading it, the old grandfather smiled and said, “So she always loved this story.”
Slowly, more and more people came to know about this magical bookstore, where people found childhood joys, youthful memories, and stories that they once thought were lost forever.
One day, a successful man in a suit walked into the bookstore.He said he had read a romance novel twenty years ago and wanted to know how it ended.
The grandmother frowned as she listened, as if in some difficulty.When the man came back the next day, the grandmother apologized and said, “I didn’t find it.”
The man left disappointed.Actually, the grandmother did find the book, only the ending was too bland – the girl left the boy because she didn’t love him anymore.Then she got married and had children and lived a peaceful life.
Such an ending doesn’t sound surprising or touching, but rather a bit boring.Perhaps it is because of this that the grandmother chooses not to tell it.
She said, “People go through many stories in their lives, but not every story has the ending you want to see.Sometimes it’s better not to know than to know.”
2. Piano music in the night: A man’s happiness is halved
There is an ordinary office worker who lives a simple life: he goes to work, leaves work, eats and sleeps every day.His life is like a glass of plain water, bland and tasteless.
But he had a little hobby: every night after seven o’clock, a beautiful piano sound came from upstairs.He loved the sound and felt that the night became much gentler.
He never thought to see who was playing the piano, but just listened silently.He guessed it would be a girl, but didn’t dare to bother.
In fact, he couldn’t tell why he didn’t go knock on the door.Maybe it was because he was afraid of embarrassment, or maybe it was because he was used to living alone and didn’t want to open his world easily.
He had been in love a few times, but none of them went to the end.Now he lives alone, eats alone, goes to the movies alone, and even carries himself alone when he is sad.
One night, the piano suddenly stopped playing.He was a little worried, hesitated for a long time, and finally gathered the courage to go upstairs to see what was going on.
It was a woman who opened the door.She seemed very gentle and invited him to come in and sit down.
The woman told him that her hearing was especially good, not only could she hear the cooking downstairs, but she could also hear him listening to her play the piano downstairs.The man was a little embarrassed to hear this, but the woman smiled and said, “It’s a very happy thing to have someone listen to me play the piano.When a person is happy, the happiness is half as much.”
That’s how they got to know each other.It was only later, after spending time together, that they realized that this girl was not ordinary.She and her people were born without music, and playing the zither was as important to them as eating.
The two gradually developed feelings for each other, but neither dared to say anything.Neither of them felt they were good enough for the other.
The girl worried that she was too special and would make the man feel strange; the man felt that he was too ordinary and was afraid that the girl would be bored.
So they each secretly worked hard: the girl learned to cook the man’s favorite squirrel fish, while the man began to learn the cello just to play the girl’s favorite song.
A month later, the man knocked on the girl’s door with his cello on his back.When he saw the girl’s busy figure in the kitchen wearing an apron, his nose turned sour and tears almost fell.
He put down his violin and whispered to the girl, “From today on, I want to eat dinner with you every day.”
3. Love Across Time and Space: Seeing Each Other After 400 Years
In the distant future, Earth is no longer suitable for human habitation.Scientists decided to transfer humans to live on another planet.That’s how Elta was born – he was a new life formed by the combination of sperm and egg from a freezer.
He grew up smart and was especially good at computer technology.Once, he secretly hacked into the space agency’s system and sent out a random string of code, not realizing that he would receive a reply from an alien planet: “Hello!”
The person who sent the letter was called Ui Jia, living on another planet with more advanced technology.There was music, love, and warmth in her world, and these were things that Elta had never seen as beautiful.
And so they began to correspond.Although they were 400 billion kilometers apart and had to wait a month to receive each letter, they continued to communicate.
Uija often told Elta some life lessons: “There are three things in the world that we can’t escape – time, distance and death.Humans are too small to cross these barriers.”
Elta had a hard time hearing this.He began studying astrophysics and dreamed of meeting her one day.
Uija worried that their communication would be discovered by others, which could spark a conflict between the two planets.But Elta didn’t think so.He said, “Even if there was a war, it would take hundreds of years to get to the other side, and the war wouldn’t even start.”
Years passed and they continued to correspond, sharing their lives and keeping each other company.
Until one day, Elta received a letter that said, “I’m married.”He read it for a long time, his heart empty, but returned a blessing.
From that day on, he learned a lesson: sometimes the best communication is not to say everything, but to learn to be silent.
They remained in touch until many years later, when 80-year-old Weijia was lying in her hospital bed and her granddaughter helped her open the last e-mail from Elta.
The letter read:
“By the time you read this, I will no longer be in this world.I have spent my life working on the fastest flying machine, hoping to see you soon, but unfortunately I failed.
Humans are really small, we can’t change our destiny or cross over life and death.
Thank you for accompanying me through all these years.You made me realize that living is not just about survival, but also about pursuing hope, beauty and love.
I’ll put my ashes in a flying machine and let it fly to your planet.It will arrive in four hundred years.
If I’ve ever done anything in my life that comes close to ‘love’, it’s this.
Though time, distance and death are inescapable, I believe that love transcends all.
I’ll see you in four hundred years, Uija.”
These three stories are simple, but they all tell us one thing: no matter how old we are, deep down we still long for warmth, companionship and understanding.
The adult world may be complicated, but we can still find our own comfort and strength in these little stories.
So, if you can’t sleep tonight, why don’t you find a quiet place, listen to a gentle story, let your heart settle down and slowly fall into your dreams.
Good night.
