September 08, 2004
Reading aloud

I love to read aloud. I started early; I have memories of reading to my little sister on weekend mornings when we still lived in New Jersey (circa 1974). Once I read the entire Scholastic Books edition of Annie Oakley in a strange syncopated jazz rhythm. I read Sarah Crewe aloud to Jenn, too.

Jenn’s not the only one to listen to me read. On a long car trip in the early 90s, I read David Brin’s Earth to Tod as he drove. I often read him chapters from books he’s reading. I read newspaper clippings, online articles and weblog postings to friends and family. I read to friends over the phone or in person when they are sick or tired.

Now I want to perform for a broader audience. I thought about volunteering to read for the blind, but Tod had a clever idea—read and record works in the public domain.

I will record them as MP3s and post them here as well as submitting them to audio book collectives. But what to read? There are hundreds of titles via Project Gutenberg. Where should I start?

Posted by kuri at September 08, 2004 09:15 PM

Comments

maybe somthing by jane austen or alice in wonderland.

but f. Scott fitzgerald would be my favorite.
or maybe selected pages from the tokio phonebook? );-)

i’m really looking forward to it.

Posted by: axel on September 8, 2004 10:15 PM

This is such a great idea! I wonder if I could read something in Dutch though.

Posted by: Niko on September 8, 2004 10:59 PM

Record and then make it available to the blind societies around the world for free. That would be more meaningful.

Posted by: lisa on September 8, 2004 11:04 PM

Lisa’s idea is a good one.

I remember all those reading sessions, many of them on Christmas mornings while we were waiting to go downstairs! When you read to me, I was allowed to be in your room and learn more of you. It was a treat.

Posted by: Jenny on September 8, 2004 11:45 PM

Scary how in sync our thought patterns are sometimes. I was just thinking about doing nearly the exact same thing. Maybe we could make a public domain project out of it.

Posted by: UltraBob on September 9, 2004 10:20 AM

I would volunteer for a public domain project. Would an antipodean accent be acceptable??

Posted by: Tracey on September 9, 2004 12:07 PM

For stories with a lot of dialogue it might be cool to have different people read the different parts. That way you could all collaborate.

Posted by: devin on September 9, 2004 02:20 PM

Count me in for the foreign English accent.;-)

Posted by: Niko on September 9, 2004 05:05 PM

Thanks to you guys, I’ve become a big fan of Murakami Haruki’s, and found the stories in “After the Quake” to work quite well aloud.

Posted by: Michael on September 10, 2004 07:12 PM

Wow, this can bring an new aspect to our mail magazines, too.

Posted by: sayaka on September 14, 2004 09:12 AM
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