Reading Aloud

[kareina]

It is truly amazing the difference in the intensity of the experience when one reads a favourite story aloud to a loved one, instead of reading it silently to one's self. I have long loved the Anne of Green Gables books, written by L.M Montgomery and published in the early 1900's. I've read them 100's of times, and even after all of these years, I still tear up for certain key events in them. However, the past several/many months I've been reading the series aloud to a dear friend, who somehow missed discovering these books on his own.

By having someone with whom to share the story, I'm finding that although I *know* what happens in each and every chapter, still I am feeling it all more intently than ever before. Some passages take two attempts to read, as I'm laughing to hard to be understood. Others have me sobbing and tears streaming down my face as I read (particularly for this last one, which, being set during WWI, has any number of sad parts). Sometimes I almost manage not to cry, but then seeing his eyes welling over with tears sets me off too.

I strongly encourage all of you to find a well loved, favourite book and to make the time to read it aloud to a loved-one you know will also enjoy it who hasn't yet read the story.

Comments

Re: I understand

[thisfox.livejournal.com]

Ah, there would definitely be a need for correct audiencing.

I studied (and listened to) Bridge to Terabithia in school, and found it boring, whether read aloud in class or read at home. I by far more enjoyed the Hobbit, which we also studied in school, and had students read from it, cover to slowly approaching cover. I was one of those who looked forward to the compulsory Shakespeare also. Terabithia wasn't escapist enough for me, I fear. It wasn't imaginative enough... I also didn't like Anne of Green Gables as she lived in a world too far from my own for it to make any sense: I never really understood why she got into trouble for the things she did, and so for me it was a book about a girl who did random things and occassionally got yelled at (and punished) for no apparent reason, relatively randomly.

I do a bit of babysitting (being eldest child in the extended family) and often read to the kids I'm minding, usually Narnia books, often books of folk or fairie tales, Farmer Giles of Ham for instance, or the House at Green Knowe. It's great to get them interested in books, and to see the looks on their faces as you read.

Re: I understand

[kareina.livejournal.com]

I suspect that for me, a huge part of why the Anne books are appealing *is* the fact that the world is completely unlike my own. Having spent much of my childhood in front of a TV, it was refreshing to read what childhood was like when there was no such thing, and having been left to "run wild" and never care what other people thought, it was interesting to read of a culture wherein there were many social rules and people were very much concerned with what would be said if they did any given thing.

(Note: I haven't watched TV since the mid-1980's, and had never heard of Bridge to Terabithia before today)