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Read Aloud Memory
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From: Amytimber13 at aol.com <Amytimber13>
Date: Thu, 5 Aug 2004 10:20:23 EDT
Hi everyone --
My Mom and Dad seemed to swap telling us stories before we went to bed. Dad made up stories. And Mom read books she wanted to read, but wouldn't allow herself to read because, as she always said, she had so much work to do. (To this day she won't read fiction because she says stories take over her life and she has to read to the very end.) But she thought it was good if we kids read, so she read to us, and got the fun herself. SO we read a huge book about King Arthur that I can't remember the title of, but it took months. (I also remember long pauses, followed by flipping pages, and Mom saying "Oh Galahad liked Guinevere very much." Her fingers held those pages fast reading on quickly. Of course we tried to pry her fingers off, but Mom was a piano player and had fingers of steel.) We also read Jules Verne, Roald Dahl and James Thurber's Many Moons. (This is still one of my favorite books.)
I still enjoy reading aloud. My husband and I read to each other all the time -- and some of our recent read aloud favorites include: Harry Potter (of course), Polly Horvath's The Canning Season, and Tale of Despereaux. (Being the one interested in children's literature, I introduced these into our read aloud diet, but Phil enjoyed them too. And DiCamillo's book is perfect for a six hour drive -- that's about how long it takes to read out loud.) We are both big fans of The Lord of the Rings, The Earthsea Trilogy, the Narnia books and anything David Sedaris. I think that this culture has grown away from listening aloud, which seems a shame. (Though audio books seem to be popular.) It's a wonderful way to access the imagination as a group. One of the things I always found frustrating as a child who loved to read was waiting for others to read the same book so that I could talk to them about it. Reading aloud solves this problem!
Okay enough. That was fun!
Amy Timberlake
(The Dirty Cowboy, FSG)
Received on Thu 05 Aug 2004 09:20:23 AM CDT
Date: Thu, 5 Aug 2004 10:20:23 EDT
Hi everyone --
My Mom and Dad seemed to swap telling us stories before we went to bed. Dad made up stories. And Mom read books she wanted to read, but wouldn't allow herself to read because, as she always said, she had so much work to do. (To this day she won't read fiction because she says stories take over her life and she has to read to the very end.) But she thought it was good if we kids read, so she read to us, and got the fun herself. SO we read a huge book about King Arthur that I can't remember the title of, but it took months. (I also remember long pauses, followed by flipping pages, and Mom saying "Oh Galahad liked Guinevere very much." Her fingers held those pages fast reading on quickly. Of course we tried to pry her fingers off, but Mom was a piano player and had fingers of steel.) We also read Jules Verne, Roald Dahl and James Thurber's Many Moons. (This is still one of my favorite books.)
I still enjoy reading aloud. My husband and I read to each other all the time -- and some of our recent read aloud favorites include: Harry Potter (of course), Polly Horvath's The Canning Season, and Tale of Despereaux. (Being the one interested in children's literature, I introduced these into our read aloud diet, but Phil enjoyed them too. And DiCamillo's book is perfect for a six hour drive -- that's about how long it takes to read out loud.) We are both big fans of The Lord of the Rings, The Earthsea Trilogy, the Narnia books and anything David Sedaris. I think that this culture has grown away from listening aloud, which seems a shame. (Though audio books seem to be popular.) It's a wonderful way to access the imagination as a group. One of the things I always found frustrating as a child who loved to read was waiting for others to read the same book so that I could talk to them about it. Reading aloud solves this problem!
Okay enough. That was fun!
Amy Timberlake
(The Dirty Cowboy, FSG)
Received on Thu 05 Aug 2004 09:20:23 AM CDT
