SHOOT: Here's a quote to pique your interest: "The words are not mere words. They are the breath and mind, perhaps even the soul, of the person who is reading. "
Sometimes the best way to understand the present is to look at it from the past. Consider audio books. An enormous number of Americans read by listening these days — listening aloud, I call it. The technology for doing so is diverse and widespread, and so are the places people listen to audio books. But from the perspective of a reader in, say, the early 19th century, about the time of Jane Austen, there is something peculiar about it, even lonely.
In those days, literate families and friends read aloud to each other as a matter of habit. Books were still relatively scarce and expensive, and the routine electronic diversions we take for granted were, of course, nonexistent. If you had grown up listening to adults reading to each other regularly, the thought of all of those solitary 21st-century individuals hearkening to earbuds and car radios would seem isolating. It would also seem as though they were being trained only to listen to books and not to read aloud from them.
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2 comments:
I never cease to be amazed at how many people do not read BOOKS
My mom always told me u can never be lonely if u read.
as a small boy i discovered this - how exciting it is to 'talk' to someone,or have them talk to you...to get right insight their headspace and heartspace. one thing that reading is that makes it so wonderful is it is a long period of consistent listening. someone is saying - this is who i am and what i think and here's my story. and we set aside several hours to listen to them. i think that's truly magnificent.
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