Listen To This
October 8th 2006 03:10
When was the last time someone read you a story? Chances are it was year 3 or 4 when you zoned out on the sound of your teacher reading from some children’s adventure book. These could be highly entertaining, don’t get me wrong, but if it wasn’t read with just a little enthusiasm it quite often had you snoring by the end of chapter one. So, from the word go we are encouraged to read to ourselves once we’ve learnt how. And as readers this is what we move on to in our adult lives.
But have you listened to one of today’s audio books?
We are talking full, quality entertainment with some of these babies! Not only are the majority of them read by professional actors, (eg. To Kill a Mockingbird has been read by Sissy Spacek) you quite often have more than one reader narrating, and even background music and sound effects. If the story is good it can become completely riveting and just as absorbing as reading a book yourself. I suppose it is much the same as the spell cast by the old radio shows. These were extremely popular before the days of TV and I can understand why. Everyone loves to hear an enthralling tale and today we have some of the best technology available for audio listening – it only stands to reason that it would eventually be used for the written word.
Thankfully we are casting away the cassette tape (hallelujah) and even the audio discs are slowly being replaced by mp3s which are able to compact a mammoth sized book into just a few discs. We can listen in our car, on our computer or on a personal player anywhere at all. Why wouldn’t this catch on!
There was a time in our library where audio books were read by Blind Society volunteers and only available to the sight impaired. But a resurgence of artistic demand has moved the audio book arena into a popular and lucrative trade. Commuters in this crazy, rat-race of a world travel further distances daily than ever before. I know readers, or in this case listeners, who stock up on audio books each week, just to fill in the travel time with something of interest. And some of our customers listen to them while doing crafts such as quilting, folkart and knitting. You may not have time to read a book, but what about listening to one?
Nowadays, some of the more popular authors are being produced in audio book directly after publication. This is great news for the sight impaired. They no longer have to wait years to read a new title. I introduced my brother to the world of audio books just recently when, through macular degeneration, he lost his sight. It was a wonderful thing to be able to offer him access to quality books.
If you haven’t already listened to a recent audio book, I would encourage you to give it a try. Surprisingly it can take a little while to get the hang of it. After reading to yourself for so many years, you actually need to practice the art of listening to a narration. Most public libraries have a collection of audio books available for lending, so that is probably the best place to start. Audio books are not cheap! But you can download free public domain audio books at LibriVox. I am currently listening to The Turn of the Screw by Henry James from this site. This is an eerie tale that requires a haunting narrative and it is extremely well done. I believe I’m getting more from this story than if I read it myself. It seems to me that maybe some of the older classics were meant to be read out loud, and we are actually missing a large portion of reading enjoyment by making it a singular, silent activity.
We should be thankful for our sight – but we should not let that blind us to the value of listening.
But have you listened to one of today’s audio books?
Image: audio books direct
Thankfully we are casting away the cassette tape (hallelujah) and even the audio discs are slowly being replaced by mp3s which are able to compact a mammoth sized book into just a few discs. We can listen in our car, on our computer or on a personal player anywhere at all. Why wouldn’t this catch on!
There was a time in our library where audio books were read by Blind Society volunteers and only available to the sight impaired. But a resurgence of artistic demand has moved the audio book arena into a popular and lucrative trade. Commuters in this crazy, rat-race of a world travel further distances daily than ever before. I know readers, or in this case listeners, who stock up on audio books each week, just to fill in the travel time with something of interest. And some of our customers listen to them while doing crafts such as quilting, folkart and knitting. You may not have time to read a book, but what about listening to one?
Nowadays, some of the more popular authors are being produced in audio book directly after publication. This is great news for the sight impaired. They no longer have to wait years to read a new title. I introduced my brother to the world of audio books just recently when, through macular degeneration, he lost his sight. It was a wonderful thing to be able to offer him access to quality books.
If you haven’t already listened to a recent audio book, I would encourage you to give it a try. Surprisingly it can take a little while to get the hang of it. After reading to yourself for so many years, you actually need to practice the art of listening to a narration. Most public libraries have a collection of audio books available for lending, so that is probably the best place to start. Audio books are not cheap! But you can download free public domain audio books at LibriVox. I am currently listening to The Turn of the Screw by Henry James from this site. This is an eerie tale that requires a haunting narrative and it is extremely well done. I believe I’m getting more from this story than if I read it myself. It seems to me that maybe some of the older classics were meant to be read out loud, and we are actually missing a large portion of reading enjoyment by making it a singular, silent activity.
We should be thankful for our sight – but we should not let that blind us to the value of listening.
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