This week on Booking Through Thursday:
1. What do you think of reading aloud/being read to? Does it bring back memories of your childhood? Your children’s childhood?
2. Does this affect the way you feel about audio books?
3. Do you now have times when you read aloud or are read to?
I’ve spoken before about how much I love audio books. Yes, I know some people don’t consider this “real” reading. I. Don’t. Care. I’d be certifiably insane right now if I didn’t have them to listen to during the commute. (Don’t get me started on “drive-time” radio …)
1. I love being read to and reading aloud. In fact, I still read with Kyra and we’re planning on reading The Secret Garden this week. Actually she’s going to read it herself first, then I can read it to her. She’s convinced it will be that good. A few weeks back, when I had a horrid cold, I pulled the audio book from the car (The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest) and listened to the rest of it while curled up in a chair with a cup of tea.
2. There is something very comforting about being read to. It’s a great way to decompress after work and survive the commute, so there’s that.
3. As I’ve mentioned, yes, I do read aloud and listen to books. I also do a listening edit on my own books. I import them to my Kindle, then use the text to speech function to listen while I follow along on the page.
Writing Wrongs 
I love how you engage all of your senses with words: you read (sight), write by hand (touch), listen to audio books (hearing), and I suspect you probably eat frosted AlphaBits for breakfast. Now … for the sweet smell of success from a newly submitted draft!
Being read to is comforting. And as an insomniac,I can at least get some enjoyment out of sleepless nights. For drive time, 91.1, the local pbs news is good, as is the BBC news they have on at night. But the prize goes to audio books with a
concerned dog curled next to you when you have the flu.
Mom
It must be a family thing as I love listening to books as well. Audio books are a huge part of my daily routine. The best thing is when I am listening to a book on my commute, and reading a great book when I’m at home. It’s like having 2 desserts!
When I was earning my teaching credential, one of my favorite classes was our Language Arts instructional class. Every week, someone was assigned to read a children’s book out loud to the class-(a class full of adults!). It was everyone’s favorite moment of the class.
I would totally go crazy on the commute without audiobooks too. NPR can only listened to a certain amount of hours a day. PS: being that you mentioned The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest, are they all as Law and Order in content as the first book in the series?
I’m going to hazard a “yes” in answer to your question about The Girl Who. The second book deals with a huge police search for Lisbeth (I don’t think that’s too much of a spoiler). The third ends with a big courtroom drama. I really like the audio books and I’ll miss Simon Vance’s narration.
1. I actually find being read to kind of boring if it’s for longer than a couple minutes. But reading my own stuff aloud helps with revising.
2. No. My feelings on audiobooks come from elsewhere. I sometimes like to dwell on a passage for a while, and with audiobooks this often means rewinding several times, which gets annoying.
3. Sometimes my girlfriend reads interesting parts to me from her textbooks. Otherwise, I just read to myself while revising, like I said.