When, If Ever, Do You Read Aloud? (7/16/23)

[Marc]

Do you ever read aloud? If so, when or in what context?

[Bill]

I do, occasionally. Sometimes a text (may be prose or poetry) just screams to be read out loud, for full aesthetic effect. I've also come across dense texts that I find hard to parse, and reading them aloud helps me parse them.

[Stacia]

Bill wrote: " I've also come across dense texts that I find hard to parse, and reading them aloud helps me parse them."

Same. (For example, I remember doing that for James Baldwin's Evidence of Things Not Seen.) I also have done it when dialect is strong because sometimes reading aloud makes it easier for me to follow. (Thinking of some of Charles Chesnutt's pieces in The Conjure Woman and Other Conjure Tales.)

Also, in the early days of covid, I read Rita Indiana's Tentacle aloud over zoom to my friend who didn't have her copy of the book with her at her location. We loved doing that. Reading a chapter aloud each time we zoomed gave us time to really think about & discuss the various facets of the story.

I used to read aloud to my kids (into their teenage years). I am a proponent of Jim Trelease's The Read-Aloud Handbook for families.

[David]

I will read aloud if I’m having trouble finding the rhythm of a text. Like Bill, it can be prose or poetry.

[Robert]

Same as David - if the book is in a dialect, I’ll go to YouTube , see how it is spoken and mimic it out loud until I get the rhythm

[Tracy]

To kids, and occasionally a funny part to my husband.

[Marc]

Similar for me with maybe a couple other instances: to my young niece, when a sentence is confusing or doesn't quite make sense, to the cats (really, I do it to annoy them, but they don't seem to care for the most part), occasionally with poetry (or things where rhythm/voice is more of a factor), and randomly (or to refocus my own attention).

[Ellen]

I often read poetry aloud, to hear the music. Also, much more occasionally, phrases from a novel that I find particularly beautiful.

[Bill]

There used to be several hilarious videos of parents reading Brian Evenson to their toddlers. But they all seem to be marked private now.

[Tamara]

I love reading poetry aloud, including epic poems. I once re-read Beowulf aloud in one sitting when there was a raging storm outside. It was an exhilarating experience to read it against the back drop of loud thunder claps and flashes of lighting.

[Jerry]

My partner Anne Marie and I read many books aloud to each other. Just recently we finished reading The Last House on Needless Street. Others we've read aloud together include Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman and the three books in Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I do this often when my mind starts wandering while I'm reading. It helps me focus.

[Bretnie]

Bill wrote: "There used to be several hilarious videos of parents reading Brian Evenson to their toddlers. But they all seem to be marked private now."

Dang I really want to find one of these now, ha!

[Tracy]

Marc wrote: "Do you ever read aloud? If so, when or in what context?"

To my students. Much too frequently.

[Marcus]

I read to my wife in bed at night - a slow process, books might take a few weeks but there is a lovely calmness about reading to each other late in the evenings.

[Franky]

Before my mom passed, I used to read to my mom when her eyes started to go bad and she wanted me to read a new article or something of interest. I feel like most of the time I am reading aloud in front of students when we are reading a novel or poem or short story. I've read to my younger nieces and nephews before as well.

[Erika]

I read aloud in the car on long drives. We sometimes do multiweek road trips, and every year we have a half dozen trips that involve at least ten hours of driving each way. I read aloud from the passenger seat -- fiction and history, as the mood suits me, and often based on where we are in the country/world. My husband drives, and my children (now just one, with the oldest off to college) listen in and out as the mood suits them.

[Doll]

Most of my reading aloud is when I'm reading poetry (my first love). I occasionally read portions of a magazine aloud to my partner when we're sitting on the patio. It also occurs to me that I'm not sure exactly when I read aloud. Do I read difficult passages aloud, or do I just mouth them? Hmmm, not sure. Thanks for the question, though!