I've always loved to read. Loved, loved, loved to read, for literally as far back as I can remember. One of my very earliest memories is bringing a book - an incredibly '70s basic reader called Little Pig - over to my grandmother and reading it to her. My immediate family is also full of big readers, so of course I was also read to quite a bit when I was little. Nowadays, it always boggles my mind when I come across someone who doesn't enjoy reading. I've noticed that, almost without exception, those who don't like reading were not read to very much as children, and rarely had books available outside of school. Regardless of their intelligence or academic achievements, they came to view reading as a chore, and certainly not something done for pleasure.
Among those of my friends who do love to read - which is most of them, birds of a feather and all that - I've noticed that many of them actively miss being read to. So, during long car trips, when they're ill, or anxious, I've offered to read to some of them. With a few, including some of those dearest to me, it became a habit, and a way for us to become closer.
Well, now I'd like to open it up a bit. I'm sure there are those out there who miss being read to. I'm not precisely going to be making audiobooks. I mean, yes, the end result will end up being much the same. But these will come out in installments, perhaps 20-30 minutes at a time, three times a week. You can listen to them as they come out, or you can indeed wait until the book is finished and listen to it all at once. (If you'd like some free high-quality audiobooks that are already completed, check out LibriVox.)
Of course, the only books I will be reading here are those that are in
the public domain, or that I otherwise have permission from the author
to read. This is partially an ethical matter, but largely serves to save myself from headaches down the road. Thus: Wizard of Oz, yes; Harry Potter, no. Pride and Prejudice, yes; Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, no. Dracula, yes; Twilight, no. Ethan Frome... no. I'm always open to suggestions for future books, and will probably at times have polls, but the books will naturally skew towards my personal preferences.
With all that said, let's read!
