The Lost Art of Reading Out Loud

There is something we are missing these days. That is, reading passages out loud. Whatever it may be: poems, stories, a chapter, a few lines from a favorite book, or song lyrics.

I remember in elementary, middle, and high school we would take turns reading passages out loud in English class. Everyone had a turn. Some students read slow, some faster, some with vigor, some were insipid. But I loved hearing the book come alive through each voice.

There is something about hearing words read. It fills the space around you and sinks into your soul. The words read by someone can infuse a phrase or scene in your mind. The words meld together as they are read, and with your imagination you create your version of the scene. It can set the tone and mood of the piece. When someone else reads, it might change the feeling completely and awaken something in the writing to you.

Yet he did not feel in the least as if he were dreaming; rather the other way; as waking was more actual than dreaming, so this seemed by another degree more actual than waking itself. -G.K. Chesterton