When Reading Is Fun

On the lost art of reading aloud

Someone recently asked me what book was the most fun book for me to read in my life. They clarified, “I’m not talking about what the best book you ever read was. I’m not talking about literary greatness or literary perfection. What book was the most FUN to read?”

It did not take me very long to come up with an answer. But I could not come up with just one. I came up with two. It was a tie. I simply could not put one over the other.

While it was quick and easy to come up with the two books tied for my ‘most fun book to read,’ it took quite a bit of explaining as to WHY I picked those two books. The two books are very, very different from each other and, for the most part, the situations in which I read them were very different.

But there was one thing the reading of those two books had in common; they were both read ALOUD….

In an early scene in the movie, Fifty First Dates, the character played by Drew Barrymore is sitting alone in a diner reading a book when the character played by Adam Sandler comes into the diner and they meet for the first time.

What book was she reading? It was Tom Robbins novel, Still Life With Woodpecker. I could not help but notice that because that novel is one of the two books at the top of my ‘most fun books to read’ list. Of course the reason that book is tied for number one on my list has nothing whatsoever to do with that movie. When I watch movies (or read books) I am always looking for little subtleties and nuances. I am weird that way. The fact that my ‘most fun’ book appeared in that movie is merely coincidental trivia.

Back in 1980 I was managing a bookstore in Texas (yes, I really am that old). That was the year Still Life With Woodpecker was published. I was already a huge Tom Robbins fan, having read his two earlier books (Another Roadside Attraction and Even Cowgirls Get the Blues) back in the Seventies. I even had an Even Cowgirls Get the Blues t-shirt featuring a drawing of the main character Sissy Hankshaw riding naked on the back of a whooping crane flying through the air. I wish I still had that t-shirt but I wore it until it turned into a rag. How many t-shirts have you owned that advertised a book?

Needless to say, I was in a state of frenzied anticipation for the release of his new book, Still Life With Woodpecker. I ordered a hundred copies for the bookstore and I got a call from the head office asking me why I ordered so many copies. I promised they would all sell and they did. I ordered another hundred copies and they all sold as well.

Of course I was pushing the hell out of that book. I also bought quite a few copies and gave one to everyone on my Christmas list. If only Tom Robbins knew how I personally helped push his books up the bestseller charts….

But I digress. It was at that time that I began dating a woman who, several years later, I would end up being married to. It was on one of our first (of many more than fifty) dates that I decided to do something that most people would consider to be unconventional.

Instead of going out to dinner or to a movie or out dancing, we went straight to my little apartment. On the coffee table in front of the couch was a bottle of wine and two glasses as well as a plate of snacks. We both sat on the couch, cross-legged, facing each other….

….and we read aloud to each other!

How hot and sexy and romantic is that? It is the ultimate FUN date.

And, of course, we read, Still Life With Woodpecker. It’s the perfect novel for reading aloud because the chapters are all rather short; one, two or three pages tops. And the book is funny! I would read a chapter aloud then pass the book to her and she would read aloud a chapter. Back and forth we read the book aloud to each other.

Of course we did not finish the book that night. We read for a couple of hours then mysteriously found ourselves naked in bed. There is no need to describe that. It took us three dates to finish the book. Up to that point in time it was by far the most fun I have ever had reading a book.

How many lovers read aloud to each other? How many have had ‘read aloud dates?’ Seriously, does anyone do that?

But this delightful activity is not just for lovers. Several years later, after my read aloud partner and I became, “married with child,” my wonderful mother-in-law came to visit us for the four-day Thanksgiving Day weekend. We were snowed in for much of the weekend so what better way to have fun together than read aloud?

So we got out our old tattered wine-stained copy of Still Life With Woodpecker and we read it aloud again. But we did not read it TO my beloved mother-in-law; we read it WITH her. As before, each of the three of us would read a chapter aloud then pass the book to the next person to read aloud a chapter. All three of us were reading aloud. We finished the book on Sunday morning before my delightful mother-in-law had to leave for the airport. After finishing the book, she said, “Wow, that is the most fun I’ve ever had reading a book.”

We had read aloud events with other friends over the years as well. They all agreed it was fun.

Seriously folks, there is nothing more fun than reading a book aloud with friends and loved ones. I urge everyone to try it. I am afraid that in today’s techy world that reading aloud with others will become a lost art; an activity relegated to memories of ‘the good ole days.’

Let’s keep it alive.

Of course, I must admit that I have not personally been keeping it alive. I have been living alone for the last thirteen years and there is no one to read aloud with. If I mention such things to friends they look at me like I am two shrimp, a fish filet and a hush puppy short of a seafood platter. No, sadly it has been a very long time since I’ve read aloud with others….

….other adults, that is….

A little over eight years ago I became a grandpa. It was a couple of years after I became a grandpa that I was walking to my daughter’s house to visit and play with my granddaughter. On the way I spotted a yard sale and stopped to inspect the merchandise. I found a children’s book and bought it for a quarter then brought it with me to my granddaughter’s house. That book became the other ‘most fun book I’ve ever read.’

The book is, Curious George Goes Camping, by Margret and H. A. Rey. It really is a very fun book and my granddaughter thoroughly loved it and insisted I read it to her every time I came over.

My granddaughter loved playing with me because I played as though I were just another kid instead of an adult. We did a lot of coloring with crayons together. We had countless imaginary tea parties. We played with dolls and stuffed animals. We played with blocks. I bought her a real doctor’s stethoscope so that she could listen to her heart, my heart and the hearts of all her stuffed animals and dolls. We spent many, many hours playing.

But there was one thing I always insisted on. Before any play commenced we first read books. I took to stopping at the local library on my way to her house, picking up a couple of children’s books. Soon after I arrived at her house we would sit on the couch and I would read those books aloud to her. And, of course, she would insist that I also read aloud Curious George Goes Camping.

Goodness gracious, we must have read that book hundreds and hundreds of times. In the book Curious George goes camping with his human friend and during the experience he gets sprayed by a skunk and becomes very, very smelly. The word smell in its various forms appears ten times in the short little book. Every time we came to that word we would stop and scrunch up our faces as we pinched our nose with two fingers. It was a variation on Pee Wee Hermann’s ‘Word of the day,’ from Pee Wee’s Playhouse. It made reading the book aloud even more fun than it already was.

And then the day came when I was about to start reading the Curious George book to her when she said, “No! I’m going to read the book to YOU!” She grabbed the book out of my hands and placed it in her lap and started reading. Of course she was only a little over three years old at the time and did not know how to read. But she did not have to know how to read. I had read the book aloud to her so many times that she had the entire book memorized word-for-word. And so she read the book to me without missing a single word.

Finished, she said to her mother sitting across the room from us, “Look Mommy! I just read a book!” She was so proud of her self.

And I was sure proud of her. Both for her and for me, reading aloud was truly fun.

My delightful granddaughter has turned into a book maniac. She is now in second grade but reads at a sixth grade level. I still come to play and I still insist on book-reading coming first and I still stop at the library on my way although now I get more advanced books. But now I can’t do much of the reading aloud anymore because she insists on doing the reading aloud to me and her younger sister. I am utterly blown away by her reading skills.

I like to think that I had something to do with her love of books. If so, it may very well be one of my greatest accomplishments in my life. If I had not read aloud countless books to her over the last six years would she have ever become a book maniac? Would she have become so smart and proficient at reading aloud?

When she becomes an adult would she read books aloud with her boyfriend? Would she read books aloud to her children? Would the profound joy of reading aloud be kept alive by her?

Thanks to my granddaughter I retain hope for the future of humankind.

When was the last time you read aloud?

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