Rediscovering the lost power of reading aloud | Hacker News Reader

Rediscovering the lost power of reading aloud

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Often times on river trips before going to sleep I'll read a few pages/chapters of whatever I'm reading aloud to whoever is near me, if they're interested. Sometimes during the day if we stop we'll pass around a relevant book, poetic'ish environmentally themed books..., to read to the group kind of like reading to the class in elementary school. Everyone has a unique style of reading aloud and it's always interesting to hear how they interpret the story and words through inflection/tone/cadence/etc... or as the article says "through the concentration of our faculties, the inflection of our voices, the warmth and presence of our bodies—to reach the listener."

This is one of those things we do not practice or really do for better or worse. For some the aspect of reading to others is terror inducing even among close friends. For some there's terror from being still and simply listening to another because it's so different from our normal lives of fast consumption and noise. Next time you're out in nature bring a short poem or story, take a pause and read it aloud to your group. It will probably be uncomfortable as it's strange to most but give it a try.

A girl i always chatted with at chipotle finally sat down with me the other day during her break. I told her I was a writer, and was elated when she handed me her phone to let me read a dark poem she had written. I asked if I could read it back to her out loud and she let me. It was nice.

I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't been reading to myself out loud recently, and also at workshops where we have the opportunity to recite after doing writing prompts. I always like hearing people nervously sharing meaningful experiences.

In Houston we have something called Gentle Hour, where people gather in a rather cozy circle, taking turns to read something they wrote. Storytime is alive and well, and not just the “Grown-up Storytime” you find at open-mic bars!

FTA: "With schools having largely withdrawn from the practice of making students memorize poetry, few of us today have anything approaching the interior resources of a rhapsode.”

My son attends school in France and learning by heart and then reciting poems is something he does regularly as part of his homework.

Professionally, I’ve found that reading aloud is how I most easily catch the errors in text that I’ve written. Personally, there’s something magical about reading aloud to children and being able to maintain their attention with voices, expression, and variations in tone.

I find reading my own writing out loud helps me to significantly improve the quality. I don't think this was ever suggested to me to try during primary education, but it is a writing strategy that I think more children should be taught.

My wife and I recently started enjoying this! It's a very calming way to wind down in the evening instead of another installment of $TV_SHOW. I've been narrating Bram Stoker's Dracula, and I must say, the imagery and scenes stick in my mind much better than when I (quite quickly) read silently.

It's fun doing the voices, and taking time every now and again to discuss what happened gives us a more engaged sort of relaxation that's at our direction. It was a bit of a challenge finding a book we both agreed upon because we have very different taste, but we were able to meet in the middle by starting with a classic.

My wife and I recently tried to do the same with Dracula for Halloween! Unfortunately those first few chapters are on the longer side and we got tired of reading aloud :p

I ended up finishing up the book on my own, but the chapters we did read aloud were fun.

Me and my fiancé took turns reading the Silmarillion aloud. Its really brought out the mythic, epic poetic history aspect of it. Made me want to try reading the Illiad or Odyssey aloud -- maybe once I learn Iron Age Greek ;-)

Reading aloud is one of Daniel Pennac's ten "Rights of the Reader":

1. The right not to read 2. The right to skip 3. The right not to finish a book 4. The right to read it again 5. The right to read anything 6. The right to mistake a book for real life 7. The right to read anywhere 8. The right to dip in 9. The right to read out loud 10. The right to be quiet

Does anyone have any book or website recommendations for getting better at reading aloud? For impersonating voices and accents?

My eldest child is three and we both enjoy story time before bed; they are some of my fondest memories of my childhood. As I recall my father was a fantastic narrator and I feel I need to put some effort in!

Someone further down does: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22129906

I'd probably skip to: http://trelease-on-reading.com/rah-ch4.html

Let me recommend you just keep practicing, and keep trying to do your best every day.

If you read aloud for 1+ hour per day, after a year you’ll be a whole lot better. Anecdotally, reading aloud a variety of books (including some that push your kid’s abilities, some that are easy, and some familiar favorites) is far and away the most important thing you can do for his or her language development and development of reasoning.

If you really care about improving you can try to film yourself and watch it back, and you can try to come up with specific aspects of your performance to focus on.

But if you’re just trying your best and enjoying yourself, and you don’t intend to make performing for groups a career or something, just regular practice and a little bit of effort (and focusing/staying in the moment, rather than devoting half your attention to thinking about something else) should also be fine.

Don't parents read to their children anymore? Is this actually a "lost art"? Our son is 12 and he still wants to be read aloud. Is this an aberration?

Yeah this sounds very weird to me. In my family by the time we were able to read without effort we started taking turns reading to each other.

I read to my daughters all the time, but eventually one of them decided she disliked it (didn't like the pace) and the other is still preferring to listen to audio books while in college. It's an individual thing.

Also I think a lot of parents don't look forward to reading aloud.

My wife read and recorded the whole Harry Potter series for our eldest, now the second gets to either hear Mom read live, or listen to a recorded chapter everynight before bed.

I've heard you should always read to your kids regardless of their age. They'll only ever read at their level, so even reading a poem or newspaper article or scientific journal to them when they're older increases their reading level.

wouldn't it be better to spend time with them and actually read it to them, rather than sending them to bed with a device to playback a pre-recording?

> now the second gets to either hear Mom read live, or listen to a recorded chapter everynight before bed.

I assume mom reads live frequently, but if she can't for whatever reason the kid can still get his/her chapter at bedtime.

So we play it communally on a big Bluetooth speaker.

It is an aberration.

I still read to my daughter who just turned 12 before bed for 30 minutes or so.

She can quite easily read the books I read to her, but still wants me to read.

A lot of comments here concern reading to and with kids.

For those interested in practical aspects of reading out loud to children, check out Jim Trelease's "Read-Aloud Handbook". It has advice, advocacy, and specific age-appropriate book suggestions.

http://trelease-on-reading.com/rah-contents.html

Ten years of having to do reading groups and go around the circle reading a sentence or a paragraph at a time made me bitterly hate reading aloud.

Especially when for some insane reason the group was the entire class of kids with a spread of at least six grade levels in literacy, and it took so long to go around that you could be multiple chapters ahead by the time your turn came back up.

I got tired of reading Percy Jackson with my kids and decided to read A Tale of Two Cities with them aloud. It's been a really interesting experience, my wife listens in and we discuss what's going on, the historical context, etc.

For me, I read at a different pace aloud which gives me moments to reflect more on what I have just read, producing a very different reading experience.

Do you find it easier to write code if you can talk to yourself while you do it? I don’t do it very often since there’s usually people around, which would make it pretty awkward. But somehow I find it makes it easier to stay on track - it’s as if a thought spoken out loud is easier to remember even after your mind has shuffled through five other thoughts. Almost like there’s an echo lingering in the room.

I find I do most things with more focus if I can talk through the process.

It externalizes my inner monologue which is multithreaded and makes it more or less single-threaded so I'm able to stay focused. It also serves as a check on my brain.

I suspect this is why Pointing-and-Calling reduces errors in Japanese workers [1].

Unfortunately it's not socially acceptable to talk to yourself. If only there was an invention like headphones, but for speech, a sort of a "cone of silence", I suspect it would improve my effectiveness by 10-20%.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointing_and_calling

I've not heard of Pointing and Calling before, but this perhaps explains what I do to keep from forgetting my wallet or phone when leaving the house. I pat my pockets before I exit and say "wallet" or "phone" as I pat the appropriate pocket.

> a sort of a "cone of silence"

Like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cone_of_Silence_(Get_Smart) ?

Correct. (you got the reference) Except I want one that actually works. The closest thing we have today are those office pods you see in tech offices, but I feel a little claustrophobic in them.

That's your appropriately named echoic memory:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echoic_memory

When I used to tutor, if we hit any Shakespeare, I had the kids read it aloud. Often, I would rope parents in to read from a different copy (the trunk of my car was rather full of books) for other characters. This worked for most plays but especially well for Shakespeare. Poetry, too.

I sometimes rewarded good behavior with reading from The Hobbit or something similar.

Growing up, I used to hate reading aloud due to having a mild stutter. English classes were filled with fear and sweaty palms at the thought of being chosen that day to read whatever the book was at the time.

Interestingly, I've started to enjoy reading aloud to my kids and find that I don't stutter while doing so. My older daughter prefers to read on her own now most of the time, though my 4 year old has a mountain of books and loves being read to, so bedtime usually involves reading 3-5 books and has become a pleasant routine.

A few years ago, my daughter insisted I volunteer to read to her class at school, which also turned out to be a good experience and I think the kids enjoyed listening to "Jack and the Beanstalk" as well.

I've been thinking about signing up for something like toastmasters for a while, though a reading group for adults sounds like a good way to start fighting the fear of public speaking as well.

Lost art...? Ummm, try having kids.

I used to be horrible at reading aloud. My brain couldn’t simultaneously read aloud and comprehend the content so I never actually absorb the contents . Secondly, I didn’t like reading aloud because I couldn’t anticipate the meter/cadence do it always sounded like I was an illiterate idiot. As a result, even though I read silently a ton as a kid, I hated reading aloud growing up.

Fast forward to now after kids, and I am light years ahead! My pace and cadence is smooth, natural and fast. More importantly, I actually comprehend what I’m reading now. Like everything else, it just takes practice.

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