(As a precursor to this post I just heard jonmc talk on youtube and I so want to sit down with him and him read to me Ladies Man.)

The proposal is this: I've just finished again 1001 Arabian Nights and it occurred to me that I want to read to someone. The original strand of this project involved me and one other person as an exercise in intimacy; the more difficult strand.

Second strand: it crossed my mind that we might like to read to each other. Could be something we've written, perhaps some poetry we've discovered, perhaps a chapter of a book that's really delighted/shocked/made us horny; perhaps a whole book chapter by chapter (tho I don't know what the legal ramifications are for that...)

But it's an opportunity for us to relate slightly differently to each other. I haven't been read to since I was a kid and I'm wondering if I'll still have the same sense of awe; the tv off, just the voice of someone you know but have never met travelling across the globe to your ears.

So: if there's interest I'll set up a site, something simple with an RSS feed, and folks can add stories as they see fit. Record your stories, upload them to [host of your choosing] and I'll link to those stories.

If you think you'd be interested in this, let me know in this thread, or mail me. Don't tell me what you want to read; the surprise is an important part of any story.

This is a weirdly awesome idea. Probably the legality is you could only do excerpts, which would be fine, but that would make for a podcast I would totally subscribe (and, if I can find the time, contribute) to.

cool. I'm in, although I need to figure out what I want to read!

(As a precursor to this post I just heard jonmc talk on youtube and I so want to sit down with him and him read to me Ladies Man.)

Your wish is my command, sir. (I was actually thinking about doing this a few days ago).

Reading 1
Reading 2

Ooh! Can I read Flannery O'Connor stories aloud in a genuine southern accent? That'd be cool!

Oh yeah, I'm in. I think I might suck at it, though.

(oh, do you mean do video, or just audio?)

Years ago, in an attempt to develop my reading voice (which remains terrible regardless), I recorded all of "The Varieties of Religious Experience". Seems strange to me now. I wouldn't be much help on this project, I'm afraid.

What 'pode said.

I think just audio. This is the sort of thing I'd like to have on my iPod.

I would adore to do this but y'all are going to have to help me set it up. Like, I don't have a mic and even if I did I wouldn't know where to plug it in. Give me a phone number and I can do that - or walk me through a computer version and I'm there.

Heh, logistics. Ok kinda figured that for later. I seriously didnt figure this much interest so early on, but Go! Let's just get some people involved and we can work out the rest. Gaspode, whatever you like, seriously. I just figure, at heart, we're all kids waiting for that next best story. I'm 34 trying to pull off the best story of my life but along the way I aim to have some fun, and this is one of the ways. It'll succeed or fail either way. It doesnt have to be life-changing reading, but what you read I think you need to be passionate about.

And MGL, we'll figure out a way.

Ooh! I am totally in for this. I can brush up my radio voice!

I think I'd be in. I've been reading to my girls for almost 7 years. I must be getting good at it. Heck, I can read some Hop on Pop without messing it up usually.

OMG, I am so in. I already know the story I want to read.

Also, if BoP really reads Flannery O'Connor, I may have to marry him, which will cause strife with both elizard and my husband. But I'm willing to risk that.

I would also love to do this, but ditto on all of mgl's logistics issues.

Just after college I felt I was letting my radio degree go to waste (I had decided radio was not for me) so I was going to volunteer at a service that needed people to read for the blind. Rather than novels they were looking for people to read technical manuals and from trade journals, which sounded weirdly more interesting to me. But somewhere along I got distracted and never went back, which, now that I think about, I'd like to try. This would be good practice, so I am in if the logistics work out (meaning I'm not sure what I need, but I'm sure I can pull it together). I'd most likely be in for some short stories.

For those of y'all worried about the technical part: I bet most of you are using PCs, and therefore there's a USB port somewhere on your computer. I have a USB mic that we can mail around, round-robin style, if it comes to it. So if the spirit is willing, the rest is jake.

Rather than novels they were looking for people to read technical manuals and from trade journals, which sounded weirdly more interesting to me.

I can dig that. The only problem is that I imagine you'd occasionally catch yourself going "ohhhh, so that's how you do that," which would fuck up the flow.

Going along with what Slack-a-gogo was saying, there's an organization called Reading for the Blind and Dyslexic (RFB&D), which has recording studios all over the country and is always looking for volunteers to read textbooks and things for students without sight. I used to volunteer for them, and they're a fantastic, well-organized, highly-quality-control-oriented non-profit to work with, if you're looking to do this sort of thing regularly.

Thanks unsurprising - that's exactly what I just started looking for after typing that and thinking about it again. Hopefully a few weeks from now I'll have actually followed through.

Sorry, I mean to add that RFB&D is only in the US, as far as I know.

Cool! I might do this... something short. It's actually a great combo of mecha voices / read me a story. I wish my Greek didn't totally suck... I could read a bit of The Odyssey or something in Greek. But my Greek does totally suck, so no.

Sounds fun. I sorta do this for a living. I have a lot of developing readers, for various reasons (special needs, English Language Learners, interrupted education), and so I do a lot of what I call Guided Reading, i.e., reading aloud to students as they listen and read along. Sometimes I use audio books, sometimes I read. It really helps the students' fluency and the enjoyment they get from books. I love to be read to, too.

Now I can't find my Complete Stories. Dammit. It's around here somewhere.

*opens boxes, curses, resolves to buy another copy if he has to*

And BoPo, I think elizard already has made a verbal commitment to a polygamous quasi-Mormonic marriage with danostuporstar, so the more the merrier. We need help to build the compound!

I'd certainly do it, but am tech challenged, as some have mentioned above.

I'm in...

Thanks.

I'd do this too - I can record audio, but not (as yet) video.

Thanks everyone for their replies.

I've been thinking a lot about this today and, thanks to some beer, it's grown exponentially in scope from my original post. I'll spare you the details of the larger project (something I hope to get off the ground in the next couple of months), but I don't want to leave those of you who've expressed an interest stranded.

What I suggest in the short-term is that those of you who are interested and have the technology to run with this for a while, record something down, yousendit, and post it to the main page. First this will give everyone who wants to participate time to sort things out at their end. Second, it will give you a chance to practice reading out loud - certainly it's something I've not done since high-school and I would certainly need the practice to get the measure of the material I intended to read. Third, for those who can story-tell at the moment, it would be fun for the rest of us to listen to you.

Ideally I would like to get a story-telling site together, organised by genre, reader, author &tc, perhaps some real authors reading from their favourite books. And get a load of resources together for those who want to learn to do this in their own time, charities that need people to read to others. This is all going to take some time to look at and put together, but I didnt want the bunnies to think I'd just thrown this out there without following up on the idea.

Just following up on a few other ideas: read whatever you damn like. If you can make us engaged by reading my a Linux manual or something, go for it. I could listen to Jessamyn read through a library index card and always be enamoured. I could listen to ColdChef read through a list of obits; Miko reading through the Givewell thread. Come at us with all dialects and languages. Read to us in a language I don't understand. This was just awesome (notice, however, the tone and measure of the reading). See also this. But also remember this is meant to be fun, for reader and listener alike.

Slack-a-gogo/unsurprising/Pips, thanks for that information.

Just for the record, this isn't meant to be a book-group. I'm not going to tell you not to talk about the readings people give out because I don't dictate the conversation here. But be kind to those putting their voices out there. I categorically want to get away from the idea of book-groups with this, not because I despise them, but because I guess I just don't understand them certainly in terms of what I want to achieve here; they seem to take away from nature of reading for pleasure, reducing it to structures, characters, plot points.

I want to be a kid again, basically, and be read to. Richat, my (ric)hat's off to you for your reading to your girls. That's exactly my goal here.

Apologies for the lengthy reply.

What does everyone think?

I love the idea of us reading to each other. Nice community thing, and I like stories. May even try and record something myself if I can get past the cringe.

But, not wanting to piss on anyone's parade, the idea of doing a more public project could run into some licensing issues, couldn't it? Librivox, for instance, only does public domain works, for this very reason.

Count me in, sounds kind of fun. What do folks think about reading poetry? I find it very very difficult to get much out of poetry as I read it off a printed page, but hearing read aloud and read well makes a HUGE difference in my ability to appreciate it without giving up from frustration.

I'd give reading poetry a go myself, but it may also prove to be the case that I suck at it. :)

in