I myself have an extremely horrible reading voice, that I am very self-conscious about. Even though my spouse could care less about that, it bothers me immensely. I am afraid that I could not read a passage with that much needed style. The voice, in my opinion, must represent the writing words to the best of the readers ability. And I lack that style or grace, or even the insightful nature. I would always be conscious of my voice and how wrong it is. Many quotes from the novels are deep and meaningful, filled with anger and/or love, and it would be hard to match the feeling of the quoted with my personal voice. Another one of my problems would be the actual pronunciation of many of the words. My best friend and his spouse read to each other quite often. Anything from Mark Twain to Gene Wolf, I admire that. I do read to my daughter every night, and I always look forward to that 20-30 minutes we spend together diving through the lives of Arthur or the Powerpuff Girls. I am excited for her to gain interest in a genre that I myself adore. The ironic thing is, that I have signed up for some volunteer work for my job. Reading Dr. Seuss books to children. The mind of a child make me feel much more relaxed, which in turn makes it easier for me to read out loud to, then another more sophisticated person.
To get even further off topic here. How many have listened to Tolkien’s works on audio? I seem to shy away from books on tape for some lame reason that has perplexed me. Maybe it’s simply my materialistic personality, in which I would much rather own the novel, then a tape. Either way, I would like to know if any of you have them, and would recommend them.
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