Happy Anniversary to you & Mr Katy.

I love being read to, but for some reason I don't have any audiobooks. I used to on tape, but never got round to updating them. This is strange as my iPod is a perfect delivery system for this medium.

I also like reading aloud, and in the days where I read lots and lots of books (rather than my huge pile of magazines and papers. See threads passim) I often read the first couple of chapters aloud to get the rhythm of the prose. When something is written in dialect, I often find it useful to read it aloud in (well my version of it) the accent/dialect it is written in.

I can only read/hear poetry aloud for it to make any sort of sense to me. It means nothing to me (oh, vienna) when read in my head.

Also, love The Iron Man. Can you adopt me so I can come to Cornwall with you next year?

Congrats on 10 years :-)

It's one of my pleasures to read to the kids, we started on picture books with a few words per page and over the years have built up a list of favourites. The most recent addition is Steven Hawkings' wonderful books "George's Secret Key to the Universe" and "George's Cosmic Treasure Hunt".

My eldest is starting to make noises about reading to himself rather than have me read to him so I see the end is near for that, and it saddens me. I'll not miss the early days of multiple repeats of "Little Rabbit Foo Foo" but now I really enjoy our 30 minutes of quiet time in the evening.

Co-incidentally, I'm off to the bookshop today to buy this for my youngest.

He's obsessed with 'big robots' after watching Brad Bird's The Iron Giant. For anyone who hasn't seen it, this is a quite beautiful adaptation of the Ted Hughes' story. It looks gorgeous, thanks to its deliberately old-fashioned 'hand-drawn' animated style, evoking 50s design. It seemed to creep under most people's radar, but it's one of my favourite children's films. It tells a great story well, and looks beautiful. Good job, because I get the feeling it's going to be on rather heavy rotation.

Oh, and I love to read aloud, with Julia Donaldson's The Snail & The Whale being a current favourite with my boy. I've never read grown-up books aloud, apart from at school. Which is actually a shame, now I come to think of it, because it does slow you down and make you savour the language.

So, I'm off now, to read What Hi-Fi Magazine to Mr Drakeygirl.

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I am resolved to read aloud much more often, and to make an effort to engage my audience more fully. I usually do it after snorting with derision at some article or paragraph, but the other half (14 years and counting) is usually deep in another tome, and merely grunts!

As for reading aloud, it has been so long I cant remember. But I love The Iron Man to bits. Myself and Mrs G were given the complete Stephen Fry read Harry Potters though, which are great for long car journeys...

I do quite like reading aloud, but very rarely do so. Also, I become very aware of my slightly yokel-ish accent when speaking in such a way (seriously, never get me to say, "a thousand brown cows;" it sounds like "a thewsnd brewn cews.").

If I were ever to have sprogs in the future though, I'd take every opportunity I could to read to them though; I think it's an extremely important thing to do.

I love reading aloud, and I do it a LOT with my little girls, for obvious reasons. The Julia Donaldsons are great for that. In our house, the Gruffalo is Welsh and the fox talks like Leslie Phillips. Tiddler's a chirpy little cockney, the whale in The Snail And The Whale is not dissimilar to Paul Robeson. That kind of thing.

What I really miss about being a classroom English teacher is reading to the kids. You're supposed to use "a variety of reading strategies" to get through class reading books and GCSE texts, but I never found a "strategy" that worked better than me reading to them.

I'll never forget the joy of reading "Of Mice And Men" - also dusty - to my Year 10 class about three or four years ago. Making George talk a little like Steve Buscemi and giving Lenny this deep, slow, John Coffey voice (obvious perhaps, but fun).

I've done a lot of lessons in front of Ofsted and various other observers and I know how to play that game, with all the bells and whistles it entails, absolutely standing on my head, but I've never been prouder of a sequence of lessons than the ones where I read every word of "Of Mice And Men" to that class, to pin-drop, rapt silence. You just can't beat the power of a good story.

I imagine Ofsted would've given those lessons a "Satisfactory" at best.

I know very well how much potential there is for aloud reading to turn into a chore, BUT with two kids now aged 10 and 6 both reading exeptionally well, I firmly believe that it was the bedtime story which helped them into that...even if th prospect of reading another Tintin 'graphic novel' used to fill me with dread...

BUT, this has energised me, and I'm planning to drop "of Mice & men" and "Iron Man" into an amazon basket sharpish and try to engage them with something a little more stretching, but help me make it over the free P&P threshhold please, more bookk suggestions suitable fo rme to read to a combined 10 & 6 audience.

Great thread, and as for the OP, we have a howm drawn Goonie from "LRFF" laminated and stuck to alternate Mum & Dad bedside lamps...I can't see it even leaving....

I find poetry works particulary well when read aloud as it appears to release previously buried nuances. You do get a few funny looks on the train though.

We don't have any kids but our various godchildren seem to love being read to and get huge amounts of entertainment from our adaptations.

We're currently reading Alice in Wonderland to the Archlings and I'm pleasantly surprised by how much they're enjoying it. (Although I'll admit that some skipping is involved - I managed to reduce the Lobster Quadrille to four lines, not so much because of comprehension considerations as for the sake of my own mental health.)

God, that book is strange. Can you imagine the outcry if it was a new book published today? Blatant flamingo abuse, a caterpillar high on skunk, wanton piggification of babies, making light of the serious environmental issue of pepper pollution... and don't even get me started on that creepy hare's table manners.

were having the first Artemus Fowl read to me at bedtime by my sister. I was 37. Admittedly my nieces were a lot younger than me and it was mainly for their benefit, but it was still a lovely way to bookend their day. On the back of a yacht bobbing up and down off the island of Hvar, since you ask. It's good to take the time out occasionally.

thread and happy anniversary.

I was read to as a kid and at Christmas-time we had to read out tales to our grandma (sing for our presents basically) which were kind of terrifying at the time but also memorable, never forgot the stories. I still like to read out passages of adult books to friends and one piece I still love is the beginning of How Many Miles to Babylon by Jennifer Johnston...."It is because I am an officer and a gentleman that they have given me my pens....". I don't have children but my niece and nephews loved being read to when little and I always found it a challenge to keep their interest, it ain't easy !

I'm hoping the publishers produce a cd of Millions Like Us by Virginia Nicholson. It was book of the week about a month ago and it was brilliantly read and very moving.

Totally unrelated, Pamela Stephenson talking about sex on the radio; stupid pretentious nonsense...write a mucky book and get it out of your system.

... Enid Blyton though?

I love reading some books to my 2 year old son...I try and fit in as many regional accents as possible to fit the characters. Jnr looks at me with a mix of wonder and pity.
I look forward to reading some detailed books to him and working through a book, chapter by chapter.

It's a nice way to spend 30mins after a long day.

I quite like to read aloud on my own in the house. I find that one of my favourites for aloud reading is one of my favourite books of all time, Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

There's plenty of angels, demons and the four horsemen of the apocalypse (and the four OTHER horsemen, not to mention Witchfinder Sergeant Shadwell, who I imagine sounding like Michael Elphick).

and they're finally making it for TV! Though I wish that Gilliam had managed to, like he'd planned.

In fact, the Discworld books in general are fabulous to read aloud.

I loved reading to my daughters when they were younger, especially all the Dr Seuss books, and The Tiger Who Came To Tea.

"He drank ALL DADDY'S BEER!!!"

They're too old for that, now, but there was a lovely phase when they would read the stories to me.

I agree entirely the points on poetry above - the words come alive when they are said aloud. We had a great time when friends organised a Burns night one year and passed the book of his poems round the table, reading aloud. Beat poetry especially is more enriching aloud.

Moloch the loveless! Mental Moloch! Moloch the heavy judger of men!

This all reminds me that one of my favourite books is "Other Men's Flowers" compiled by Lord Wavell. It is a collection of poems, mostly well-known, that he gathered partly by dint of soldiers in his service being able to remember them. I must start learning some new poetry - good for the head.

I try to mimic the cadences of the late and indisputably great Peter Firmin. No over-egging, no exaggerated voicing, just the story, read gently and steadily and, of course, with love.

And farty noises.

What's not to love about reading aloud to the young 'uns? As is said above, it surely encourages them to read per se. I didn't read much to my stepchildren (wicked stepdad blah blah), I always have done to my daughter. Guess which one loves reading? QE f****** D.
We don't need to stop just because they're self-motivated to read; we've just moved on to Philip Pullman and co.
Having said all the above, a few years ago during an Enid Blyton phase, I did have the habit of altering the text. ''Hullo Ann!' shouted Julian. 'What are you up to?' But there was no answer, because Ann was dead.' That sort of thing.

Lovely post.

xxx