One of my self-educational hobby projects last year involved recording an audio book. I’ve done a lot of on-microphone reading of silly things I’ve written, but taking on the task of narrating someone else’s book was a job I found both intriguing and intimidating. Could I pull it off? I wasn’t sure, so I had to give it a try.
The opportunity arrived through a website called the Audiobook Creation Exchange, or ACX.com. This is a clearinghouse that connects narrators, producers and publishers.
A friend in the business told me ACX was the place projects go when the original publisher realizes the volume won’t be a big seller as an audio book. Rather than go to the expense of hiring a professional narrator and paying for studio time and editing, they farm it out to some guy between jobs who is arrogant enough to think he can do a passable job on a complicated project simply by setting up a microphone in his closet.
So I set up a microphone in my closet.
One key early decision – I knew I couldn’t do the different voices and the acting necessary to narrate a work of fiction. What I needed was a book that would do well to be read in a calm midwestern style by someone who is steady and not at all flamboyant. There aren’t a lot of books like that, but I auditioned for them and was offered one that lined up perfectly with my interests – “Morning Miracle: Inside the Washington Post – A Great Newspaper Fights For Its Life.”
I figured if I could just manage to get paid by the word, it was a good start to be assigned a book that has three titles.
It turns out the pay was gauged by the finished hour, and all told the reading is a little over nine hours long. That’s not a Harry Potter sized project, but nine hours is still quite a stretch. Imagine if you started talking and went non-stop until nine hours from now. It’s the closest I’ll ever come to knowing what it feels like to be a U.S. Senator during a filibuster. But of course I didn’t read the book that way. It was start and stop and start and stop and check a name pronunciation and start and stop and take a drink of water and so on and so on and so on. That can be tedious.
But it wasn’t the reading that did me in, it was the editing. My finished nine hours probably took over eighty to record and edit. I’ve never been accused of working quickly.
One thing recording an audio book teaches you – your mouth is disgusting. Really, really repulsive. The variety of grotesque noises that can emerge over the course of a lengthy passage are mortifying. As an act of mercy towards anyone who might listen, I had to edit out all the pops, smacks, gurgles and slurps and then I had to cut out most of the breaths. ACX says removing breaths is not required unless your gasps call undue attention to themselves, and this judgement is somewhat in the ear of the beholder. I considered my breaths to be so wheezy and ugly, they simply had to come out. So I hope nobody downloads this audio book with the thought that they will immerse themselves in it to the point where they breathe in synch with the narrator. I could wind up having a terrible problem in court.
I’m not kidding about the closet, by the way. I padded it with blankets and chunks of foam, and for a screen to soften the way my plosives hit the microphone, I stretched one of my wife’s nylons over a wire clothes hanger. I know that’s not the way they do it in the professional studios in New York, but I’d like to think it gave the project an aura of Midwestern grounded-ness.
What sort of writing do you like to read out loud?
Trail Baboon 
Good morning Baboons!
Dale, that’s a wonderful story. I can see you sitting there in a closer with your wife’s nylons stretched over a wire coat hanger in front of a microphone, and I chuckle. You have a wonderful radio voice, and if this was hard for you, I won’t attempt any such venture.
But, to answer your question, that’s easy: Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory.” I absolutely love that story, and have read it aloud numerous times. For the last two years I have read that story to a group of seniors in a nearby nursing home.
I’m a rather shy person, so this isn’t something that comes naturally to me, but I love that story so much, I want to share it. I practice the reading for my animals, they seem to enjoy it.
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Good morning to all. It is nice to hear about your work on recording a book, Dale. I like listening to recorded books when on car trips.
Most of my out loud reading has been done for children or students. I did a lot of reading to my own children to get them to go to sleep at night and also have read to my grandchildren on a few occaisions.
Reading from books was a good way to keep grade school children occupied when I did substitute teaching. Usually a classroom of grade schoolers will calm down if you read to them. They always liked Shel Silverstien’s poem about being swallowed by a snake.
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Love reading Shel Silverstein poems – I think they are meant to be read aloud. I got the newest book of poems that was published last year for my birthday – it was my favorite birthday present. Middle niece picked it out for me because it was goofy, and she figured I’d like goofy – smart girl. 🙂
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If this blog were a tabloid the headline would read, “Closeted Writer Comes Out About His Time at The Washington Post.”
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Very cleaver Beth-Ann
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“Closeted Writer in Nylons Comes Out About His Time at The Washington Post.”
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“Washington Post writer comes out of closet in nylons”?… Is that what I’m hearing?
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“Closeted writer comes out about his time in nylons at The Washington Post.”
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Dale, hope you weren’t planning on running for president.
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Greetings! As part of my theater degree, I took classes in Oral Interpretation of Fiction and another doing Poetry. They were great fun to do whether performing them solo for the class or as a group, with each person portraying different characters as needed. I remember Dorothy Parker’s stuff was great to perform out loud, as well as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short stories.
One story my group did in class was “Repent Harlequin, said the TickTock Man” by Harlan Ellison. Great fun with all the silly words and rebelling against robotic punctuality. I still remember some of the other group’s performances as quite riveting (of course, ours was quite good, too). I enjoy reading most anything out loud.
Fun blog, Dale. I guess I don’t pay much attention to mouth noises, although I notice it in some movie actors on occasion who have odd quirks.
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My thoughts are with you, Joanne, sorry about another move, especially so soon. Sorry about it all. Have you tried selling the appliances on Ebay or Craig’s List? I had no luck selling that way down here; never got a hit, but up there you may get some hits. In the end I gave most of our stuff to a local thrift store that is also a local charity, VINE, a nice group.
We re-upped for a second year on our lease. Yesterday on a small trip we drove by an assisted living place and my wife said that we should be looking at one of those the next year.
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welcome back clyde, ditto to joanne, if i can help out selling the appliances let me know i would be happy to do it no charge.
geeze clyde has it already been a year? my mom is is a spot where you can start out in the living on your own place and move across the parking lot when you need to have access to nurses etc. prices change pretty dramatically but i think she is locked in at agreed on pricing weather its next year or 10 years from now. its easy in this group to discuss downsizing and going to the next chapter but il bet its no fun when its not up for a vote. best wishes to both of you.
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Dorothy Parker is wonderful out loud, with just the right dry acerbic delivery.
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I can hardly read James Thurber’s short stories aloud since I laugh so hard I start to cry. I find The Dog that Bit People especially funny in parts, also The Night the Bed Fell. We visited the Thurber house In Columbus many years ago. That really made subsequent reading of the stories come to life.
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The little I know about writing I learned first from Thurber and then from his good buddy E. B. White. I was an awful writer in college, the wordsmithing part, a deficit for an English/Speech/Theater/Journalism major. My one good English prof told me that Jack London learned to write by hand-copying good writing. He suggested that I find a good wordsmith and read the person’s writing over and over until it was almost memorized and/or to hand-copy like London. He suggested some names, one of which was Thurber. For ten years I read and reread his books, which is not hard to do. He is a master of the word, the phrase, the sentence, the punchline and pacing. That and journalism made me a decent writer.
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Rise and Shine Baboons!
I am a delighted consumer of many audiobooks. During these years of being so busy with business, family, garden, art projects, and life necessities, it is the only way I can read as much as I love to read. Audible.com is my unguilty luxury. Many of the narraters are skilled beyone belief adding richness and depth to the stories.
However, I am not one to read aloud. I dislike doing that, even children’s books. I read aloud a lot to my child as a little one, but it was never something I enjoyed much.
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Dale, you can record my book when it’s done. If “What I needed was a book that would do well to be read in a calm midwestern style by someone who is steady and not at all flamboyant.” means dull, then mine qualifies.
An explanation to all. My technical problem the other day was only at that moment. The local phone company, from which we purchase TV, phone, and Internet in a bundle, provides excellent online service. The TV is very poor. But they are all one server/system. They have been here regularly to work on the TV. That afternoon they were here to replace everything. TV is as much a problem as ever. So we are going to just dump TV. Can’t do dish here and I refuse to even consider going back to Charter. The irony of lousy Charter service here is that its founder grew up in Mankato.
The reason I am absent is that I am saving the typing frustrations for my book. What I have typed here has taken about 20 minutes, just to give you a measure of the issue, and I am sure despite my efforts to eliminate them, when I upload this, I and you will find a dozen errors. When I do the first draft of two more chapters and a prologue and do the 2-4 rewrites of six chapters and the prologue, I will have a first draft.
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i think the reader of the audio book should edit. just write it clyde. clean it up later. sorry to hear about the tv frustrations and with the election year coming up. rabbit ears are still available out there and netflix and the other venues for tv are likely enough for all but those live things like the twins. there must be a sports bar you could party down at with bubba and lefty sharing a pitcher of miller lite. tastes great … less filling… oh the fun you’ll have.
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the other sad part is that the phone and internet are likely more expensive than the three pack that includes the tv. it was for me. i have a phone i dont know the phone number to in order to save 50 a month on the overall package. you may keep the tv and not hook it up for economic reasons
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It should say epilogue, not prologue.
Cannot get TV with an antenna in Mankato.
We haven’t been here a year–9 months–early signing bonus.
The election is one MAJOR reason we will drop TV
Will see re pricing. They are getting back to me and the check is in the mail.
Can’t drink beer.
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yeah but other than that….
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If it’s cheaper for the three-pack including tv, you could do that and just pretend you have a working tv. (See yesterday about rules…)
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It’s cheaper for phone and Internet than for phone, Internet. and TV.
Their system has a few neat tricks: 1) suddenly going pixel for a few seconds (kind of cute and psychedelic actually). 2) freezing for one to 30 seconds. At 30 seconds it shuts down the system. 3) Deciding at random moments to completely reboot by itself or going blue screen, requiring me to call in and wait for a person and then they reboot from there. A 30-40 minute process. I know several of their techs by voiced now. It can perfectly time issues 2 and 3. For instance on Antiques Road Show this week we saw all the items but did not see the values of about 1/4 of them because of the moment it chose to freeze for 15-20 seconds. My wife lost the climax of two shows she was watching last night. This is an issue for many of their customers. They brought me a new modem, a white one, sure to fix the problem. No fix. So they replaced that modem and the box. No Fix.
A know a message from above when I see one.
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We are great lovers of audio books and stories. My children were both lulled to sleep every night by the some narrated story or other. They listened to classics, tapes of old radio detectives and radio cowboys, Rabbit Ears productions (it was fun to hear Jack Nicholson read Kipling’s Just So stories) and sundry others. We have them all on cassette tape. Any baboon opinions on the best way to transfer those tapes to cd’s?. I may have grandchildren someday, you know. Dale, the images of your recording and editing are wonderful.
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buy cassette players now cheap at garage sales. 10 bucks for a boom box is aheck of a deal and cassettes sound so much beter than cds. transfer is pretty easy you need a jack to plug your cassette into your computer and then hit the magic button on the free program. havnt doen it yet but i can look into it and get back to you if youd like.
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I want to know, too. So, yeah, get back to us, please, tim. and thanks!
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Oh yes! Please.
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I LOVED reading to my boys; I managed to keep doing it to some extent until they were 12. My favorites were Roald Dahl’s books, especially The B.F.G (big friendly giant) and The Witches. I think I did a good Germanesque accent for the Grand High Witch.
In the latter years, we were reading chapter books including The Lord of the Rings. My son couldn’t wait until our next bedtime so he would read in between. That made my experience rather choppy. I’d read chapters 1,3 7 and 12, etc., not quite sure what had happened while I was “gone”.
I love the sound of A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas and a family favorite is the little known but fabulous 13 Clocks by James Thurber. My father used to read it to us occasionally and now that he’s gone, we sometimes take turns reading it to each other. My sibs, nephews and sons (who are much more aware of who’s who in the movie world) imagine who they’d cast in the various roles if a movie were to be made.
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I too remember reading Lord of the Rings when our son was that age… and some Roald Dahl and Astrid Lindgren and… and…
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I listen to LotR every year at this time. I am almost done with TTT. Rob Inglais, who reads the version I have, does one of the greatest performances I know just reading the four books word-for-word.
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We have read our way through most of the Pippi books (and “The Tomten” several times). Fun reading.
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Reading books to my girls was always a delight for me, too, Lisa… making up voices for all the different characters, dawdling over all the details of the illustrations, conversations about the story line… many a golden moment were created together in the process. They both have little ones of their own now… and so the cycle begins again for me! And, I agree with Anna, Shel Silverstein in tons of fun to read aloud!
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Morning all. I am also a huge devourer of books on CD – almost all from the library. I’ve listened to enough over the years that I recognize several of the narrators from other books!
I loved reading outloud to the child when she was little. There was one book in particular, “My Dog Never Says Please” which always brought out a “hillbilly” accent. Don’t know why, but I just couldn’t help myself!
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🙂
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use to read in the car on car trips then multiple kids made picking one book hard but come to think of it that is where we plugged in to kill a mockingbiord or harvey or some move that worked. we could have read it instead. another missed opportunity.
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One of the sweetest memories of my life is reading aloud to my little girl when she had been put down to sleep. I used to mix reading with stories I made up, and I threw myself into the dramatic presentation. Molly would sometimes complain that I was being too dramatic, and she would get frightened in stories that she knew word for word . . . stories where everything turns out happily. I used to deliver “The Isle of the Skog” with as much melodrama as you’d find in a silent horse opera film where the heroine is tied to the tracks. God, I miss that!
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Hopefully you’ll be able to do a little when your adorable grandson visits… but he might not be quite ready for The Isle of the Skog yet.
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I also made up stories to tell my kids at bed time, often my verison of a story about a Tomten from a book by Astrid lindgren.
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When Daughter was little, the Sandra Boynton board books were a favorite because they are just so darned much fun to read aloud. The meter and language are a hoot (and the pictures are fun, too). “But Not the Hippopotamus” is my go-to baby gift these days.
Along with Roald Dahl, A.A. Milne, and the other sort of “classic” children’s books, I have had great fun reading Kate DiCamillo books to Daughter at night. She “gets” language and how to use it well the same way that Milne does and spins a good tale that is challenging without being to grown-up for a younger listener. We are currently reading Paddington – another fun one for reading out loud. For picture books, if you haven’t read “The Gruffalo” yet, find it. Borrow a kid, or read it to your dog (or cat). It really must be read out loud. The snake, when read at our house, sounds like Peter Lorre.
This reminds me of a family friend whose first job was working for Amoco in the Texas oil fields way back in the day. His job was to keep track of they gyroscopes and such, and mostly he was out in some building by himself watching gauges and needles, generally in the middle of a cattle ranch. To keep himself entertained, he would read Shakespeare – and discovered Shakespeare was best appreciated read out loud. Better yet, the cattle seemed to like being read to, if they were nearby (Friend had a lovely baritone, with a slight southern drawl, which I’m sure gave Hamlet an interesting twist). I still prefer to read Shakespeare out loud, even if I’m only muttering to myself – it really needs to be heard. And, like my family friend, it’s hard for me to sit still when you read the Bard.
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OT: BBC notes from the January meeting are finally posted. Perhaps best not read aloud.
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Anna, that report is another masterpiece. Almost made me regret that I was one of the Blevins who chose a romp in the woods on a lovely day over the Blevins meeting, almost. I’m making the assumption that the lack of mention of food and wine was an oversight?
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We have all the Sandra Boynton board books as well – they were a bit hit. (I also had Sandra Boynton sheets for many years… one set w/ dinosaurs and one set w/ reindeers … but I wore them out!)
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My favorite part of teaching kindergarten was the reading aloud of picture books to them, and I remember reading to 5th graders, too, when student teaching. Kids (mostly) love to be read to, which prompts the performer to get into it more, add expression and accents… Husband and I sometimes read aloud to each other if we’re interested in the same book, which can be enjoyable if you can both stay awake.
Steve’s “mix reading with stories I made up” reminded me of the funniest Mothers Day card I ever received (and saved so copying here). Picture a mother rocking her darling daugher and reading:
Caption – When little Sally started to doze, her mother would improvise.
“And they all lived happily ever after. Especially Mrs. Red Riding Hood, who ran off with Sven, the blond Adonis who operated a local logging company and appreciated the fact that Mrs. Red Riding Hood looked like a real woman and not some stick figure with impossibly large breasts…”
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I’ve never been very good at reading poetry. I think poetry needs to be read out loud by someone who knows how to read it and for most poems, that isn’t me. I like to hear poets read their poems.
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Billy Collins reads his (often funny) poems very well.; he has great timing. I agree that poems are often more easily appreciated and comprehended when read aloud by a good reader, especially their authors.
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Agreed – I first heard him on Garrison, reading “The Country.” 🙂
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I hadn’t heard The Country but found an animated version of it:
My favorites, The Lanyard and Marco Polo (also read on PHC).
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I love Billy Collins’ poetry. Such whimsy and humor. Here’s one of my favorites:
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The Lanyard is sheer impish perfection.
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OT – Just checked the tracking number on a letter sent via express mail to a friend in Maine on Tuesday. Found out it was processed out of the sorting facility in HONOLULU last night. AAARGH! Small wonder they operating at a loss.
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Just returned from the post office. I had gone to ask for how a letter on its way to Maine could possibly end up in Honolulu. Silly me! The cheerful clerk had no idea but chose to focus the good news: it only took two days to get to Honolulu!
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Funny! Sounds like someone (or many someones) in the Post Office is directionally challenged. I got sort of lost trying to find a store (that I had been to before), but I realized long before I would have got to Honolulu that I was going in the wrong direction.
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May be they were going to send it across the International Date line from the other direction to make it look like it was getting to Maine really fast?
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I suppose I should be grateful they didn’t charge me extra for the additional mileage.
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We have an adult at church who often participates as the assisting minister. That requires her to read the scriptures aloud, as well as several prayers. She can’t read very well at all, skips words, makes up words, and evidently doesn’t understand what she is reading. I just hold my breath while she reads, as you never know what is going to come out of her mouth, Sometimes the meaning is opposite of what is written. Everyone seems to be tolerant and encouraging. I try to be compassionate, but it is hard.
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Yes, listening to a poor reader can be as agonizing as listening to a good reader can be thriling.
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My wife just got up. I told her that a friend of ours was found dead at home yesterday. It is assumed of a heart attack. My wife thought for a moment and said, “Yah, he was almost exactly your age.”
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Dale — there’s one big question left out there. W/ all the editing hours, is this a worthwhile endeavor? Should I invest in some closet padding?
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You may find other purposes for a padded closet–just saying.
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I used to hide from my kids up in their closet when I needed a “time out”… had it been padded, I wouldn’t have had to keep so quiet. 🙂
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L – I really have a hard time picturing you hiding in a closet! 🙂
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It’s BECAUSE I hid in the closet that I still seem to be a relatively stable & sane person, Krista… Staying home with two small children does funny things to a person! 😉
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I’m guessing that if he was paid by the finished reading time (9 hrs) and it took him 80 hours to read and edit it, that it wasn’t a very good hourly wage. Unless it was a heck of a lot of money per hour.
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Just thought of another fun one, if you’re in the market for a picture book to read aloud, “The Remarkable Farkle McBride” by John Lithgow. It is also in rhymed verse, but has great noises to make while you read, and wonderful illustrations to go with the story. It tells the tale of a young man searching for the perfect instrument to play (hence all the wonderful noises to make), and takes you through all of the instrument families in the orchestra. We read this one enough when daughter was a preschooler that I had it memorized for awhile.
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I just finished John Lithgow’s autobiographical book “Drama: The Education of an Actor.” Wonderful, funny stuff. Such a fascinating and talented man.
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Good… I have it requested from the library. Nice to know it will be worth the wait!
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Yep, just finished it too.
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I have been on here today because I have had writer’s block all morning (it makes me feel either like a real writer saying that or like someone pretending to be a real writer; not sure which) about an insignificant page near the end of the book. Then all of a sudden in the last hour, that obscure single-page chapter turned into the climax of the book with no intention on my part to do so. One of the fun things of this project has been watching my mind take over in ways real writers say happens, and saying that makes me wonder if I am real or counterfeit, as a writer, well maybe as a person.
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It may not be only writers that end up wondering that at times.
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Years ago I took a meditation class and was joined by a neighbor who is blind. There was some recommended reading… a 74-page book called “Beyond the Superconscious Mind”. My neighbor asked if I’d be willing to make an audio recording so he could enjoy the book as well. Had I read Dale’s story prior (hearing about all those “pops, smacks, gurgles, slurps, and (good lord) even breathing!) I would have been terrified to even attempt it… especially for a blind man with a heightened sense of hearing. I can only hope he didn’t judge my reading too harshly! And I would have much preferred Shel Silverstein to Ananda Mitra for reading aloud (no disrespect intended).
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I worked as a substitute county extension educator and had the job of giving a report over the radio which was prepared on a recorder. I found out that I don’t have much talent for doing recorded messages. Even after several attempts I wasn’t able to make a recorded message that sounded good. I’m sure that I would not have much luck making recording of books.
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I shudder to think of my radio program “Getting to Know You” at the airbase in Greenland. Not only didn’t I have any control over the claptrap I was spewing, I never saw the copy before we went on air, and I was extremely nervous. Must have been extremely boring and painful to listen to.
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PJ – do you remember what you talked about? Was it just you? Scary!
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No it wasn’t about me at all (and that’s a good thing, although frankly, it would have been a whole lot more interesting!). It was essentially talking about Denmark and it’s relations to the US (Greenland where the AFB was located was under Danish rule at the time), so political spin on how wonderful our cooperation through NATO was. Pure garbage, of little or no interest to anyone, but they wanted a female voice on the radio. I blush even thinking about it. What was I thinking?
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It seems that boardcasting takes a certain kind of voice that is different from the way one normally speaks to people in person. I wasn’t very good at doing it without any training or experience. I guess some people naturally have the right kind of voice for boardcasting or recording. Also I supose some kind of training is available to teach people how to use their voices to do this sort of thing.
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People have mostly mentioned the classics. There are more obscure books I love to read to a kid. The books of William Stieg and a howl. In the right setting, a Dave Barry piece can be a howl.
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Ugh! Arthritis of the brain.
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Agreed. And listening to Sarah Vowell reading any of her work is a hoot. Also, I’m currently listening to David Sedaris read his “When You Are Engulfed in Flames” – many laugh out loud moments. AND… there is a passage in “In a Sunburned Country” by Bill Bryson that made me snort coffee in the car earlier this month ..“I would rather have bowel surgery in the woods with a stick. If you are not stung or pronged to death in some unexpected manner, you may be fatally chomped by sharks or crocodiles, or carried helplessly out to sea by irresistible currents, or left to stagger to an unhappy death in the baking outback.”
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I’ve found that some David Sedaris is ONLY funny when he reads it. Otherwise, it can be just weird and almost depressing. But I love his delivery.
Exceptions are his comparisons of Christmas and Easter traditions in US vs Europe. Hysterical.
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I remember years ago reading some Dave Barry aloud and both reader and listener were weeping and hiccoughing with laughter. I’ve read some of his more recently and haven’t found the same experience. Older, more jaded? Of course, you qualified your comment with “in the right setting”. It could be that I haven’t been in the right company or experiencing the right degree of exhausted giddiness that can lead to that kind of laughter. That’s pretty darned rare (sadly)
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An OT warning to the BBC from today’s paper
Python latches onto cheek of Wisconsin book club member
Associated Press
Posted: 01/27/2012 12:01:00 AM CST
Members of a Madison, Wis. book club have quite a story to discuss. And, it doesn’t have anything to do with a book.
One of the book club members decided to take a pet python out of its terrarium during a recent meeting at a host’s home. The 31-year-old woman says she had experience handling snakes and just wanted to hold it. The normally docile snake named Annie latched on to the woman’s cheek and wouldn’t let go.
Police and paramedics were summoned. But, Annie wouldn’t let go until her owner arrived home and detached her. The woman’s bite was disinfected.
Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain says the book club members could write their own non-fiction piece involving a protagonist named Annie.
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That’s one way to get out of the required reading!
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ha ha!
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I’m not sure if there’s anything as cool as getting paid to talk into a microphone.
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Yes, you lucky duck.
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except possibly, singing into it?
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I liked reading aloud to my kids when they were young…picture books, chapter books, you name it. A few I can think of off the top of my head: Good Night, Gorilla; the Frog and Toad Books; Chicken Sunday and almost anything by Patricia Palocco – except I could never finish Thank You, Mr. Falker without crying; If I Ran the Circus and others by Dr. Seuss; The Pushcart War (I had my kids convinced for a while that it was a true story); The Story of Holly and Ivy; All-of-a-Kind Family; The Four Story Mistake…and so many, many more.
I have a confession: my youngest daughter is 16, going on 17, and we still sometimes cuddle up and read a good picture book together.
Nowadays, I’m starting all over again with some books for little babies – I try to read to my 8-month old granddaughter, but she doesn’t usually want to sit still very long. I have one board book where I get to make some animal noises and that’s pretty fun. But I don’t think I could do it in front of older kids or adults.
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Have you read Good Night, Gorilla? It is a wonderful and funny board book.
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One of my favorites, Renee! My youngest daughter and I read it many times. One of the tests for me was if I got tired of it after reading it several times, either to one kid over and over, or to all three kids when they were the appropriate age. Books like Good Night Gorilla stand the test of re-reading (and re-reading and re-reading…), but I could not stomach other books after a few repetitions, even some popular kids’ books – Clifford the Big Red Dog comes to mind. For some reason, I couldn’t stand those books.
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OH, man, I used to have a children’s radio program called “Come Saturday Morning” on the now defunct WCAL radio station that is now the current. I read so many stories. I think my favorite might be Gerald McBoing Boing.
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I remember Gerald!
You had a radio show too? So many brave and talented baboons (see PJ above).
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BiR, in my case, you’re using the term talent extremely loosely in connection with my radio show. Trust me on that.
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I’ve been reading and thoroughly enjoying this blog for months now and feel a bit like a peeping Tom for not having spoken up before this. My husband just informed me that people like me are called “lurkers” (on the web) which sounds shifty at best and borders on unsavory. Not sure why, but I was really tickled by Beth Ann’s notion last week of MB being a “figment of her own imagination” 🙂 and was thinking that If I’m to jump in and say something, never having been properly introduced, it presents me with a bit of a quandary if I’m to play by the same rules. If I were to tell you that I’ve known Barbara in Robbinsdale for many years, she might tell you that I’m harmless and rather nice. Unless she’s a figment of my own imagination, or me of hers. I’d rather come in from the cold and lurk no more.
All of your stories today remind me of growing up when my father would read to us at bedtime and even at the dinner table — lots of a.a.milne, edward lear, lewis carroll — silly poetry like “The Jabberwocky” and “The Pobble Who Had no Ties” which we can still recite to this day. Wind in the Willows and the Pooh books were favorites he read over and over.
Reading and libraries are the best memories of my life. Last time I was in Berkeley, I revisited the library where I used to spend every Saturday morning. I’m pretty sure I embarrassed the librarian because I was getting all choked up. She excused herself very discretely. But I found the exact spot on the bottom shelf where the “twin” series used to be — the dutch twins, the japanese twins, chinese…, french…, etc., even Eskimo and Puritan and Spartan twins ?!? I think the author’s name was Lucy something. Started with a “P”. I’ve never seen them since and they might be perfectly awful books, but I loved them when I was 7or8. Nowadays I read to my granddaughter. They say it takes 30 days of daily repetition to develop a habit.
Another thing today’s topic reminds me of — I think in generations past children did lots more memorizing and reciting than we did in the 50’s and 60’s. I envy people who can commit to memory and recite poetry or passages at will. I don’t seem to have any innate talent for that. Have to work hard at it. And nothing sticks in my head as tightly as it used to.
Back to lurking…
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Oh, please! Join us again!
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Once you’ve de-lurked, you can never go back!
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Robin, I just found this group the other day after lurking when it was Trial Balloon. I skipped the lurking stage this time and have found Baboons to be a lively and clever bunch and very welcoming. Oddly related, too. Discovered several Virgos, Prussians, first borns, radio talent, rule followers and breakers. If you stick around, I won’t be the newbie.
It does suck up your time, though, when you can’t wait to see what the next clever quip or familiar reminiscence might be.
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Author: Lucy Fitch Perkins.
I’ve seen several of those books at friends of the library book sales…should I pick some up for you if I see them again and if the price is right? (I guess you’ll have to stop lurking to answer that, sorry).
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Edith, It would be fun to see one of those old books again. I thought they’d be extinct by now — I remember the author was born at the close of the Civil War just like my grandma.. I just reserved one at the library for old time’s sake. Thanks 🙂
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Oops, that’s “The Pobble Who Had No Toes”.
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Hi Robin! Glad you de-lurked… 🙂 I’m not surprised that it’s a day about reading that made “coming out” irresistable.
I can vouch for her, Babooners, she is harmless. We met at a T’ai Chi class, but that’s another story.
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Any friend of yours BiR can’t be all bad.
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Robin it’s great that a blog on being in a closet led you to pop out and delurk. Welcome, now that you’ve taken the plunge stay and enjoy the lovely water!
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Well, Robin, welcome to the trail. You know by now that this is a friendly and civil group of baboons. Glad you’ve decided to make yourself known, I hope you’ll feel free to join in the daily fray, it’s much more fun than lurking.
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Thanks Barbara, PJ and Renee. And thanks to Dale for years of good company and good music. Your shows were a morning staple at our house for decades. This will be fun 🙂 I’ll do my best not to overdo the smiley faces and exclamation points since there are grammarians in the room.
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Robin, Robin, Robin, a good lurkers should know we eschew rules and embrace excess.
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OT – ETHEL MERMAN ALERT. Starring as herself on “That Girl” on MeTV (209 if you have Comcast). As we speak!
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This has been an amazing day of writing. After two weeks of deep struggle to see if I had the guts to write chapter 43 and a hard slog with words and plot lines, I suddenly wrote the last few pages of the book, about five days and 30 pages sooner than I thought.
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Woopee! Good for you Clyde. That should take a load off your mind. Shut eye time. Talk with y’all tomorrow.
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great news, Clyde. i’ve been enjoying the photos you post from the ship canal in Duluth. was a beautiful one last night.
thanks.
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so are the last few pages the last few pages or do you still have more to write? congrats on the slogging until you got there. it is interesting to hear that it comes in fits and starts. glad you were able to ride it out.
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You are done, Clyde? Or done with first draft, anyway? What a magnificent accomplishment! Congratulations.
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Not anywhere near done, as you would know. Have only a first rough draft of the last 50 pages. Take those through 3 rewrites. Apply all the edits and comments from my wife and a friend who is an editor and thus do a touch up of at the whole book, about 400 pages of text in paperback format. Then put it all in one file, in what format? Then??
I intend to immerse myself in this again and will be light or absent for some days.
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sounds like a plan. come up for air and say hi. may the force be with you.
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