Let's read some stuff out loud!

** selected posts now streaming **

I was a volunteer reader for Sunsounds of Arizona for several years. It was a favorite amongst my many unpaid retired-guy "gig" jobs. I was proud to be tasked with reading the Arizona Capitol Times (a non-partisan, weekly newspaper covering state politics and government) for their visually impaired listeners on a weekly basis. Sadly, administrative shake-ups within the organization last year made it untenable for me to continue to provide audio content to them.

As a classroom teacher for 20 years, I read aloud to my students each day, commonly following lunch recess, as a way to decompress and refocus our brains after the midday outdoor activity time. I read every book in the Chronicles of Narnia series (The Horse And His Boy will forever be my favorite), as well as Danny The Champion Of The World, Maniac McGee, Number The Stars, Nightjohn and a host of other great books to my students each and every year that I taught.  They were always welcomed to just sit and listen, or to follow along in a copy from one of our classroom sets, or likewise to engage with the "book club" style questions and discussion starters that I would often proffer during this class period.  It was always my favorite time of the day; I hope most of my former students would agree.

And of course, I read to my daughter almost every night during the first decade or so of her childhood. She quickly and easily memorized many of her favorite stories and would "read" along with me, even when she was very small, passionately "correcting" me if I misread even a single word (which I would often do deliberately; I found this trait entirely endearing).  Such special memories...

I dearly miss reading aloud (and, likewise, having someone to read aloud to).

To scratch this itch, I started a new project today, reading and recording some of my recent and/or personal-favorite posts on my blog. I've got half-a-dozen audio tracks "in the can" right now. Hope to add a few more in the next few days/weeks.

I'd love it if you would give what I've recorded a listen... after the jump, please scroll through the short list, click on an [audio] link, and then press play.