Being read to has to be one of the great joys of childhood. It certainly was for me. As adults, however, we rarely read to each other despite the fact that the pleasure of being read to does not diminish with age.
Many years ago I attended an event with one of my favourite novelists, Irish author Colm Toibin. His novel ‘The Blackwater Lightship’ had just been published and he read various passages from it. I remember it as if it were yesterday. As he read, in his enchanting, lilting Irish accent, I was overcome by emotion. While it is an emotional novel, it wasn’t the subject matter that moved me so much as the experience of being read to. It was the first time I had been read to in a long time.
I felt a strange mix of emotions. It took me back to my childhood and the joy of being tucked up in bed each evening, listening intently to the story being read. But it also evoked in me a sense of loss; a realisation of the absence of something deeply nurturing and comforting that was once a commonplace everyday activity.
Stories come to life in a different way when read out loud and while the interpretation of the story remains personal, a connection between reader and listener is formed. I recall telling a colleague about my experience of the Colm Toibin event and her telling me that she and her husband read aloud to each other most evenings. How romantic!
The oldest form of storytelling is oral – Homer being history’s most famous oral storyteller. Language comprehension and production evolved with hearing tens of thousands of years before writing. It is possible, according to neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran, that listening to speech, with its cadence, rhythm and intonation, may be more spontaneously comprehensible, evocative and natural than reading due to the link between listening and the emotional centres of the brain.
As someone who loves nothing more than curling up in bed or on the couch with a book, nothing will ever replace reading to myself. However, as a result of my experience all those years ago I try, every now and then, to make the effort of finding a way of being read to whether through podcasts, audio books or attending literary events. For some reason book groups have never appealed to me particularly but a reading group… now there’s an idea!
If you’d like to experience being read to by Colm Toibin I highly recommend listening to this podcast or this podcast.
