The Enchanted Hour

The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction by Meghan Cox Gurdon

Audio Book: 7 hours, 54 minutes     Hardback Book:  304 pages       

This book will tell the reader that reading aloud makes you smarter - let's all do it!   I enjoy reading aloud be it stories to youngsters, or particularly moving literature or plays where I can assume the character telling the tale,  mimic the dialect of a foreign tongue - I have always loved dialects - or assuming the role of one of Shakespeare's many faceted characters.   I love reading aloud.  Always have since I was a kid.   In fact, as adults, sitting around the table in the kitchen my older brother and I would play out radio announcer Walter Winchell's famous often quoted words from WWII, "Hello, Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea..." when our Mom would start reading to us news stories from the newspaper she wanted to share with us.  Mom loved reading out loud, too.   We would tease her about it, but, we loved hearing her even as adults and what I wouldn't give to hear her read me an article she found interesting today.   The book goes on to say that reading aloud makes both adults and children happier, too, well that was also proven by Mom's reading to us and also satisfying to take time out to read aloud myself, some books just lend themselves to it.   You do feel better for reading aloud even if only to yourself.   The book goes further, it also states and backs up with studies, stats, others experiences and the writer's own to prove that reading aloud makes you more successful and healthier as neurological and behavioral science shows.   It is a feel good experience.in an age of extreme technology in the hands of the common human.    It can be a learning experience or a sharing experience but always a creative and imaginative experience.    Reading aloud crosses all barriers, rich/poor, young/old regardless one's nationality or upbringing reading aloud is a universally pleasant (o.k. maybe not for the extremely shy, though, they may blossom if reading aloud alone).   As our cell phones and ipads and multi-technological gizmos draw us into more introspective personnas, reading aloud frees the spirit within.   It cleanses the soul if you will and draws us close to one another again as technology pulls us further and further physically from one another.    It teaches us not only vocabulary but to love the language of our and other's cultures.   Reading aloud is a gift we can give ourself that bestows so many feel good benefits we should all read aloud whenever the chance offers itself.   This is a very good book with so much to teach.   I highly recommend it to anyone, any age and get the book version so you can read it aloud or the audio version so you can enjoy being read to.   Good book.