reading on cd

For the past few years, I have been "reading" books on tape. Things I have read before and things that are new to me. As an educator, I think the sound of a turning page, the smell of paper, and curling up in bed with a book is worth the price of admission to anything in print. And it is indeed a ticket to a form of entertainment unlike any other.

Don't get me wrong. I love a finely crafted lyric line in music. I love fine art, at least art I know what it is when I am looking at it. I can never get into things like Picasso putting a woman's nipples where her nose should be, and I do think that Chicago got ripped off when it put up that metal thing in Daley Plaza, but good art, like Picasso's "Blue Guitarist" I can look at for hours and get enjoyment.

Still, it is books that thrill me more than other art. They are a work of the language, communication at its lowest and highest level at the same time. They force my mind to imagine, to think, to see things as they are and as they aren't.

I can't curl up with a laptop and read a book. I need the sound and smell of the page. I need to bookmark where I left off and come back without any effort other than opening the book to the spot where I last left off before I lay it on the coffee table or night stand. I love going to the bookcase and looking at titles, the act of reaching with one finger to pull the selected volume into my grasp, to stand there leafing through the pages to see if something in them wants me to take that one to read next. (That more than anything is a reason to keep every darn library in America open.)

Still, I have taken to listening to books on tape, or rather mp3 files on the car sound system to and from work. Some are rather good and capture the essence of the word, particularly with a good reader. Some are just somebody reading with no emphasis, no change in tone or voice at all. But, I drive to work an hour every day, it is a way to pass the time and not listen to the mindless drivel of talk radio.