Tuesday, February 26, 2008

words that need to be read aloud

Do you do this? Read passages out loud to whomever is in the room? Or to yourself? Have you laughed out loud, snorted or merely grinned as you read a book in public?

here's me:
HAHAHAHAHA, I say holding up the book, reciting a bit of Harlen Coben dialogue, or a snippet of a Tom Franklin story- anything from George Singleton, ALL of McSweeney's lists.

And when I found Chelsey Minnis', BAD BAD
I couldn't stop finding someone to share it with.
Hey, listen to this:

".... You look good, You feel good, But you're bad bad. You're a swan, so carnelian to be with you...........so vexing and vicious with ....quirts of leather ....and rock-roses.... BAD BAD... like a scorch...... it is curacao to be with you and ....omnivore to be in love..... with your crimson ....and your rogue..... It is blackjacks..... and being stabbed with a butcher knife...... it is showerhead to be with you........ you are a terrible burden like a cello..........."

( I am doing a terrible disservice to not put all the ellipses- ish dot spacing that she does- as the pauses make you wonder and think and imagine and halt on the word choices... but you get the picture, and they do go on for 2 pages- and no, that's not the end of the poem. )

We- my husband and I- must have said the cello line about four times each- which led to me telling a story about a girl on a plane in CA once who I met when she bought a seat for her cello. I had never told him that story, and he thinks he's heard all of my stories twice.
He has no idea.

I like when reading other people's words inspires my own. I have a writer friend who says even reading the bad stuff can be good for you- it makes you feel better, smarter, as if there really is a spot on a bookrack waiting for you.

2 comments:

Churlita said...

I love that about literature - where reading it makes you want to write- or better, makes you have to write.

Family Adventure said...

I read things out loud all the time. Some lines just beg to be read out loud!

Heidi