Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Teaser Tuesday: An American Map



"I sense that when I am reading [aloud] or being read to, if it is done with skill, the energy shifts and flits between the reader and the read to, and evolves into something just short of reading each other's minds.  Do a group of people all listening to the same story -- a story that has taken them not to spirituality like a prayer might, but to the internal realm of imagination where all of us, through language, enter another world -- create a unity there, in that place, that we find in no other communal experience?"

-- From "Finding (My) America" in An American Map by Anne-Marie Oomen. 

In this essay, Oomen describes her thoughts and experiences while on a mini-book tour to small public libraries in rural Michigan. It is my favorite essay in the collection because it is about books, reading, and the community between authors and readers. 


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.



4 comments :

  1. That´s beautiful, and I agree that there´s a power to reading aloud. Will have to look out for this book.

    Here´s my teaser: http://ifyoucanreadthis.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/teaser-tuesday-17/#comments

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  2. Great teaser. I love listening to a really expressive, impassioned reader reading aloud. It can be unforgettable!

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  3. Beautiful teaser! Makes me think of reading to a group of small children all absorbed in the story. Wonder if my library has this one...

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  4. You are all so right about reading aloud. It reminds me to try to go see more authors read their books. I'm an audiobook fan and they suck me in, but there is no relationship between me and the audiobook reader like Oomen describes.

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