Stories you MUST read out loud

I was going to post this in the "favorite science fiction story thread but the answer I was going to give made me think of another aspect of favorite stories; stories that simply beg to be read out loud. The one I was thinking of for the other thread was “Repent Harlequin,” said the TickTockMan by Harlan Ellison. That lead me to thinking of another one which was written by him and (IIRC) Avram Davidson called Up Christopher to Madness. Both sound wonderful read aloud.

Any others?

All the Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling, IMHO. Something about the phrase “Best beloved” that screams to be read aloud…

All the “Winnie-The-Pooh” stories. A close friend recommended that you never read the Illiad and the Odyssey silently- Mr. Lissar and I are looking for suggestions on the best translation so we can read it aloud.

Anne Of Green Gables is good aloud, too, and I think My Name Is Asher Lev would be great, although I haven’t read it aloud, yet.

Almost all poetry should be read aloud.

Try the Robert Fagel’s translations. I started reading them silently to myself and actually found myself beginning to read them out loud.

“The Raven” By Edgar Allen Poe

helps if there’s thunder in the background.

The Hobbit.

Jim Theis’ “The Eye of Argon” (a truly horribly piece of “writing”) is unreadable, but hilarious when attempted out loud.

Hey, I was just going to suggest “The Tell-tale heart” :slight_smile:

Any Herbert Kornfeld column on The Onion. Makes it twice as funny.

Almost any play. Of course, they are meant to be seen and not read, but T.S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral is particularly fantastic. I had great fun reading that one aloud to myself when I read it for school.

Most poetry begs to be read aloud. I pick most of my favorite poems that way – the ones that sound nicest. John Donne is one of my favorites almost solely for that reason. Goodness knows I rarely understand half of what he writes.

Missing Angel Juan, by Francesca Lia Block

Blood Memory, by Martha Graham

and, best of all;

The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran

I once started to read The Hobbit to a girlfriend of mine, but she wasn’t all that into it. It was fun, but we only got a little past the trolls. I’d like the oportunity to read it aloud some more, though.

This is a ridiculous proposition to most people, but I read the Lord of the Rings trilogy aloud to my little sister (voices, accents, foreign words, everything) and found that it really made the book for her. Of course, doing pages of Gandalf’s voice made me lightheaded, and I could only do Gollum when I had a cold, but it was still quite an experience. Tolkien writes in a very read-aloud-able style.

Also, epic poems, for obvious reasons.

“The Double Shadow,” by Clark Ashton Smith.

Terrifyin’.

Second Just So Stories– beautifully rythmic. Attend, and listen, o best beloved: the phrase “On the banks of the great grey-green greasy Limpopo River, all set about with Fever-trees,” is wondrously therapeutic for both tongue and ear.

And James Joyce must be read aloud to extract the full measure of Joy-- but only when there there’s no one else about and the house is as otherwise as silent as death.

Rage by Richard Bachman, the pen name of Stephen King. I don’t consider him a literary genius, but this story always appealed to me in this manner.

Quite so, good story. Not to mention timely, and ahead of its time.

Were you aware that Stephen King has taken it out of circulation, and no longer permits it to be published? It’s out of print.

Gee, that sounded snide. Sorry. Copies of The Bachman Books can still be had at used bookstores, and yes, it’s a very good story.

I was just kind of surprised when I heard he’d yanked the story from publication. Never have gotten much of an explanation, but I can guess…

Sometimes I wish I had children or knew of some child that would suffer through me reading the Hobbit to them.

I think it’s incredibly neat that Crinklebat read Tolkien to her little sister - and with voices no less! What a cool sister!!

Goodnight Moon