Stories Told Out Loud

Medieval entertainment consisted largely of stories told out loud.  Before radio, before TV, before the internet, one mostly had to rely on other people for entertainment.  There were books, but before printing developed (late fifteenth century), books had to be copied by hand and were rare and expensive.

The great mass of the population could not read or write, so they would have to rely on someone remembering or making up a story.  Among the aristocracy, most people could read at least to some extent, although writing was a more unusual skill.  Aristocrats could and did own books, at least a few. So an evening's entertainment could be everyone sitting around while someone with good reading skills read a story out loud.

Even in today's culture, we like the sound of a human voice.  Listening to someone reading a book out loud is different from reading it to oneself.  Hence the popularity of audiobooks.

Above is the cover of the audio version of my first novel, A Bad Spell in Yurt.  It's read by Eric Vincent, who does a very good job with the voice of my wizard hero.  When I first heard the audio files it was a little startling, because of course in my own head he sounds like me.  But a good narrator can bring out aspects of a story that a rapid reader might miss.  I've been so pleased that I'm having all the Yurt books done as audiobooks.

They're available on iTunes, Amazon, and Audible.com.

For more on my books and audiobooks, go to www.Daimbert.com.

© C. Dale Brittain 2014