Sometimes my mom, after serving Sunday mornings wiping noses in the nursery like the good pastor’s wife she was (is), would pop in a tape (remember those?) of the sermon into the living room stereo system. And if my dad happened to wander into the room, he’d run away going blah blah blah so he wouldn’t have to hear himself.
I so get that. It’s incredibly awkward and uncomfortable to hear your own voice, a sure indication that it’s best not to spend much time listening to yourself. Besides, I’d rather listen to This American Life or Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me or one of my many audiobooks, which range from total classics (if you haven’t listened to a reading of Dracula, you are MISSING OUT) and histories of epidemic diseases (I swear, just can’t get enough) to just for fun (David Sedaris, Tina Fey).
But I’ve been on the airwaves or whatever they are talking about my book, and if you’d like to listen, here is a representative link: A Theology of Eating at My Faith Radio. I also had the pleasure of talking to Fr. Dave Dwyer on Busted Halo last night (this morning, for me!) and that podcast should be up soon.
Meanwhile here are ten of my favorite ‘classics,’ loosely defined, in Englewood Review of Books’ ‘Writer’s on the Classics’ series.
Where can I get that illustrated edition of Moby Dick you got that picture from?
As to hearing my own voice, I’ve done a couple stints on the radio having my own show as a DJ. Nothing big, but listening to myself was part of the process so I could moderate and improve my delivery. So it doesn’t really bother me to hear myself recorded, at least not after I get over the initial sense of wondering who it is I’m listening to and then realizing that’s my voice!
Have your read or listened to “Fever: A Novel” by Mary Beth Keane? Historical fiction based on the life of the first known asymptomatic carrier of typhoid or “Typhoid Mary”. Highly recommend. I listened to the Audible version.
No, but I will check it out! I did read Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson–a novel about the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia–and loved it. Thanks for the recommendation!
I’m currently reading a novel about the yellow fever epidemic in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1857– how strange is that..?
KT and you and I are sharing a metabrain?
Could it be because we’re descended from someone who barely survived the 1918 flu– a sort of collective memory..?