WTH Should I Read This Summer? “The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction” By Meghan Cox Gurdon

In this episode of What the Hell’s summer book series, the WSJ’s
Meghan Cox Gurdon discusses the wonders of audiobooks, reading
aloud, and her book The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of
Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction (Harper, 2019). The idea
of the “talking book” has been with us for almost a century, so
why do so many consider audiobooks or books read aloud to us to
be cheating? Not only does reading aloud to children and adults
bring people closer together, but hearing a book out loud makes
it come to life in a special way for the listener. Reading aloud
also has incredible benefits for young children and audiobooks
have allowed literature to become more accessible to us all.


Meghan Cox Gurdon is a weekly columnist for the books pages of
The Wall Street Journal, covering children’s literature as well
as a range of titles for adults. A former foreign correspondent
and a magna cum laude graduate of Bowdoin College, Meghan has
five children with her husband, the English journalist Hugo
Gurdon. She is the author of The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous
Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction (Harper 2019).


Find The Enchanted Hour here.


Find the transcript here.