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Chapter Eighteen:

The Trumpet of the Swan: 18 Freedom

Chapter Seventeen:

The Trumpet of the Swan: 17 Serena

Chapter Sixteen:

The Trumpet of the Swan: 16 Philadelphia

Chapter fifteen:

The Trumpet of the Swan: 15 A Night at the Ritz

Chapter Thirteen:

The Trumpet of the Swan: 14 Boston

Feeling sort of ok today so I just recorded the last four chapters of The Trumpet of the Swan. I’ll still be posting individual chapters here on MWF (and in my podcast feed) or you can get the whole thing all at once here:
http://kayray.org/kayray-reads/ or from its home on archive.org:
https://archive.org/details/kayrayreadstoyou5

Such a wonderful book. I loved it when I was seven and I love it now. Nature, music, family, friendship, love, springtime. It was really fun singing Louis’s trumpet music for you! His own composition, “Oh Ever in the Greening Spring”, was written out in music notation in the text, so that was easy, but I had to go to youtube to learn the tunes for a couple of songs I wasn’t familiar with — “They Say It’s Wonderful” and “It’s Delightful to be Married”, for example.

Now, what’s next? I’ve been considering the Betsy-Tacy series, or the Little House series, or the Mary Poppins series, or, because E.B. White is an absolute joy to read aloud, I might do Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little before starting a more ambitious series.

Also I have an enormous history book (This Country of Ours) on librivox which I should finish up before I do anything else… I haven’t finished a librivox solo in ages. Argh! My particular combination of physical and mental ill health is really difficult to deal with.

Chapter Thirteen:

The Trumpet of the Swan: 13 End of Summer

Chapter Twelve:

The Trumpet of the Swan: 12 A Rescue

Chapter Eleven:

The Trumpet of the Swan: 11 Camp Kookooskoos

Chapter Ten:

The Trumpet of the Swan: 10 Money Trouble

I’ve been recording a few chapters of Music Talks with Children by Thomas Tapper, a group project at librivox. It’s lovely. From the Preface:

The purpose is to suggest a few of the many aspects which music may have even to the mind of a child. If these chapters, or whatever may be logically suggested by them, be actually used as the basis of simple Talks with children, music may become to them more than drill and study. They should know it as an art, full of beauty and of dignity; full of pure thought and abounding in joy.

One of the chapters, entitled “Music and Reading”, begins: “A beautiful thing in life is the friendship for books.”

Ahh yes, yes it is. The author mentions the pleasure of reading the letters and biographies of the great composers, but I think mainly he wanted to talk about how much he loves books in general! Good books “present beautiful pictures to us truthfully, or they present truth to us beautifully.”

If you read good books you will have in every volume you get something well worth owning. You should bestow upon it as much care as you would want any other good friend to receive. And if it has contributed help or pleasure to you it is surely worth an abiding place. A fine pleasure will come from a good book even after we are quite done with it. As we see it in years after it has been read there comes back to one a remembrance of all the old pleasures, and with it a sense of thankfulness for so pleasant a friendship. Hence any book that has given us joy or peace or comfort is well worth not only good care, but a place for always; as a worthy bit of property.

And that is why I have too many books. They are my friends and have earned “an abiding place” on my shelves.

I’ll let you know when this audiobook is finished and ready for download, but in the meantime if you want an audiobook about music you might enjoy this series of Thomas Tapper’s little biographies of great composers for children:
https://librivox.org/stories-of-great-composers-for-children-by-thomas-tapper/

Sorry, fell behind due to illness and depression. I’ll post three chapters now to catch up with my podcast feed:

The Trumpet of the Swan: 07 School Days
The Trumpet of the Swan: 08 Love
The Trumpet of the Swan: 09 The Trumpet

Off to Montana, banana, banana!

The Trumpet of the Swan: 06 Off to Montana

The Trumpet of the Swan: 05 Louis

The Trumpet of the Swan: 04 The Cygnets

The Trumpet of the Swan: 03 A Visitor

Forgot to say — I’ll be posting Trumpet of the Swan chapters here automatically on M/W/F, the same day that they show up in my podcast feed, just to keep things in sync.

The Trumpet of the Swan: 02 The Pond

I recorded the first eleven chapters of E.B. White’s classic “The Trumpet of the Swan” a few years ago but never finished it for some reason. But now I will! I recorded another four chapters a few days ago — they’re short and make a nice change from 45 minutes of Mordor! E.B. White’s prose is simple, elegant, and extremely fun to read aloud. (He is the “White” of Strunk and White’s “Elements of Style”, a book everyone should own.)

Anyhow — I hope you like this lovely story!

The Trumpet of the Swan: 01 Sam

Chapter 9; the last chapter. I’ve been working on The Lord of the Rings for about 12 years; I started recording it for Henry, my little Tolkien junkie who is all grown up now, and finished it for my crowd of loyal listeners who so often send me the kindest emails and comments! It’s hard to believe that it’s over.

“It’s an ill wind as blows nobody no good, as I always say. And All’s well as ends Better!”

Return of the King Bk 2: 09 The Grey Havens

Second half of Chapter 8:

Return of the King Bk 2: 08-2 The Scouring of the Shire, Part 2