Hearing Voices in my Head

I am enjoying the occasional voice of Richard Dawkins in my head.  I should explain.

Several months ago I “read” The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins and by “read” I mean I listened to the audio book.  The book was read by Dawkins himself (and his wife) and that very fact made it all the more understandable and enjoyable.

Authors have the advantage of reading their work exactly as they have written it and consequently every inflection and pause performed focuses the meaning of the words on the page with even more clarity than the words themselves.  Now reading Dawkins’ earlier book The Selfish Gene I’m hearing stretches in which Dawkins is almost reading the words to me. Though it is just a voice in my head the memory of his delivery imparts the special emphasis that only an author can employ. In fact if I find myself swimming through a passages, not particularly picking up their meaning, I’ll go back, channel my inner Dawkins, and read the words again with the clarity humor and nuance they embody because they were written, then spoken as they should be.