Adventures In Reading

The other day at the RFTB&D I directed a session of the recording of a Latin textbook. I was the rector, rather than the lector. That makes good sense, since I cannot read Latin so that it can be understood as such. In fact, the number of readers among our group of volunteers who can read Latin seems to be... well, one. There is a gentleman who taught Latin for 41 years, and he has taken on the task of reading and recording an entire text, all by himself. I mentioned before that this is not the way it is usually done; normally a host of readers and directors work in two-hour sessions to quickly complete a book, since they are usually texts requested for pending study courses.

But if there is but one reader... this gentleman has been coming in almost daily and reading as much as six hours a day. I struggle to get through 2 hours! He has almost completed the book - all that remains is the Vocabulary list. Page after page of mind-numbing lists of Latin declinations. Pronounced, spelled, and then the English definition given. For example:

laudabilis, laudatio, laudo - praiswothy
pulcher, pulchra, pulchrum - beautiful, lovely
sinister, sinistra, sinistrum - on the left hand
vester, vestra, vestrum - yours

In my two hour session (his third session of the day) we covered Latin words that begin with 'G' and then started on the the letter 'H'. He tells me it gets more exciting when you get to the letters 'R' and 'S.'

I can hardly wait.