The Voices

The Hobbit is not a good choice for the lover of realistic fiction (coincidentally it stands as the first and last book read by G Lo from the fantasy genre), but it is the one book remaining for the BG in the Battle of the Books, a competition at her school where students are challenged to read a set of books and then quizzed jeopardy style on their contents.

To help it go down a little easier, she asked if I would read it to her. I agreed and we are now two chapters in. But before we started, I asked her an important question: "Should I do the voices?" When the Gs were younger and bedtime stories were part of the evening ritual, I developed a habit of creating voices for the characters. They seemed to like it, and I enjoyed the challenge of switching back and forth from the omniscient narrator (my own voice) and whatever I had come up with for the people in the story.

The BG answered affirmatively (though not as enthusiastically as she did when she was six), and we got to work. Here's what I have so far.

• Bilbo: Droopy Dog
• Gandalf: Oxford professor
• Dwarves: Mckenzie Brothers
• Trolls: English hooligans

I think I'll make the elves sound like Gandalf's students when they come into the story, and give Gollum a Peter Lorre sound. I forget who else is in the story, but I welcome the challenge.