★★★★★ The magic of reading aloud

Inkheart

Cornelia Funke

Cornelia Funke's Inkheart was one of the first audiobooks I listened to after becoming an audible member. It was suitable that Inkheart should have been one of the books that introduced me to audiobooks, because that's what it's about -- the magic of reading aloud. I eventually listened to the entire Inkworld Trilogy. And in fact, through writing this review I became aware that there is a fourth book, Die Farbe der Rache, which I have just ordered. I presume I have now established that I liked the series.

The central idea of Inkworld is that a reader can bring the world of a book to life. Without thinking very hard about it, I can immediately think of three other examples of fiction based on this idea: Jo Walton's Or What You Will, Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series, and the television series Once Upon a Time. I'm pretty sure that there are dozens of other examples.

No avid reader of fiction will be surprised that this idea has shown up a lot in fiction. All of us feel that something very like this happens in reality. When I read a novel, I bring the world of the novel to life, and it becomes real to me.

Funke works a few original twists into the idea. First is the importance of reading aloud. Some readers, when they read a book aloud have the power to make the things and world of the book real, not just to themselves, but to others. Also, the permeability of books works in two directions. A reader can read fictional characters into our world, and can read herself into a novel. And finally, of course, authors matter! When a reader becomes a writer, she becomes at the same time a powerful wizard!

Inkworld is one of the best fantasy book series I have read. It is particularly good for readers!

2024 reread:

I am re-reading (or re-listening to) the first three books of the series prior to reading book four, Die Farbe der Rache, which is now sitting on my bookshelf, in hardback. (Die Farbe der Rache is an interesting title -- the German noun Farbe means color, so "Die Farbe Der Rache" is "The Color of Revenge", but it also means "dye" or "ink".) Inkheart was much as I remembered it, but I forgot how much it is about physical books. Maggie, our main point of view character, is the daughter of Mortimer, a bookbinder, and another main character, Elinor, is a collector of old books. To me this love of the physical is mostly a foreign sentiment. While I used to have a library of over 2000 books, I have abandoned most of them for ebooks. Aside from Die Farbe der Rache, I possess none of the Inkworld books as ink on paper. I have them as audiobooks and kindle books. For me, the words are the book, the ink and the paper merely incidental.

I enjoyed revisiting Inkworld after 19 years absence, and am looking forward to the next audiobooks.

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