The love of reading is not an entirely lost art but the joy of reading aloud might be fading fast. Maybe you haven't read aloud since you were forced to in school, but I guarantee you if you haven't tried it since then you are sure to have more fun than in the classroom. If you don't believe me, try it right now. Read this post aloud. Pick up the nearest printed material--junk mail, department store advertisement, the joke du jour in fax daily--- and vocalize it. Give it a comic flavor or dramatic intonation. Try to be convincing, whining, wheedling or brusque. Write a prose poem then read it aloud, backwards. Experiment with your eyes, the printed word and your vocal cords. Recite the grafitti on the passing train as you're stuck at the railroad crossing. Pretend you are Dylan Thomas proclaiming the ingredients of your breakfast from the text on the box of Cap'n Crunch. Reading aloud gives language vitality. These things thrive because of us.