What does it look like becoming a versatile storytelling narrator? I'm the youngest of six and now I'm the father of six.  I wasn't the most voracious reader as a kid. I don't think I actually read all the way through a chapter book until I was around 11 years old. 

When I met my wife 20 years ago in the fall of 2000, we started a tradition of reading aloud.  I pretty well trace my love of storytelling and narrating squarely to that tradition that was such an integral part of our courtship & early married life. As the kids started to come along, we began giving each of them a name from one of our favorite books.

When the oldest was 5 or 6, We read them first the Chronicles of Narnia nightly, followed shortly thereafter with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.  At that point, we started taking turns selecting what book we'd read.  I've probably done 3/4ths to 9/10ths of the nightly reading, but we've read an incredibly diverse array of material, ranging from classics like Jane Eyre and Kim, to the Harry Potter series and some lighter Brandon Sanderson, to amazing biographies like Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer and There Was Light by Jacques Lusseyran.  I love finding out what the kids are going to pick.  And I love that we've instilled such a love of stories in them that they're determined to carry on the tradition of giving their own kids names from books.  Which is good, because there are a whole lot more names from books we love that we didn't get to use.  And at 6 kids... we're highly outnumbered... and we're done.   So now I'm really hoping for a grandson Oraeyn and a grandaughter Marilla in a few years. 

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My nightly reading to them bacame such an integral part of who I am, and the diversity of material we've covered expanded my mind in amazing new ways.   Now, I love partnering with Brilliant new authors bringing life to their works.  I start every morning listening to an audiobook on my morning walk with the dog, spend most of the day editing my recordings and spending time with my family, still every night reading to my kids, and the late night hours recording beautiful new audiobooks from a diversity of viewpoints.