On the Road by Jack Kerouac Chapter 1 (read by Tom O'Bedlam)

Jack Kerouac's On the Road has been called the Bible of the Beat Generation. He invented the word "beat" - some think it means "beatific" or something similar, other think it means "beaten". This reading is an experiment to find out if I can just read aloud, with no serious editing or processing.
Usually if I let anything through that contains minor errors I get a lot of messages pointing out these errors which I'm well aware of anyway, but which make no real difference to understanding. The text is there - you can read too. Try reading it aloud - it's very difficult not to make the occasional fluff. If I can still attract an audience then it will be easier to read more stuff.
Teacher's synopsis and notes on the book:
www.penguinreaders.com/pdf/dow...
References:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Road
Buy the book here:
www.amazon.com/On-Road-Jack-Ke...
www.amazon.co.uk/Road-film-tie...
Or download a free pdf of the whole book:
www.bevyshare.com/download.php...

[@vudu8ball]

This is FABULOUS!! I have read this book twice, once when I was young, hitch hiking from Missouri to San Francisco, through Arizona, again when I was old driving my son from Seattle to Oakland so he could start his adult life. In his stubborn way he would not let me read it out-loud to him while he was driving. But managed to get the in last paragraph of the book in the morning before I left him to come home. Now my mother has recently died and my wife is in the process of dying of cancer, getting thinner and weaker each day. Death seems to be looming all around me and then, this morning, to come on this pean to the life force, it is like a life preserver thrown to a drowning man. Thank you so much. Since hardly anyone reads these days it is so important to put the great works of literature into a format that will be able to survive into the future. Keep up the good work. Thank you

[@Datsun510zen]

SpokenVerse, I want to thank you for posting Tom's narration of On The Road. It's given me a chance to reconnect to my spiritual roots, and deeper truths unveiled in Kerouac's words. In my 20s, I graduated from art school in San Francisco with a BA in Fine Art Documentary Photography. My passion and visual inspiration came from Robert Frank's book of street photography The Americans published in 1958. The visual style of his book challenged contemporary photographic norms and embraced the iconoclastic spirit of the Beats. It was this book's introduction in the U.S. edition that introduced me to Jack Kerouac. 15 years ago my trip on the road of photography took a major detour when I started losing my vision. In many ways this twist of genetic determinism was a gift in disguise. I had completed what I came to do in photography, but had no way of articulating that to myself or the image the world held of me. This existential cross road given me a clean slate opportunity to explore another road. Hard as it's been with failing vision I went back to school and became a psychotherapist. By no means a consolation, my work as a therapist is what I was meant to do.

[@RoyChamorro666]

Just beautiful. Kerouac changed my life.

[@pattyfromtoledo]

I enjoyed your reading this (and reading along with you) very much...so please keep them coming. I haven't read this book in maybe 30 years.....so happy to see the Greyhound Bus references, I'm thinking this is one of the reasons I get so excited to see them on the road - - I am a big fan, lol.

[@ZechsMerquise73]

Incredible. Thanks for reading this. I've read select poems by Kerouac before and love him immensely, but never got around to reading On The Road, though I know bits of it. The way you read the famous line about mad people was spine tingling. I started to clap at the part about Dean's parking lot attendant duty. I'm going to get a copy of this right away.

[@acari27]

we leaned on each other with fingers waving & yelled & talked excitedly, & I was beginning to get the bug like Dean. He was simply a youth tremendously excited by life...

[@acari27]

"Nonetheless we understood each other on other levels of madness, and I agreed that he could stay at my house...& furthermore we agreed to go out West sometime"....everyone waxes lyrical about Kerouac - I'd never read him until now - and the beauty of this post is that I can actually read him. I stopped the voice & read the page...now I see why.

[@janmcintyre8595]

Thank you! I think your 'even' way of reading suits the tone in which Kerouac has written. Your voice has a warm timbre, which is very easy and pleasing to hear.

[@acari27]

"I was tremendously interested in the letters because they so naively & sweetly asked Chad to teach him about Nietzsche & all the wonderful & intellectual things that Chad knew... " you're my Chad Bud - maybe lose the 'sweetly' but the 'naively' rings true...

[@laurap1995]

Fantastic reading, I would like to see more!

[@andydensmore5293]

Jack kerolacks on the road is quite good never have I heard a good vidio like this one thanks

[@pr0nkj3wail]

Great! Thank you, Tom. Are you intending to read the other chapters as well? PeterV (The Netherlands)

[@ZechsMerquise73]

So I got the Original Scroll and you can really feel Kerouac in it. Not like this publisher's version. This version sounds good when you read it, but when I read the original I hear Kerouac in every line. As someone who studied intensely his short works, like American Haiku, its like finding a letter from your dead grandfather addressed to you. I love the man. So candid is his work, so alive and in touch with reality. Its hard to believe a publisher tried to 'clean that up', but I suppose if he didn't we might not know much about Kerouac.

[@acari27]

so much to like about this

[@jonaxfred]

BIG THANKS for this reading !!!!!!

[@acari27]

I suspect MaryLou may have been a bit hard done by in this....

[@gratiacynthiamaiaporto1596]

Awesome!

[@andydensmore5293]

To spoken verse thank you for on the road with jack by jack kerolac now do you have uler uprising by h beam piper

[@saoirserosenstock8144]

Thank you! You're the only good reader out there haha x

[@acari27]

"As far as my work was concerned...." well Bud you know I think your work is 'Yes!' & Right! & wow man! - but I'm not a con artist.....& you can stay at my place anytime....

[@robertporter6244]

The link to a free download doesn't get through, but the book can be read on oscarenfotos.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/on_the_road_jack_kerouac.pdf

[@acari27]

I like the page presented that I can read - Id prefer your voice though....