Presenting the Dissertation "Gift of the Gab: Exploring the Audiobook and the Festive Direction in the American Library"

At 25,000 words and 112 pages, I present my dissertation to the world. Click on the link below and then scroll down to read a PDF version either in your browser or as a download.

Gift of the Gab Word Cloud

Courtesy of WordItOut

A few points in my research caught me by surprise:

For instance, did you know that audio literature and the spoken word has a clear connection to Catholic scholarship?

Orality and Literacy
by the late, great Father Walter Ong, S.J.

Did you also know that one of most successful "talking books" record labels, Caedmon Records, was founded by two young female graduates of Hunter College in New York? And that this didn't happen in the Mad Men era, but eight years before, in 1952!?

Providence Athenaeum Interior in 2012
Photo Credit: Kenneth C. Zirkel

Did you also know that podcasts and audiobooks have a piggyback effect? If you listen to podcasts, you're more willing to "read" audiobooks? And that this may have implications for the reading gap between boys and girls?

To read the dissertation in its entirety, please visit https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:34107/