Georgette Heyer Fans discussion

I believe some of you have mentioned your parents or grandparents introducing you to Heyer or reading with them. Does anyone have experience reading Heyer with the very elderly? I was looking at the bookshelves at my grandmother's assisted living place and the books were so heavy! There were thrillers John Grisham and memoirs The Kitchen God's Wife, non-fiction books of local interest and on dogs but NO Regency romances! I think the old people in memory care would love a fluffy, feel-good Heyer rom-com. They don't have to think or remember anything just get lost in the story. I gather she never really caught on as well here in the U.S. as she did in other countries and used copies of her books are hard to come by and expensive. I'm thinking of trying to track down some and making the suggestion to the activities director to add some audio book storytime to their roster. I'm not certified in bibliotherepy for seniors but I'm going to try to do some research and track down some library school classmates who may know more about that.

What do you think?

I think it’s a great idea! I’ve spent hours and hours reading aloud to the elders in my life over the years, but when I couldn’t be there, audiobooks would have been a great substitute. Never Georgette Heyer, though I can imagine some elders loving her books—all my mother wanted to hear was Harry Potter books and my sweetie loved simple poetry and children’s stories with verbal acrobatics like Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories. In his memory care place they sometimes played storytelling shows from the radio, and nobody seemed to be paying much attention but they sometimes got upset if it was turned off. Those were people with advanced dementia, however; other elders should find it quite a pleasure.

I’m sorry, don’t have experience with this, but I know audiobooks have been a delight for me throughout my recovery from brain surgeries in the last few years. I’ve often thought, as I listened to a talented and entertaining narrator, that it must have been a similar experience growing in the days of radio. My mom and dad are gone, but were born in 1939, and told us stories of listening to their favorite radio shows as kids, and how engrossed they would be! That’s the feeling I get with a great story and narrator, like I’m having an engrossing private performance. I would think other seniors, who’d also grown up with radio entertainment like my parents, would enjoy well-performed audiobooks.

My grandmother used to be a big reader but she doesn't like romance and the kinds of fluffy stories I like! She preferred biographies and histories. They don't allow young children to visit or I would bring Winnie-the-Pooh and have my nephew practice reading it to her. That seems to have been the only childhood book she enjoyed enough to remember.

I hope they let visitors in the living room soon. Yesterday we were allowed to stay to observe Bingo, serve and eat cake but to visit, they make you go to the resident's room. It's been so frustrating for my grandmother because they've been in quarantine/limited visit mode almost the entire time she's been there! I'll see if my mom will relay my thoughts to the activity director and see if they have a reading program or would like some of my old Regencies. Most of the people I see are like my grandmother but some are more with it. There's a larger library downstairs and activities there too for those who are not locked in.

I think it's a wonderful idea!
I would agree there is something special in "being read to" as my Mom used to do and as audio books do. I think it is like an old radio drama, too, albeit with only one actor.

QNPoohBear wrote: "I believe some of you have mentioned your parents or grandparents introducing you to Heyer or reading with them. Does anyone have experience reading Heyer with the very elderly?"

What a lovely idea. Just before Christmas my Mum said the winter was getting her down, and could she borrow some of my Heyers. Unfortunately they're all at our house in France and I couldn't put my hands on them at such short notice. I found alternatives (The Secret Garden, Daddy Longlegs, Tom's Midnight Garden; Viola Bayley), but her first idea for a comfort read was Heyer.