Read in order of the text or by Table of Contents grouping

[linny]

I'm considering reading a story book for children. The stories are very short and I was thinking of grouping them together to make the sections longer. The book provides a table of contents where it groups the stories by category; e.g. animal stories, bird stories, cloud stories. Do I need to group the sections in the order they are printed or may I group them by category?

[TriciaG]

Strange that the TOC puts them in a different order.

I think you could go with the TOC order if you want to.

[annise]

do you mean that the grouping by category would not give the same result?
So that the animal group would contain story 1, story 5 story 7 etc ? If so I wouldn't be happy with it - it would be confusing for those wanting to read along - and children's books are popular with listeners wanting to improve their English. If it's a group project it would be confusing for readers.
And if the publishers /author wanted them in that order they would have published them that way and I always think we owe them some respect.
But I don't know that anyone has ever wanted to do it before so there may be other opinions

Anne

[TriciaG]

There you go - two MCs, two opinions. LOL!

[annise]

Yep I did say that, We cross posted . Maybe we would agree if we could see the book ? Hard to offer abstract views - and I do field most of the complaints about not being able to read along with text , it wasn't something I even thought about till I started with the help line.

Anne

[linny]

I suppose I'm of the thought that if they didn't want you to be able to read by catagory then why would the author give the table of contents that way? If a listener is reading along couldn't they reference the toc?

I was planning it as a solo. As an example if you take a look at the story of flowers the 2 stories combined are less than 1000 words. I was thinking the larger groupings like animals could be stories of animals, part 1, and part 2. I don't think any category would need more than 2 sections. Anyway, here is the text. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30800?msg=welcome_stranger

Please let me know your thoughts. I don't have my heart set on the story. I just found it today in a really old book suggestion. If it's still a concern I'll take a closer look at word counts but I might scrap it. A separate section for such small readings and all those intros would make me crazy.

Thank you both for your time.

[annise]

Having looked at it , I think it would be fine to group them .

Anne

[linny]

Great news. Thank you!

[DACSoft]

Please let me know your thoughts. I don't have my heart set on the story. I just found it today in a really old book suggestion. If it's still a concern I'll take a closer look at word counts but I might scrap it. A separate section for such small readings and all those intros would make me crazy.

Thank you both for your time.

One thought I had was that, in the audio book summary, you may want to note for listeners (especially those who may follow along in the text), that the stories were read in groups as noted in the ToC, rather than the order printed.

FWIW,
Don

[linny]

Hi Don,
Thank you for mentioning that. I was thinking about it but hadn't made up my mind. Now it will definitely make the summary.

Another option I was considering was adding the starting page number to the audio. "The Red-Headed Woodpecker, page 29."

Possibly in the summary add that page numbers have been included at the start of each story.

[TriciaG]

I'd say put it in the summary, but don't put it in the audio. Just my opinion.

[linny]

Hello Tricia,
Thanks for the input. I was thinking it might eliminate any potential complaints Anne has to read through.

I'm sure it shouldn't be this difficult. Guess that's what I get for trying to color outside of the established lines.