Put off reading by tricky words; words you probably know when you hear them but can’t ‘hear’ them when you see them?

Can’t find the beat in a poem unless Snoop Dogg’s run a bass line under it?

Can’t find your glasses so …

What if you could have someone read it to you – and not the creepy bloke who always sits next to you on the bus even when there are lots of empty seats? Someone who knows how the poem or the story or whatever should read? The author, maybe?

Well you could and a new anthology shows you how. Slap a QR code under the headline or the title, link that to a sound file, and hey presto – the author is in your ears at the same time as the words are under your eyes.

I won’t be coy; I’m the editor. I’m being a bit coy though when I say I think this is a first because if I weren’t I’d be foghorning that I think it’s the first time ever, anywhere in the world, that a book or a leaflet or any other piece of print has ever used a QR code ever to help a reader make more sense of the words by letting them hear it read. [Did I mention ever?] It’s discrete, it’s private, with your ear buds in no one knows you’re getting assistance. And if you have a really big problem reading; so big someone always has to read even the most embarrassing stuff to you, wouldn’t this be handy on doctors’ leaflets?

I think the book shows you how, with a bit of techy magic, we could all be more independent, bigger readers, beat poets in our own heads.

#QR4PR – a QR code for a Personal Reader? Tell your doctor, your dentist, pharmacist, physio, the folk who write the instructions for DIY tools or self assembly wardrobes; tell them you want one.