My father read Winnie-the-Pooh (and possibly other stories) onto reel-to-reel tapes when he was in Vietnam, for my younger sisters. I think we older siblings listened in on occasion. I know it was a blessing to both our father and my sisters (and my mom.)

I read a few books onto cassettes when I was deployed, or while in pre-deployment training, and sent them home for my youngest two. It gave me something to do during down time, and I received feedback from my wife that they were much appreciated and enjoyed.

It maintained the tradition of my reading to my kids before bedtimes when I was home and they were all younger. Bedtimes were time for my wife to chill, while I did the bedtime routine(s), and perhaps more often than not, she found me asleep next to or kneeling over the child's bed, and on rare occasions, the child still flipping pages of a picture book.

I believe my eldest son is or has done as previous posters have shared, reading larger, challenging books like LOTR, with the older of his children. I think it is as good for he and his anxieties over parenthood as it is for the children, who perhaps don't always see the best of him because of those untreated anxieties.

My wife has taken up the practice, reading to a household of our home-schooled grandchildren, who live 10 hours' drive separate, by Facetime twice a week. She had collected most of the Newberry and Caldicott award winning children's books over the years, and so this is her way of sharing those. She has also read the whole of the Narnia series to them.

It would be wonderful if in some late stage of life the reading ritual turns around, and we can enjoy readings for us when we might cannot.