Music is a pretty big deal in my life. I grew up surrounded by musical people and started learning an instrument when I was seven. I crafted my teenage identity around the music I liked and my eclectic tastes have long been a source of amusement with my friends (having my ipod on shuffle was always interesting, jumping from metal to classical to pop punk to acoustic in one sitting). Essentially, if books are my life raft, then music is my comfort blanket.
Music is associated with reading quite heavily in my memory and listening to a piece of music can bring to mind a particular book or character. Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory album even now takes me straight back to one of my favourite teenage reads, The Scent of Magic by Cliff McNish.
I definitely listen to music less when I read nowadays because my mind is not always able to multi-task, but when I do I stick to my favourites which I can tune in and out of. Mostly it's quite calm and acoustic with a smattering of classical, but I will mix it up with something more lively every once in a while.
I'd love to know whether you listen to music when you read and, if so, what kind of music you find sets the mood without distracting you from the book. This is my reading playlist:
Brother and Bones - For All We Know
Jack Garrett - Weathered
Rhodes - Wishes
This Wild Life - Sleepwalking
Emarosa - Say Hello to the Bad Guy (Reimagined)
Chon - Story
Charlie Simpson - Comets
Florence and the Machine - Heartlines
War Games - Holding Patterns
Flyleaf - City Kids
Jonny Craig - Stand
Walking on Cars - Hand in Hand
Alex Clare - Sparks
Lifehouse - Everything
Mallory Knox - She Took Him to the Lake
Ludovico Einaudi - Divenire
Michael Nyman - The Heart Asks Pleasure First
Do you listen to music when you read?
I hardly ever listen to music when I read cause I usually get distracted from one or the other, plus I do end up tuning the music out with the reading so I find it a bit pointless? However. I do love that feeling when a song is so good that it jars you out of the story and forces you to listen to it for its duration, so there's that :)
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