I’ve always thought of music as a deeply personal adventure: everyone’s tastes differ; everyone has deeply hidden guilty pleasures *coughjustintimberlakecough*; and everyone has strong emotional attachments to certain songs. Music evokes many, many memories for me, particularly about novels I was reading at the same time as I was deeply listening to a particular band or album.
“My personal hobbies are reading, listening to music, and silence.”
Edith Sitwell (1887 – 1964)
For instance:
Mika – Life in Cartoon Motion | Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind
The Offspring – Ignition | Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time (the early novels…)
John Mayer | Terry Brooks’ Magic Kingdom of Ladover Series
Jedi Knights Circle – Space Explorers | Terry Brooks’ Running with the Demon (if anyone knows of JKC, they get major brownie points!)
The list goes on and on and is sure to continue to grow ever larger as life trundles on. So, when I saw this neat iTunes application on another blog I read (John Davison, former Editorial Director of Ziff Davis’ Gaming Division, and all around awesome dude) I thought it would be a fun way to let my readers get to know me just a little better.
Laugh if you want (Rick Springfield); scratch your head at all the obscure hip-hop (Jedi Knights Circle, Braille, Aura, Sweatshop Union); or drop a comment if you notice that we have some similar tastes!
Right now my life is in the capable hands of a singer/songwriter named Josh Ritter (no relation to the late John Ritter) who my brother so kindly introduced me to! Check him out!
“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.”
Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963), “Music at Night”, 1931
The quote in the title is courtesy of J.K. Rowling!
I feel the same way about books and music. In fact I actually talked about the same subject on my blog just under a month ago.
Check it out for some connections that I have made between books and music.
Remy
http://www.thefantasyreview.com
Ah hah! I knew I remembered someone speaking on the subject recently. Thanks for pointing that out again, Remy.
My pleasure! It is such an interesting concept that it should be talked about all the time. We should try to turn it into a brushfire. :)
I love listening to music when I read :) A UK band that debuted last year, The Fratellis (check them out: my fave song, For The Girl), always reminds me of Zelazny’s Amber series.
Glad to see that you like Mika! You’ve got some good music on there.
I liked the JKR quote, too!
~Chris
The Book Swede
Chris, I’ll be sure to check out The Fratellis (Gotta love last.fm!).
Mika is terrific. His album is easily my favourite of the year. As a Huge Freddie Mercury fan, its refreshing to see someone like Mika come along, in the same style, and actually be worthwhile listening to. I can’t wait to see what he does in the future.
People can hate on the Harry Potter series all they want, but that single quote validates the need for its existence beyond all argument!
An interesting obversation. The last quote that you used is a favorite of mine :) To be honest, I don’t really associate any albums with books. I just listen to too much music…at least 4-5 new albums every day.
What I would like to see is authors & musicians teaming up to create soundtracks for books. I know of at least one that’s done it, though I’m sure others have as well, and I think it’s an untapped market that would benefit everyone involved…
I’ve always wanted to incorporate music into Fantasy Book Critic, but haven’t decided how yet. I like that iTunes Favourites and may use that though :D
Justin Timberlake, KT Tunstall, Kanye West, Jeff Buckley, Mika, Jack Johnson, Gnarls Barkley……great choices!