My two favourite art forms are music and literature. Both have the liberating ability of evoking emotion and transporting you to somewhere new. What’s even better I find, is combining the two.
I’m not sure how many people do this but I really enjoy having a song on repeat whilst reading. Obviously the choice of song here is important. ‘Barbie Girl’ would not be the right accompaniment to Harry Potter, say. But every so often you find a song just … clicks.
Recently I finished reading the whole Divergent series. 3 books, 3 days, standard. All the while I had this gem of a song playing in the background. It’s a cover of the 80s classic ‘Everybody wants to rule the world’ and I think it’s perfect and heartbreaking. I also think it’s appropriate for lots of stories. The Hunger Games and Monsters of Men certainly springs to mind.
Anyway hearing this song now is like a portal. It takes me straight back to the world of Divergent. I find it fascinating how our brains can associate something so strongly with music.
P.S It shocks me how many people don’t know how to play a YouTube video on repeat so I’ll share it here.
Say you have a YouTube video with URL:
All you need to do is replace the youtube bit with ‘listenonrepeat’ as follows:
https://www.listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=HEskmwV1pMU
Tadaaa!
Over and Out!
Three Magical 
Comments on: "146. Heighten your reading experience" (11)
It’s funny, when I read the Hunger Games trilogy, my younger sister was always playing Four Seasons in the background – so now whenever I hear it I think of the Hunger Games. 😛
Haha how classy! Good to see I’m not the only one 🙂
It was to get to sleep. 😉 i read in the night.
It’s interesting how you feel as though your getting more out the book by listening to a song that relates. I have to read in silence otherwise I get confused and end up reading the same page over and over again!
There’s something powerful about silence too. The thing with music is that it feels like a soundtrack to the movie playing in my mind.
However that’s only when I’m reading for pleasure. When I’m working, it needs to be quiet!
Soundtrack to a movie.. That’s a unique way to go about it. Though I prefer silence when I read, I will give it one more try tonight. May be its just a psychological barrier.
Thanks!
The song choice is super important but I hope you enjoy the experience as much as I do!
When my brother read the Illiad, he played Led Zeppelin’s Achilles Heel on repeat. He said it made the Greek poetry much more epic to read.
Apologies for the really late reply. Greek poetry is already epic; musical accompaniment only enhances this further!
Late replies can also be good replies
Hehe I usually consider any reply to be a good reply 😛