The pairing of music and literature offers a universe of possibilities. From the best songs to listen to while reading certain books, to authors’ choices as soundtracks for their writing, to music featured in books, or loved by characters: we can’t get enough of this combination.
If you’ve ever wondered what authors listen to, you will get a monthly taste in our new Guardian Books Network series, Literary Mixtapes, in partnership with Electric Literature – where writers will share the songs that inspire them to work or play.
We have covered some of the best mixtapes featured in novels as well, inspired by David Nicholls, who put together a playlist of the tapes his characters make each other in One Day, also including other tracks he imagined his character Emma would like. There’s also Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep playlist, or (of course) Nick Hornby’s one for his novel High Fidelity:
We also adore projects elsewhere on the internet like Maria Popova’s Literary jukebox, where she matches great quotes from literature with songs.
We now would love to hear what background music you prefer to read to, and what specific music-literature pairings you find perfect. Be as specific or as general as you like. We will feature a selection on playlists on the Guardian site.
