The best books-and-music pairings

If you don’t think it’s possible or appropriate to read and listen to music at the same time, look away now. We recently covered the best background music to read to. Here are your recommendations for specific book-song pairings that not only go well together but, you argue, even enhance the reading experience.

Kings of Convenience and Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore

Our own Sian Cain, Books site editor, said: “One band and author pairing I think works perfectly is Kings of Convenience with Haruki Murakami. I listened to Quiet is the New Loud on repeat while reading Kafka on the Shore and it was a lovely background to the words. I think Scandinavian pop works well with the sparse quiet of Japanese writing.”

Marga added: “ The music of Joe Hisaishi is very relaxing and it introduces you to the Japanese culture and stories described by Murakami.” And Keranjit Kaur:

Villagers and Madeleine Miller’s Song of Achilles

“While I love Villagers everyday, their album {Awayland} was great to read Madeleine Miller’s Song of Achilles – both are filled to the brim with a solemn, wistful longing,” continued Sian.

Beach House and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale

“I remember reading The Handmaid’s Tale on my morning commute. Every morning I would listen to Beach House full blast through my headphones to drown out the din of the train and the other commuters. Teen Dream’s keyboards and vocal melodies wash over you in a kind of thick and eerie haze. They do not distract you. They allow you to concentrate on the words on the page. The lush dream pop simply acts as a backdrop to the story, and it is the perfect accompaniment to Atwood’s tale, especially the flashbacks and dream sequences.” –Jack Collins

The Rascals and The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles

“Paul Bowles’s most famous novel has a dreamlike quality portraying an ill-advised journey into the Sahara by Port Moresby, his wife Kit and his friend Tunner. The (Young) Rascals are perhaps most famous for their hit Groovin’, but in truth produced some fantastic music and deserve to be better known. Nubia, a jazzy album track which features the great Ron Carter on bass, has a hypnotic rhythm which complements the story perfectly.” –Salfordexile66

Ludovico Einaudi and Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life

“When reading a book, I need instrumental music – I can’t be distracted by singing along to a song when I am completely immersed in the story, narrative, characters, emotions. All of which Yanagihara’s A Little Life is rich in. I found Einaudi’s Elements to be a perfect accompaniment to the flow of the narrative. Sometimes it’s calm and gentle and at other times it builds into something stronger, deeper, wild, changing, unpredictable and piercing. The book in parts is a harrowing story, incredibly moving and horrific. This album captivates all of these emotions and allows one to be navigated through an incredible journey.” –Corinne Ayres

Sigur Ros and Andy Weir’s The Martian

“The whole Ágætis Byrjun album by Sigur Ros is atmospheric, and haunting. I like the idea of ‘struggle, but peace’ in both the book and the music,” said Shahnaz Begum

Pet Shop Boys and Stephen King’s It

“I read It as a 14-year-old just as Actually, the Pet Shop Boys’ second album, came out in 1987. This is a very long novel and, as I was reading it, the record was pretty much on constant rotation. The song It Couldn’t Happen Here grew to encapsulate the whole novel for me. The orchestration, the lyrics (I didn’t really understand what the lyrics were actually about back then), the grandness of the song all fit perfectly with the novel. Even today, whenever I hear It Couldn’t Happen Here, I am transported to Derry, Maine and I am part of the gang with Bill, Ben, Bev, Richie, Eddie, Mike and Stan as we face Pennywise. Ps. Read the book, do not watch the awful miniseries.” –PJL

Biosphere and Karl Ove Knausgaard’s A Death In The Family

“You can’t pay full attention to both music and a book at the same time. You share your attention between the two, which can dilute the enjoyment of both. For that reason I prefer to listen to something that is not too obtrusive. Something that creates a enveloping atmosphere and it definitely needs to be vocal free. This ambient classic by Biosphere does the trick. Both the artist and the author are Norwegian and both portray the darker and the lighter aspects of life to beautiful effect.” –Lee Garrington

Aphex Twin and Philip K Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

“The sci-fi aspect of this book by Philip K Dick sits so well with the repetitive, almost futuristic sound of this album by Aphex Twin [Selected Ambient Works, volume 1]. I would go as far as to say it is the perfect accompaniment. The album also works really well with 1984 by George Orwell.” –Matthew Smith

Leonard Cohen and Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything is Illuminated

I have always thought Suzanne to be a second-world-war song. Especially the lyrics: ‘There are heroes in the seaweed / There are children in the morning / They are leaning out for love / And they will lean that way forever / While Suzanne holds the mirror.’ It makes me think of the part where the river narrates all the bodies that were thrown in it during the war. Cohen’s song matches the book’s magical realism in an extremely moving way. And I think Suzanne is Augustine, the woman that Safran Foer goes to search for in Ukraine, because when they find her, she “Then gets you on her waveleng / And she lets the river answer /That you’ve always been her lover.” –Atiya Abbas

Max roach and Richard Dawkins’s The Selfish Gene

“Richard Dawkins’s mind-blowing theory perfectly matches with Max Roach’s’ deep groovie drumming sound. While listening I get the thrill that, somehow, something will change as these two pioneers moved away from the boring and stupid routine and thoughts. Profound feelings come up while reading and listening. The match is absolutely awesome and dazzling.” –Giovanni Giustina

Here are some more pairings you can try:

• For books with film adaptations, listening to the movie soundtracks while reading has worked for many readers. “There are few things cooler (yes, cooler) than reading Harry Potter whilst listening to the soundtrack,” said Laura Tisdall.
• And the American Beauty soundtrack pairs very nicely with The Secret History by Donna Tartt, added Guardian Books’s Sian Cain.
• “For some reason reading John Green books simultaneously gets the Piano Man harmonica stuck in my head! Odd,” said BEF. To each his own.
• American Psycho and the Talking Heads, said Eve Nixon: because “Patrick Bateman likes them.”
  
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera and Grace by Jeff Buckley: “Both book and song are ethereal, reflective, beautiful,” said kblue.
• Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy and the album F#A#Infinity by Godspeed You! Black Emperor. “I think you need to try it,” said Samuel Horn. We did – it was dark.
• Life of Pi “worked extremely well” with Steve Reich’s Music for 18 musicians, said David Brax.
• “I enjoy reading Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy with Bohren & der Club of Gore’s Sunset Mission album,” said Azrayna Zin. Perfectly thematic and jazzy.
• Neil Gaiman and Arcade Fire (said Anna Cescon); Fight Club and Maximo Park (Liam Mackay); and for some of the classics: Sonny Rollins for Fitzgerald, Tom Waits for Angela Carter and Rammstein for TS Eliot’s poetry (said couch groucho).
• Finally, Blackwell Books kindly shared the playlist they have put together to accompany Marlon James’s A Brief History of Seven Killings: enjoy.

Do you agree? Have you tried another excellent pairing you’d like to recommend? Please do so in the comments.