Bout of Books 7.0 – Soundtrack Challenge
Have you ever read a book and just known the music that would go perfectly with it? Or have you ever been listening to a piece of music that became inextricably linked to a book in your mind?
For me, Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series is eternally tied to Sarah McLachlan’s album Fumbling Toward Ecstasy.
Author, Mary Robinette Kowal, put together a Spotify playlist for her book, Without a Summer.
Jennifer Crusie also has a great post about the soundtrack for Maybe This Time (which I just finished reading this morning!)
Dan Wells did an entire blog post on writing to music. And he wrote out a soundtrack for Partials.
So, I ask you Bouters, what music goes with your favorite books? Give me a soundtrack or an album for a book you love. You can make it as simple or as complicated as you want to! Is there one album that you feel encapsulates your reading experience? Or is there a different song for every chapter? Tell me about it! Write a post on your blog, mention it on Twitter, talk about it on your Livejournal. Just put a link in the comments so we can all enjoy it!
Here are a few examples for me:
Sometimes it’s really easy!
Sometimes the links are a litt
le more esoteric:
Biting the Sun by Tanith Lee is beautiful. It also hurts sometimes. And it’s full of dangerous living and empty people, but it’s also full of some of the most heart-breakingly human characters I’ve ever encountered.
Boys on the Radio – HoleBei Mir Bist Du Schön – The Andrews Sisters
Valley of the Low Son – Jakob Dylan
The Lioness – Songs Ohia
Hallelujah – Any of the versions really, though for this book I’m partial to the k.d. lang version
Dangerous Game – From the Musical Jekyll & Hyde
The Highwayman – Loreena Mckennitt
Ill Wind – Ella Fitzgerald
Lowlands of Holland – Steeleye Span
I’m new to Spotify, but I tried to make a playlist with these if you aren’t familiar with them.
And! For playing my little musical game, I have fabulous prizes to offer you! I raided my Harper reps boxes today and extracted some fresh advance copies. Up for grabs in this giveaway are:
3:59 by Gretchen Mcneil
Eat Brains Love by Jeff Hart
Across a Star-Swept Sea by Diana Peterfreund
Leave a comment and then click the link below to enter:
RULES
– must be signed up for Bout of Books 7.0 and have your goals posted somewhere
– must be 13 years or older to enter
– contest is only open for 24 hours from 12:01 AM (CST) to midnight on May 14th
– this giveaway is international
– you don’t have to use a book from my list if you aren’t familiar with it, you can pick your own.
– link to your soundtrack in the comments! You can use your blog, facebook, twitter, etc. Anywhere you’re already talking about Bout of Books.
– prizes are: an ARC of Across a Star-Swept Sea by Diana Peterfreund; an ARC of Eat, Brains, Love by Jeff Hart; an ARC of 3:59 by Gretchen McNeil
– prizes will be chosen randomly by Rafflecopter
My Progress:
Pages Read: ~278
Books Started: 2 (Between Two Thorns by Emma Newman & The Riddle of the Labyrinth by Margalit Fox)
Books Finished: 1 (Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie)
Medusa's Library 
Hello. This seems like the perfect challenge for me to participate in. I am a book soundtrack person. 🙂
My entry can be found here:
http://sffbookreview.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/book-to-music-book-soundtracks/
Thanks for hosting this great challenge. I can’t wait to see what other people’s book soundtracks are.
This is a brilliant challenge! I had a great time doing it and my entry is here http://anarmchairbythesea.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/bout-of-books-challenges.html
Really interesting challenge however i was wondering do we have to make a complete play list or can we match only one song to one book/series?
thanks
You can absolutely just match a single song to a book! Any piece of music that you feel goes with a book or a book series is fair game!
This is an awesome challene, right up my alley. Here’s the lik to my entry:
http://glitterynerd.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/bout-of-books-challenges.html
The Guardian is quite a nice idea, I think. Also, though I don’t usually listen to music while reading, I really like the challenge – here is my entry:
http://booksmartie.blogspot.de/2013/05/bout-of-books-read-thon-day-one.html
Yay! I love this challenge. I created a playlist for Nerve by Jeanne Ryan on my website: http://www.cravingpages.nl/bout-of-books/
I tweeted by playlist here for John Green’s An Abundance of Katherines: https://twitter.com/rikkir77/status/334320650296647681
How fun!!
Weirdly enough, I went to high school with John Green. It makes it very strange to read his books. ^.^
I’m listening to Adventures of Tin Tin OST while reading Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls https://twitter.com/elizziebeth/status/334326095346286593
Fun! I haven’t heard that soundtrack yet. Is it good?
It took me a while to come up with a playlist I deemed good enough for one of my all time fave books, but I think I nailed it!
Awesome! I love that you actually made a spotify playlist so I can hear all the songs. Thank you!
I think demons by Imagine Dragons fits Warner in Unravel Me perfectly!
Cool! I wasn’t super familiar with this song before. I think I live under a rock sometimes. ^.^
My entry: http://cuidadocomodalmata.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/read-a-thon-bout-of-books-7-0-day-1-progress-day-2-challenges/
Thanks for the fun challenge 🙂
Love this idea! Here is my entry: http://adventuresinyafiction.blogspot.ca/2013/05/bout-of-books-challenge-1-soundtrack.html
THIS WAS SO MUCH FUN! :3
Here’s my entry: http://bethanyjaynereads.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/bout-of-books-7_14.html 🙂
I love to listen to music when I’m reading, so this is a great challenge, thank you for hosting. 😉
My entry:
http://p7-books.blogspot.pt/2013/05/bout-of-books-70-read-thon-tuesday-may.html
I definitely had fun with this. Here’s my soundtrack to Carter Beats the Devil: http://katenread.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/bout-of-books-7-0-soundtrack-challenge/
I made a playlist for ‘Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs’, a travel memoir by a guy who lived in the Shakespeare and Co. bookshop in Paris for over a year. Lots of laid-back tunes and vintage classics… Here’s my blog post:
http://musingsofabookshopgirl.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/bout-of-books-70-tuesday.html
Here is mine!
http://fictionstateofmind.blogspot.com/2013/05/bout-of-books-mini-challenge-page.html
For me i associate Mercy thompson seriee with ” Je te donne ” by JJ Goldman….http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/493R05ifNsI?ytsession=XRL2Q_gHPsbFT_SbN_jyGGbRlEoL0qeTwyeZae3XfVfBV05sN9JOor7R81ZNlgdQyx5-IPBTXrkVwdqLyrTddkn8fjOvj4uf_xliKYQgThYub5wVwoW2o000rjMCXqEypaj12HpAdSUjdgWjNz7BFQ
Thank you for sharing this! I didn’t know this song at all before.
This is a great challenge.. I was only able to come up with one song but I am enjoying reading everyone’s answers. I’m don’t really connect songs with books but I wish I did. I like books that have soundtracks associated with them. my attempt: http://www.garrulousandbookish.com/2013/05/bout-of-books-70-updates-and-challenges.html
Here’s Mine! Halestorm and Divergent!
OOPS forgot to add my link! http://prettyniftyyareader.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/bout-of-books-7-0-challenge-musical-books/ There it is!
I love love love this one… um.. can we get some Journey anyone? My music and books challenge!!
Angie
You are very ambitious to come up with an entire playlist! I struggled to come up with two books and two songs.
http://readrinserepeat.blogspot.com/2013/05/bout-of-books-read-thon-challenges.html
I loved this challenge! This was so much fun to do! Here’s my link: http://www.justyouraveragereviews.blogspot.com/2013/05/bout-of-books-70-challenge-day-2.html?m=1
This challenge was amazingly fun! Here is my link: http://itisabooklife.blogspot.com/2013/05/bout-of-books-70-soundtrack-challenge.html
Loved this challenge! 😉 Here is my book playlist for “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
http://www.bittersweet-enchantment.com/2013/05/bout-of-books-read-thon-70-goals-updates.html
It’s just a single song, but every time I hear it I think of the book, and when I read the book the song pops into my head! https://twitter.com/xbackstagetweet/status/334471009589673984
http://aliterarymafia.wordpress.com/2012/03/18/i-always-wanted-to-run-away-with-a-cowboy-how-about-you/
Whoops! I accidentally hit the enter button. I don’t have a soundtrack. Just a song. Whenever I hear, “Cowboy Take Me Away” by the Dixie Chicks I think of Jennifer “JJ” Blythe James from “Corralled” By B.J. Daniels.
This was really fun! Thanks for hosting! Here is my link http://floodbooks.blogspot.com/2013/05/soundtrack-challenge-by-medusas-library.html
I chose City of Lost Souls.
This was fun! I couldn’t think of a whole playlist, but I did pick From Where You Are by Lifehouse to match the book Never Eighteen by Megan Bostic. Such a great song, and an amazing book! Challenge Answer
Here is my entry! http://readingthebestofthebest.blogspot.com/2013/05/bout-of-books-70-sign-up.html
This was a lot easier for me than I thought it would be. (:
http://lisalikesbooks.wordpress.com/2013/05/12/bout-of-books-7-0/2/
Ok, I don’t know if this will count but I recently did link a song to a book on my blog! Here is said post /review with the music video to go with it! In case this doesn’t count, because it has to be a new post? I also posted a tumblr post, in case the other one doesn’t count.
http://diamondlovestoread.blogspot.com/2013/04/rihanna-music-video-review-of-sea.html
http://deenazc.tumblr.com/post/50479523674/soundtrack-for-daughter-of-exile-1-the-best
Cool! Thanks for playing.
Here’s mine! This was fun 🙂 http://www.oodlesofbooks.net/2013/05/bout-of-books-70-challenge-book.html