Last week, we set out to write a fun post pairing books with the ideal albums to listen to while reading them. Little did we know we were creating our new favorite parlor game — the topic, we’ve found, can lead to hours of conversation (at least, if you love books and music as much as we do). And it turns out we’re not the only ones fascinated with the subject. Asked to submit their own pairings in the comments section of the original post, Flavorwire readers came through in a big way. We collect their great suggestions after the jump, from Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and Explosions in the Sky’s The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place to Donna Tartt’s The Secret History and Pulp’s Different Class.
Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and Explosions in the Sky’s The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place – Suggested by Ina
George Orwell’s 1984 and Radiohead’s The Bends – Suggested by rzy, who writes: “I happened to discover that reading Orwell’s 1984 with Radiohead’s The Bends was especially poignant to the point that it was creepy. The exchange between Winston and Julia as “Black Star” played was mindblowing.
Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five and Sun Ra’s Beyond the Purple Star Zone – Suggested by burgy, who writes: “Dark humor about a bizarre space time-traveler, meet quirky composer who thinks he’s a space time-traveler.”
Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything Is Illuminated with Passion Pit’s Manners – Suggested by impromptu
Jonathan Franzen (The Corrections and Freedom) and Paul Westerberg – Suggested by Cameron D
Janet Lewis’s The Wife of Martin Guerre and Depeche Mode’s Ultra – Suggested by Eleanor, who writes: “Only because Depeche Mode’s songwriter is Martin Gore… so I kept on imagining that it was actually Martin Gore who disappeared for some period of time and came back, to a confused/bemused wife.”
Donna Tartt’s The Secret History and Pulp’s Different Class – Suggested by Sylvia, who writes: “It was such an eerily fitting soundtrack that I did a little Google research — and discovered that Pulp is, in fact, one of Tartt’s favorite bands.”
Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea – Suggested by leith, who writes: “Supposedly the whole band was passing that around during those days.”
Bryce Courtenay’s The Power of One and Vampire Weekend’s Contra – Suggested by mk
Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games trilogy and Green Day’s American Idiot – Suggested by Asteria
Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick and Mastodon’s Leviathan – Suggested by Natas
Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow and Brian Eno’s Another Green World – Suggested by mutt r, who aptly describes the combination as “an apocalyptic eco bomb.”
Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian and 16 Horsepower’s Folklore – Suggested by Jake
Stephen King’s Pet Sematary and Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy – Suggested by Jacob