Every Song's A Story

Music and books. They intersect in so many different ways in our lives. The song you hear on the radio that immediately makes you think of your favorite scene from your favorite book. The song a writer hears that inspires her to write the story she hears in it. The book that inspires a performer to write a song. Soundtracks to movies and television shows that are based on beloved novels.

There's nothing like a good story to pull us out of our lives for a time, to give us a glimpse of what else might be out there, or what we wish might be out there. And music can capture and hold the feel of those glimpses. It has the power to pull us back to that moment, to echo the pleasure we received when we first read that particular passage.

That's what inspired this blog. I have always loved finding music that I can use as an anchor to my favorite books, and when I was a teenager lying on my bed, listening to the radio, I imagined each song as a story (with myself as the heroine, of course.) Over the last few years I've noticed more and more writers talking with their fans about the music they listen to while writing, or recommending playlists for their books. I love that. I love seeing what music has inspired and touched others, and I enjoy seeing the connections they make between music and reading. I learn something from seeing those connections that deepen my insights into that writer's work.

With any art form there is what the artist was saying, and there is what the audience hears. Sometimes what is said, and what are heard are very similar; sometimes they diverge into completely separate points of view. Music is just another way to connect to an author's vision, another way of sharing with each what we have learned from our favorite novels.

We have created this blog to share our insights, and we hope you will share your favorite connections as well in the comments. After all, who can resist recommending a great book, or a great song?