Music to Read By

My apologies if this has been discussed before.

I was wondering if the members of the group had any particular favourites when it came to music to listen to whilst reading? I love to do both, but generally find myself either switching the music off or putting the book down, as one tends to distract from the other.

Or perhaps you have a book that you especially associate with an album?

Any thoughts?

Hi Becky

I can only listen to Classical: perhaps some Dvořák or Mendelssohn, Massenet or Bruch etc etc

Like LesMiserables, I rely predominantly on classical music, in my case usually classical guitar, Mozart or similar. Others can also fit the bill - for instance I had Enya's album Amarantine on in the background this morning - she's perfect for reading to. I don't, however, associate any album with a specific book.

What I cannot cope with is speech - and Radios 4 and 4Extra are ubiquitous in our household!

I also listen to classical music. Usually Mozart, Beethoven, or Liszt

I depends on what I'm reading. Right now and in tribute to Ms. Etta James (who is quite ill at the moment) I'm re-reading her autobio Rage to Survive and in addition to her work like Roll With Me Henry, etc., I'm listening to what we call 'classic' Rhythm and Blues like:

1) Sam Cooke (Little Red Rooster, Trouble Blues, Basin Street Blues, Bring it on Home to Me, Nothing Can Change This Love)

2) Nappy Brown (Night Time is the Right Time)

3) Ray Charles (Night Time is the Right Time, I Got a Woman, What'd I Say)

*While reading Hit Me Fred I listened to classic James Brown like:

4) James Brown (Think, Out of Sight, Night Train, May Be the Last Time, Cold Sweat)

On the other hand I recently finished a bio on Janis Joplin so in addition to her work listened to Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love, What is and What Should Be, Rock and Roll, Black Dog, Jamaica, Stairway to Heaven, Trampled Under Foot

The book for me will choose the music.

edited to add that Led Zeppelin was also inspired by the Ahmet Ertegun bio the Last Sultan I'm reading.

*edited to include the Godfather of Soul lest I perish or something

> 5

I'm currently reading The Quantum Universe by Brian Cox and listening to some Christmas tunes.
Not sure that they compliment each other!

I don't normally listen to music while reading, and can't imagine having the radio on and trying to concentrate on what I'm reading. But I can happily listen to music and/or the radio while doing crosswords as long as the music and the crossword are in different languages.

If I can have silence that's best, but if I have to drown out the neighbours something orchestral or maybe 'Early Music' (in a language I can't understand - which is all but one of them!) is best.

Or some jazz.

> 1

Likewise. I love reading, I love listening to music, but I can't do both at once, or rather, if I do one quickly becomes an exercise in futility. I forever see fellow commuters reading with their ipod at full volume. A woman I used to work with used to listen to audio books while she worked, another would have one earbud in with music playing and the other ear "open" so she could hear what was going on in the office. I don't know how they could stand it.

> 6

Is that Professor Brian Cox who's documentary series was aired on I think SBS a while back? Bless that man, it was the closest I've ever come to grasping the fundamentals of how the universe works. Admittedly, the grasp was tenuous, but there were moments where I just about jumped off the couch yelling "I get it!".

> 5 Sorry to hear Etta James is ill. She is amazing.

When reading though, I can only listen to classical music but nothing with vocals. Usually something light. I have my mp3 player full of tons of classical albums but I'll skip tracks if I find it intruding on my reading.

I love listening to (mainly classical) music and I love reading, but I can't do both at the same time. I've tried many times to have some music on in the background that's sympathetic to what I'm reading, but I always end up listening to the music - because my brain automatically engages with it. Similarly, I can listen intently to my wife, make all the right responses and yet fail to take in a word she's saying - and all this while watching television.

> 6

Yes, the very same.

The full title is The Quantum Universe: Everything that Can Happen Does Happen
by Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw

I live in a pretty active neighborhood so i have to have something playing in the background. I prefer Bach's fugues but anything sedate will work as long as there are no vocals. Instrumental jazz is good too as long as its not too avant-garde (or schizo jazz as my girl friend calls it).

The thump mobiles are definitely not conducive to reading!

I enjoy Ultima Thule:
A broadcast playing ambient and atmospheric music each Sunday from 10.30pm on 2MBS-FM 102.5 in Sydney, Australia.
It's been going for many years so there are plenty of podcasts available to suit a mood, and each with minimal presenter interruptions.

>5 Texaco:, hi texaco, speaking of Sam Cooke, not sure if you ever saw this...

http://booksandvines.com/2011/09/18/sam-cooke-the-pinnacle-of-american-male-voca...

I have a habit of listening to the same album over and over for days (when I am not just turning off any music for a while). By the time the album went through twice, it is just white noise and I do not even hear it... so I can read without being bothered by it. Classical, rock, whatever I had been feeling like.

And in some days I feel like just having any noise around -- in such cases anything on the radio will do it - even a Talk show. I am pretty good in filtering noises while still hearing that there are some...

15: That was excellent and thank you Busywine and DlphcOrachl.

Sam was something and I listen to him often. He certainly had one of prettiest voices I've ever heard. There are some who would swear he was murdered because of SAR records but we can only speculate at this point.

I'm another who can't cope with listening to music while I read, but I do use music to shut out the world while reading. This isn't a matter of volume: I find the easiest way is to have the same short song playing over and over so that you cease to pay attention to it. Eve of Destruction, Angel of the Morning, How Bizarre, Walk on the Wild Side, Don't You Love Me No More, You Can Sleep While I Drive - I can lose myself behind any of them!

While reading, I can only comfortably listen to the music without words. It doesn't have to be classical: there are many good movie sountracks. Almost anything by John Williams or Howard Shore is wonderful.

Any music without lyrics are good I find. This is going to sound very odd but I am a most productive reader when 1: a fan is on near me or 2: when the TV listings channel is on, Iam not sure why but thats the way it is.

20: John Barry does this for me.

Amazing! I shall try classics and blues, what excellent ideas. I have no doubt that it is the lyrics that are most distracting, so I may try some music in languages I don't speak too, perhaps a little Brel...

> 21. John Barry the James Bond composer?

23: The one and only but mind you he would compose many other soundtracks as well. My favorite is the theme from the movie Body Heat which still gives me goosebumps.

edited.

I experimented in Spotify with different backgrounds. There are specific album compilations which stick out as a sore thumb. I.E. "Music to read and study" by readers's digest. or " Chill Nature sounds".. But all these end up feeling quite corny : even if you're not really paying attention. It's nutcracker! not again!"

I thought Philip Glass , minimalism etc should work fine. But those repetitions felt as if someone called insistently, ringing the door bell and asking me to and pay attention to them..

Jazz Christmas compilations work finely (till you get to a "Santa Claus is coming to town" big band rendition , full trombons etc , so you have to skip these..

Right now, anything classical with a lute or guitar is what works.

Thanks, groeng ( https://www.librarything.com/topic/259338#6107894 )- this seems a perfectly good and interesting thread, so why don't we just get it going again, if it turns out to have anywhere to go, and if it doesn't it will soon enough return to the obscurity whence it came.

I'm another who is devoted to various forms of music as well as to reading, but if ever I've tried attending to both at once then one or the other would simply win out, either leaving the music as an irritant or resulting in my reading either freezing at a certain spot or jogging on for a few paragraphs while pretty oblivious to their content.

I haven't a better explanation than that any music I ever want to hear, likewise anything I'm ever much disposed to read, is of a quality to demand or at the very least to benefit from the whole of my conscious attention, give or take such mental excursions as it may itself provoke, and putting music and a book together just results in an unseemly tug-of-war for that attention. Then, I would never, or almost never, choose to hear music, or radio voices, at the same time as engaging in any other activity whatsoever: either just listening is all-consuming, or I'd rather not be hearing anything at all.

I do find the topic fascinating, in that I'm far from being able to decide whether my limitation here represents a weakness, or a strength, or just a difference that's beyond evaluation.

>26 terebinth: i agree, maybe its a problem i have with multi tasking but i can either digest the book im reading, or enjoy the music im listening to, but not both.
For me, and probably the reason that i collect folio books and listen to music on vinyl if possible, is not for pretentious reasons, but because i believe that quality material should be savoured and not treated as a disposable commodity.
so no spottify or kindle for me!

>26 terebinth: what i do enjoy mixing with music and books however is a nice glass of wine!!

> 28

I have a friend whose favorite combination is a math book and a glass of scotch.

>28 stumc:

Yes, that I can handle on occasion. I think perhaps I couldn't if I were much of a connoisseur of wine. I'm not, so a glass of wine for the most part tweaks the quality of my attention rather than demanding any very elaborate attention to itself.

>29 treereader:

I've largely trusted so far to the wisdom of the late Basil Bunting, who said something rather like "A man's a fool to drink whisky before he's 60, and a bigger fool if he doesn't drink it after". I'll soon be 58, so my apprenticeship in whisky may not be too much longer delayed now. Math, though, I've abstained from since graduation, and I'm not sure I'll ever be old enough to go back to it.

>29 treereader:
You needn't be embarrassed about it treereader ("I have a friend" indeed........)

There is only one piece of music suitable to accompany reading. John Cage's 4' 33".

>26 terebinth:, >27 stumc:, >32 David_E: I'm of a similar disposition; it's either one or the other but certainly not both at once. During those periods when I have shared an office, I have resolutely refused to have a radio accompanying work (most work usually being of the requires concentration variety) and as a recently qualified driver, I find that Radio 4 is far less of a distraction in the car than R3 or Classic FM.

A friend had, amongst his vast collection of classical cds, a small section of Country and Western discs. He'd been reading a novel set in the southern US and had struggled to get a feeling for time and place. He claimed that playing these discs while reading helped to create the right atmosphere. (No idea what the novel might have been.)

>33 HuxleyTheCat:

Yes, concentration's the thing for me. My last job included many hours at home inputting the results of various paper questionnaires. When the answers were multiple-choice and my part required absolutely nothing but accuracy, I had enough mind left over to make listening worthwhile if I was in the mood for it: when the answers demanded anything at all of interpretation and judgment, music was out of the question. Then, go back forty or so years and if my memory's accurate I rarely subjected myself to homework without either something to listen to or being sprawled in front of the family TV, I'm not sure what's been lost, perhaps mainly an impatience for experience.

>35 terebinth: I think age perhaps does have something to do with it: >34 David_E:'s post recalled to mind a period in my twenties, when I read several of Terry Brooks' Shannara series accompanied by Enya to provide background 'atmosphere', but I know that these days I would find the music annoying (not Enya per se, just in combination with reading). Learning to drive was something of an eye-opener when it came to understanding concentration, as I found that I much preferred having the spoken word of R4 on in the car than having nothing at all, as I seemed to hyper-concentrate without something (which I wasn't really listening to) just to take the edge off. This made me see potential or developing hazards where, in fact, none existed. Fortunately, greater experience has led to a greater capacity for automatic mental filtration.

When I am at home it is usually either reading or listening to music, however when traveling I usually find the conversations all around me more distracting than music.In these situations I use music to blend out the environment while reading. I found that only instrumental music of a certain kind works for me, for example the piano (cembalo) works by Bach or viola da gamba pieces by composers like Schenck or Sainte Colombe.

This is my kind of thread! :-) Due to predominantly reading on trains I've built up a good disposition to distractions. However, I feel the right music really adds tension to an atmospheric novel or relaxes your brain when reading intensive non-fiction.

So I've built up a list of low key, ambient, non-vocal artists that I think compliments the reading experience rather than competes with it. This is my "modern music" list as I'm sure theres more than enough classical recommendations:

Deaf Center
Jacaszek
Max Richter
Dakota Suite
Marsen Jules Trio
Leyland Kirby
Hungry Ghosts
Portico Quartet
Boren & der Club of Gore
William Tyler
Juliana Barwick
Nils Frahm
The Dead Texan
John Farey
Olafur Arnalds
Georges Enescu
Goldmund
Dinu Lipatti

I wonder if there are correlations between the music I listen to and the type of books I like to read...

I prefer to read in silence, because treating good music as wallpaper makes me feel guilty when it doesn't outright annoy me (concentration shifting between book and music all the time). I also don't like the idea of music influencing my reading experience. But the less demanding a read, the less this matters.

I marvel at people who can actually study with, I don't know, heavy metal crashing in their ears. That's a superpower of some kind.

Chopin

> 31

Hahaha! Well, not that I can offer any proof one way or the other but I only read my math books while I'm at work.

I prefer silence, but if my partner is watching television I'll wear headphones and some classical music (mostly cello concertos)

As for music, I generally leave something non-vocal playing in the background at work all day (classical and jazz, mainly) where I need to keep my concentration high. For leisure reading, non-vocal obviously works, but I can listen to just about anything else as long as it maintains a relatively consistent/constant noise level. Radio broadcast ballgames might be an exception, as they'd be far to distracting. However, when I'm really enjoying a particular book I'll often read it in silence.

I can understand the desire to concentrate only on either music or reading. As I've got older, I find I'm more inclined to read in silence than I used to be. But the right music can certainly add atmosphere - Vaughan Williams' Sinfonia Antartica, for example, goes very well with Scott's Journals. And I have often found a piece of music inspiring me to hunt out a particular book or vice versa.

>44 Cat_of_Ulthar: "Vaughan Williams' Sinfonia Antartica, for example, goes very well with Scott's Journals."

That's all very well, but how do you time it so that, for example, Scott isn't writing his last Journal entry just as the jaunty "penguin" music comes on?
____

I'm afraid I'm another who can't mix reading with listening simultaneously to music. I do listen to music in the Shed but it's strictly "either ... or ...".

(Oh dear! Now I've ended the sentence with a conjunction and an ellipsis. Normal English may not resume until I know on Monday whether my Letterpress Shakespeare telephone order has gone through successfully - see "LE Sale ..." thread.)

>45 boldface: Normal English may not resume until I know on Monday whether my Letterpress Shakespeare telephone order has gone through successfully

I was worried about the order I placed on Friday, too. I emailed Folio seeking confirmation, to which (!) I have not yet had a reply. But this morning I received a text from DPD telling me my order will be delivered tomorrow. The order I placed on Thursday is being delivered today :) I am about to be buried in a pile of LEs.

>47 folio_books: I share your eager anticipation, Glenn! I won't be buried under the great pile that you are expecting, but nevertheless I have taken a day of annual leave and am eagerly awaiting 'Mark' from DPD who apparently will be with me at some point from 10:12 to 11:12. At least I was eagerly awaiting him until I received another text from DPD saying that they hadn't received my book from Folio and that it wouldn't be delivered today. My blood pressure and steam levels immediately rose to venting from the ears levels and I rang the FS - was kept on hold for about 3 mins, which didn't help on the agitation scale - fortunately I was returned to a level of equilibrium only slightly raised above 'tranquil', by the information that, this second text from DPD related to a computer-generated phantom LE and that Mark is about 30 mins away (20 now).

>48 HuxleyTheCat: fortunately I was returned to a level of equilibrium only slightly raised above 'tranquil', by the information that ... Mark is about 30 mins away (20 now).

Phew! For a brief moment I shared your rollercoaster and my blood pressure rocketed. It's such a relief to know Mark is on his way - in fact, should have delivered by now - The Dali, I take it? Fantastic!

Well I got a text saying my "Mark" (Jon) would be here between 9.49 and 10.49, and at 9.50 precisely the doorbell rang, Jon bearing with him The Poems of Thomas Gray and The Winchester Psalter (though not the two standard editions I ordered at the same time - I assume they're coming by Royal Mail). I am a content man. And I've got 4 LEs to look forward to tomorrow. Does life get any better?

>45 boldface:
A very good point and admittedly one of the reasons I find I like reading in silence more nowadays. But I'm still prepared to risk adding some music from time to time. With the remote in easy reach :)

>47 folio_books:
>48 HuxleyTheCat:

Thankfully, I also received a DPD email, in my case to expect delivery tomorrow. My order still does not appear on my account, but given the notorious disconnect between the website and reality I suppose I shouldn't be surprised!