OMG That Song | Book Tag

I love books, and I love music, so when I saw this tag over on Jenna @ Bookmark Your Thoughts’ blog, I had to get involved!

MY JAM: A song you have to listen to no matter how many times you’ve heard it and a book that you’ll never get sick of

Song: Oh, lots! But given that I’m currently very hyped for the release of her second album, I’ll say Tilted by Christine and the Queens.

Book: I read it like two years ago, but I still seem to be thinking and raving about Bird Box by Josh Malerman all the time. It’s so unnerving, and plays with the senses and fear of the unknown brilliantly.

THROWBACK: A song that reminds you of the cringiest time in your life and a book you read that you wouldn’t like now

Song: If you’re under the age of 30 and didn’t have an angsty Avril Lavigne phase, you’re lying.

Book: At the time I read it, I thought the Legend series by Marie Lu was okay at best, but I know I’d find it incredibly frustrating now. It’s a perfectly readable YA dystopian series, but the prose is bland, and it has a few too many clichés for my liking.

REPLAY: A recent song that you have on repeat and a recent favourite book

Song: Eivør recently shared a stunning cover of a Leonard Cohen song from her new live album, and I’m obsessed.

Book: My favourite read of the year so far is The Lightkeepers by Abby Geni. It’s a gorgeously written meditation on the savage power of the natural world, and storytelling as a means of survival.

GETS ME: A song that is literally me and a book that is me in book form

Song: Bachelorette. A song by Björk, with a video that incorporates elements of nature, fairy tale, and literature, is basically all my favourite things colliding.

Book: Other than of course relating to Hermione Granger’s book-swat ways, I’ve never really been one of those readers to ‘find’ themselves in fiction (*sigh*). So, the only way I could think to answer this was to pick something that epitomises my favourite qualities in a book: gothic, atmospheric, immersive, mysterious, and beautifully written. For me, that’s Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.

WUT: A weird song that you liked anyways and a unique book that stuck out to you for some reason

Song: Vessel by Zola Jesus. The vocal delivery in some of Zola’s early work is so deliberately skewed that you can’t even make out a lot of what she’s saying, and yet she creates so much atmosphere and feeling that I still love it.

Book: The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa is a recent unique read that really stood out, not least because it’s narrated in part by a cat. It was a charming, bittersweet, and surprisingly human tale about finding family, and making peace with the past.

LET’S GO: Pick your best pump up song and a book that inspires you

Song: Alive by Sia. This song makes me feel POWERFUL.

Book: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley inspires me, in that any writer longs to pen something as intelligent, layered, and timeless as it has proven to be.

CHILL: Your best chill or relaxing song and a book you’d curl up with on a rainy day

Song: Aventine by Agnes Obel. (Or anything by London Grammar.)

Book: A rainy day read, for me, should be something gripping and pacy that can sweep you up, but with a timeless, cosy quality. That said, I’d opt for something like And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie.

ADDICTING: A guilty pleasure song and a light, trashy read you can’t help but love

Song: Still Alive by Lisa Miskovsky. I don’t feel guilty per se, because I think it’s a genuinely good song, but I suppose the theme from a video game is a fairly random pick – and this video for it is pretty cringe in fairness.

Book: I wouldn’t describe it as ‘trashy’, but a light read I found very charming is Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson. It’s about a somewhat stilted, middle-aged governess who ends up inadvertently drawn into the glamourous life of a socialite/club singer, who teaches her to let loose.

NOSTALGIA: A throwback song you look back on fondly and a book you read and loved when you were young

Song: I’m a big fan of Annie Lennox, and despite winning an Oscar, the song she did for the Lord of the Rings soundtrack is supremely underrated. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. (Also, it’s a song linked to a book; I am quietly smug about that train of thought.)

Book: It wouldn’t have been a tag if I hadn’t mentioned Harry Potter somewhere, so here it is!

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There we have it! Since I wasn’t tagged myself, I’ll leave it open to anyone who’d like to take part.