Dancing with My Shelf

Peter Bognanni, on the Huffington Post, makes a case for book soundtracks.

From the piece...

I'll admit, when I first thought about creating book soundtracks, I was sure I had invented the concept. It was one of those two-in-the-morning revelations that seem completely game-changing at the time, like my idea for pre-sliced watermelon (already available at Whole Foods) or recreational space travel (already available to Paris Hilton).

I had recently created a musical playlist for my first novel, "The House of Tomorrow," for the New York Times Paper Cuts blog, when the next logical question came to mind: what if this collection of songs was a real CD or a series of downloads that came with the actual book? What if readers could listen to these tunes in between chapters, or after they finished the novel? What if I am some kind of genius for inventing this?

I still think the idea is good one, but it wasn't mine. As it turns out, authors have been playing around with this direct intersection of music and literature for quite some time. Nick Hornby immediately jumps to mind as the godfather of this phenomenon. Even though "High Fidelity" didn't get an official soundtrack until it was made into a movie, the whole book reads as a kind of novel-as-ultimate-playlist, complete with musical references from Wham! to the Jesus and Mary Chain. It's hard to imagine the ensuing explosion of author playlists without Hornby's bittersweet taxonomy of rock.