Words and Music

[Capellini]

I do most of my reading on the subway. I also do most of my music-listening on the subway. This means that most of my reading and music-listening happen together. As a result, sometimes my brain permanently associates certain books with certain albums, such that whenever I listen to that album in the future, I very clearly remember the book.

Now, this isn't weird, its been pretty much proved that your brain remembers things better when you use more than one sense to absorb it. What I'm wondering is who else experiences this, and what book/album associations they've had.

One of my strongest is Coldplay (Parachutes, specifically), and a collection of Lovecraft short stories. It's really eerie.

[GreenRain22]

xD I do the same thing too.

I relate Twilight (Stephenie Meyer) to Daughtry. I was listening to it over and over as I read it.

I relate the 7th HP book to 3 Doors Down, mostlly Here Without You.

I also relate smells to books and stuff. I relate the smell of baking soda to Kingdom Hearts II. O.o;

[WelshRarePasta]

Tool & John Connolly novels
Beethoven & The Chymical Wedding
Ryan Adams & Out of Sight, The Hunted, and Pagan Babies
Gillian Welch $ Storming Heaven

Yep, happens to me all the damn time. To the point where I found myself humming the melody or tapping out the rhythm of "Schism" when I reread American Gods. I actually really enjoy that particular phenomenon.

[Rainswept]

I'm too ADD to have music playing when I read, but I sometimes think of books with the smell of certain foods. I spent quite some time reading Wheel of Time at Chinese buffets.

Music always brings me back to the place when I first really listened to it. NIN and Airborne School, A Perfect Circle and a bus ride... Doesn't work for Tool tho, I think ænima didn't leave my CD player for a solid six months.

[fueledbycoffee]

Neutral Milk Hotel - Diary of Anne Frank
David Bowie - The Catcher In The Rye
The Pixies - Transmetropolitan
Sonic Youth - Naked Lunch & A Clockwork Orange
My Bloody Valentine - Ulysses

I'm a tad weird. I don't listen to music while I read, but I'll play a soundtrack in the back of my head. It's usually based on mood, sometimes references in the book, like Pixies/Transmet. Sometimes it's just random. These are a couple examples.

[HeathenPastafarian]

Ohh, I agree, I can't read and listen to music. I get into the book or get into the music and I can't do both simultaneously. How can you sing and read at the same time? I certainly can't.

I can't drive without music either. Driving thru the middle of Nevada with my dad was HELL....he was sleeping and I was driving and I thought I was going to go out of my mind with the silence (except his high decibel snoring)!

[Capellini]

As long as it isn't music I'm hearing for the first time, I have no problem reading and listening simultaneously.

[Zankou 2.0]

I'm too ADD to have music playing when I read,

Are you sure you don't just have a short attention span? I think you're using that term in the wrong context. :P

[WelshRarePasta]

As long as it isn't music I'm hearing for the first time, I have no problem reading and listening simultaneously.

Bingo. And for me, listening to music I know very well (even very loudly) helps me concentrate, especially when there is other noise at the same time. When I was living in London, all reading I did required headphones... just too much background noise to concentrate otherwise. Except the British Library... that place is deathly silent... so silent it was almost distracting in itself.

[GreenRain22]

As long as it isn't music I'm hearing for the first time, I have no problem reading and listening simultaneously.

Bingo. And for me, listening to music I know very well (even very loudly) helps me concentrate, especially when there is other noise at the same time. When I was living in London, all reading I did required headphones... just too much background noise to concentrate otherwise. Except the British Library... that place is deathly silent... so silent it was almost distracting in itself.

Totally agreed. I do my algebra homework to Nickelback and get A's on every paper. Rock and Metal in particular seem to help me concentrate better.

xD I remembered another one.

Marilyn Manson - Jurassic Park

WHY him? I was in Florida at the time and all that was really playing on the hard rock station that I liked was Manson, but I kinda like him, besides his obsession with Satan and stuff...

[Moral Minority]

I developed an unusal mnemonic with music for my school subjects.

Voltaire = Psychology
Warren Zevon = Chemistry
Rammstein = English
Oasis = German
Caramell = Geometry

(which explains why I suck at geometry).

[Rainswept]

I'm too ADD to have music playing when I read,

Are you sure you don't just have a short attention span? I think you're using that term in the wrong context. :P

Fairly sure multiple doctors and many years of medication mean what they say, Zanny.

[Moral Minority]

I'm too ADD to have music playing when I read,

Are you sure you don't just have a short attention span? I think you're using that term in the wrong context. :P

Fairly sure multiple doctors and many years of medication mean what they say, Zanny.

I wouldn't trust UStatean psychiatrists as much, Sweepy. They tend to take ADD too seriously.

[Zankou 2.0]

I'm too ADD to have music playing when I read,

Are you sure you don't just have a short attention span? I think you're using that term in the wrong context. :P

Fairly sure multiple doctors and many years of medication mean what they say, Zanny.

Ah. Well, I was just making a joke because you said the same thing to me about OCD, so, w/e.

ADD is fun, though, isn't it?

[HeathenPastafarian]

I'm too ADD to have music playing when I read,

I agree, Rainswept. I think that's what I was trying to say in my post. My brain only wants to concentrate on one at a time. I can read, say a People or an US with music or the TV on, but a book, I want to get into and I don't need or WANT any other distractions.